Palm (Cordyline Australis) - cut the babies out?

 
A few months ago, someone gave me a palm tree. It was about half a metre
tall at the time and had been badly neglected. I re-potted it and added
some chicken manure pellets and stood it in my garden (in the South West of
England). Within the past few weeks, two 'babies' have emerged from the
soil, about 6" away from the main stem. The babies are now both about 6"
tall

As I primarily want the main palm to grow as quickly as possible, should I
chop the babies out? Is that safe/advisable?

The palm appears to be a Cordyline Australis, like this one:
http://tinyurl.com/3mn2vag

Thanks...

Al

 On 12/09/2011 09:39, AL_n wrote:

Cordylines suffered badly from the cold winter, and there is a nasty
disease going round, too.  It is quite possible that the main trunk of
the one you have has died, but the plant is producing side shoots as an
insurance policy.  You can cut these off and pot them up.  But check if
the main plant is alive, by making a small cut in the trunk and seeing
if there is any green there.  If not, it is likely it has died.

If that is the case, you can eventually use one of the potted ones to
produce a new plant, or leave one of the new shoots attached to the old
plant and cut away everything else.  With the mass of old roots
supporting a small plant, it will grow rapidly.

Or you can just wait, and see what happens to the whole plant next spring.

--

Jeff

 

Hi Jeff, The main trunk appears very healthy, and the main leaves have been
growing noticeably just lately. Do you think it will grow faster if I cut
out and repot the young 'uns?

Al

 says...

  No. IME once cordylines start looking unwell at the top and sprouting
babies at the bottom it means the upper part is doomed. One of mine is
doing it atm; (it's off-colour and losing leaves much faster than it's
making new ones) With another cold winter forecast I'm going to leave the
main trunk on this winter, to offer a bit of umbrella protection to the
healthy new growths (close to ground level, they can suffer more from
frost than leaves on the tall trunks).

    Janet.

 

Thankfully, mine is not looking unwell; the main tree is producing lush new
leaf growth and there is no discolouration.

Al