Sago Palm

[Christie]

I moved into a house that has Sago palm.  It looked like a huge ball.  I trimmed it back today because it had a good bit of frost damage from a freeze we had this winter.  Once I removed the damaged fronds and was actually able to see the "trunk" I found out there are actually multiple "trunks".  I don't know much about Sagos but I've been watching videos on how to prune them.  In the picture you can see several heads and I think several pups.  However, the pups are pretty large already.  Could someone tell me what would be the best way to fix or correct the shape of the Sago.  It's located right by steps going up to my front porch.  Should I try to remove the smaller pups? I appreciate any suggestions and direction you can give me.  Thanks.

[Harry’s Palms]

Sago “palms” are not palms but cycads. They are conifers . That said , I would leave the pups for now , that cycad is small and still recovering. If it pulls through , you could after it gains size( many years) . Also , cycads can , and will at times , go into long periods of no growth. I had a Cycas Revoluta (Sago) hibernate for over 5 years. Harry

[Merlyn]

@Christie I would definitely leave it alone for the next month.  Two of the three heads are starting a flush of new leaves, and the third big one is probably getting ready.  It takes a lot of energy to grow 20+ fronds all at once.

After the new leaves have "hardened off," i.e. completely finished and cured to deep green, you can remove the "pups."  A sharp serrated knife works, there are lots of youtube videos on how to do it.  Basically you just carefully dig around the base of the main plant and slice off the pup near the trunk.  Dust with sulfur or similar fungicide and let it dry out a couple of days, then fill dirt back in around the cut.  If you want to keep the pups you can reroot them in a pot of pumice or perlite.  Just keep them in a shady spot and they'll root in a month or two.  

[peachy]

There are some massive old specimens in gardens around here with trunks taller than me, which is the reason mine stays in a tub.  Mine is over 20 years old now and still only a metre across. I would just remove the trunks that don't suit the siting. They are pretty hard to kill.

Peachy

[Slifer00]

18 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Sago “palms” are not palms but cycads. They are conifers . That said , I would leave the pups for now , that cycad is small and still recovering. If it pulls through , you could after it gains size( many years) . Also , cycads can , and will at times , go into long periods of no growth. I had a Cycas Revoluta (Sago) hibernate for over 5 years. Harry

So that explains it. Something about cycads give me the creeps. I wouldn't want to grow one, for sure.

[PalmatierMeg]

Palms date back about 70 million years and are flowering. Cycads go back over 300 m.y. and were once a predominant flora - they cone rather than flower. Palms and cycads sometimes look alike but that is convergent evolution as they are not related. I can't grow Cycas revoluta because invasive Asian scale kills them eventually no matter how I fight the little beasts.

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