🌴 Palm
Family Arecaceae
Not a tree, just a very committed grass with ambitions.
Sun
Full sun to part shade (species-dependent)
Days to harvest
N/A — ornamental (slow; sabal takes a decade to trunk up)
Spacing
8–20 feet depending on species
Soil pH
6.0–7.5
How to grow
Sabal palm is Florida's state tree and nearly indestructible — plant it and walk away. For coconut-ish vibes in zone 10+, try mule palm or pindo. Always plant at the same depth it grew in the pot; burying the bud is a death sentence. And skip the hurricane cut — over-pruned palms are weaker, not tidier.
Water & feeding
Water deeply for the first 6 months; established sabals and pindos shrug at drought.
Common problems
- Lethal bronzing — fatal phytoplasma disease; remove infected palms promptly
- Potassium deficiency — frizzled yellow fronds; feed with palm-specific fertilizer
- Ganoderma butt rot — no cure; don't wound the trunk with string trimmers
Harvest
Ornamental: prune only fully brown fronds. Green fronds are solar panels — the palm is still using them, even if you think they're ugly.
Nerdy fact: Palms are monocots — closer to grasses and lilies than to oak trees. A palm trunk has no growth rings and no branches; it's a single growing point doing all the work.