Palm Fertilizer: Growing a palm tree is not as easy as growing other types of trees. Palm growers will need to be given adequate care and attention throughout the process.
Proper fertilization is the essential factor in maintaining good palm health and appearance. The rational use of fertilizers helps to promote growth and makes it possible for plants to attain optimum conditions.
Palm trees like a warm and humid climate, they have extreme cold-resistance to the cold condition. It can also adapt several soils like fertile neutral, calcareous, or slightly acidic soil. Most of them have strong anti-air pollution ability. But when planting them, they grow slowly and are easy to wind down.
The palm grows very slowly in its juvenile stage and requires proper shade. It takes about 3-5 years for its stems to grow out of the soil surface, 3-4 years for normal palm-shaped and wrinkled leaves, and more than eight years for production.
At this time, the height of the palm tree is only 1.3-1.5m. The growth process is especially obvious in the bare place without shade. The initial growth mainly depends on the supply of photosynthetic products accumulated in the previous period.
Except for the sunshine for photosynthesis, the special palm fertilizers should be supplied for nutrients accumulation.
Special Nutrients for Palm
All plants need a fertilizer combination of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and other micronutrients.
In palm trees, other nutrients in the special palm fertilizer are also needed:
Magnesium (Mg): Magnesium is closely related to the photosynthesis of plant leaves. If magnesium is lacking, the leaves will turn orange or yellow, affecting the progress of photosynthesis.
Manganese (Mn): Manganese is a component of chloroplasts, which can promote photosynthesis and improve the energy supply for material transportation. Lack of this element will also cause leaves to be yellow and wither, especially on new leaves.
Iron (Fe): Iron has a wide range of functions in palms, not only involved in chlorophyll synthesis but also related to respiration and nitrogen fixation.
Notice of Apply Palm Tree Fertilizer
Some important things to remember when fertilizing palm trees:
- Applying palm tree fertilizer on moist soil helps nutrients penetrate the soil.
- Excessive fertilization will destroy the soil moisture balance and damage the roots of palm trees.
- The ideal NPK ratio for palm trees is 8-2-12.
- Applying slow-release fertilizers can help reduce the frequency of fertilization and improve fertilizer efficiency.
- The soil in the pot should be replaced in time, and the microbial fertilizer should be applied to improve the soil moisture cycle.
When to Fertilize the Palm Tree
When the temperature rises in the spring, it is necessary to apply a restoration palm fertilizer, mainly nitrogen fertilizer, and use some phosphorus and potassium fertilizer two weeks later, so that the flowers can bloom.
It is also necessary to increase the application amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers in autumn to increase the cold resistance of the palm trees.