Ponytail palms are an eye-catching indoor plant with a long lifespan that benefits from mild neglect. As long as you don’t overwater them, they are quite simple to grow. Here’s information on how to grow and maintain a ponytail palm at home.
About Ponytail Palms
The ponytail palm is not a true palm despite its name and palm-like appearance “palm. Actually, it has more in common with desert plants of the Agave and Yucca genera (such as Joshua trees).
Ponytail palms typically have a big, domed “tapers off into a thinner stem from the stump. As the plant becomes older, one or more rosettes of lengthy, green, leathery leaves emerge from the top of the stem. The leaves can grow up to three feet long indoors, but they may be double that length outside.
The entire plant has been observed to grow up to 30 feet tall in its natural habitat (eastern Mexico). Ponytail palms, on the other hand, rarely grow taller than 10 feet when grown in gardens as landscape plants. They rarely grow taller than 4 feet when kept indoors.
The most frequent challenge in caring for this plant is needing to change your watering routine to meet its watering requirements!
Choosing Soil and a Pot
- Use a soil that quickly drains, such as cactus and succulent potting soil. You can make your own desert soil mix if you already have potting soil, sand, and perlite on hand: Simply combine 1 part perlite, 1 part sand, and 1 part potting soil.
- Choose a pot with a hole in the bottom so that any extra water may drain. Ponytail palms do not enjoy spending a lot of time in wet soil.
- If at all feasible, use a clay pot; the porous material will absorb part of the water, speeding up the soil’s drying process (a good thing for cacti and succulents).
How to Care for Ponytail Palms
- Place the plant in a bright area as ponytail palms want to get as much light as possible. The optimum light is direct, bright light.
- Dry out the soil somewhat. Water your garden from spring to fall, waiting until the top inch or two of soil is fully dry before watering again. Only sporadically water in the winter.
- Water the soil by soaking it, then let the extra water drain into a dish via the pot’s bottom. After letting the pot rest in the dish for a while, drain any residual water.
- For the summer, move the plant into a room with more light after fertilizing in the spring with a cactus/succulent fertilizer.
- For the majority of the year, keeping the plant at room temperature is good, but in the winter (50-55F / 10-13C), keep it a little cooler to mimic the natural dormancy cycle.
- Avoid placing the plant too close to cold windows at night during the winter months since freezing temperatures can cause serious damage.
Repotting a Ponytail Palm
- Ponytail palms may be kept in a little pot and will stay that size. They don’t usually need to be repotted for many years. A ponytail palm only requires repotting every other year at most.
- The plant can expand its height and girth by being moved to a larger pot. However, if elder plants are not kept on the smaller scale, they may become difficult to manage because of their sheer bulk and weight.
- Pick a pot that is big enough to give the ponytail palm’s trunk about an inch or two of room between it and the rim when choosing a new one.
- Be careful when handling a ponytail palm since the edges of its leaves are minutely serrated.
Propagation
- Rarely, a ponytail palm will create an offset, a little young plant that grows from the main plant’s base. When they grow to a minimum height of 4 inches, these can be pruned at the base and put in a succulent potting soil. To encourage the offset to root, use a small amount of rooting hormone (available online and in nurseries) once the cut incision has healed before planting.
- The plant’s peculiar form and coloring have earned it the odd moniker “elephant’s foot palm.”
- Stem rot can be caused by overwatering. Withholding watering may allow the plant to address the issue on its own. Yellowing leaves and a soft or squishy caudex (the plant’s base and stem) are indicators of stem rot.
- Spider mites are present on the leaves, but they can be removed by wiping the stems with a cloth dampened with dish detergent and water. Spider-like webbing on the plant is a sign that there are spider mites present.
- The appearance of brown tips on leaves may indicate overfertilization or underwatering; therefore, modify your husbandry techniques as necessary. They might also indicate that the plant is receiving too little water and too much direct sunlight.
Is the ponytail palm a healthy houseplant?
Ponytail palm trees have gained popularity as indoor plants recently, and it is simple to understand why. Ponytail palms are visually attractive with their sleek, bulb-like trunks and lush, long, curly leaves. Many people find them to be the perfect houseplants because they are forgiving and simple to care for.
Planting instructions
Ponytail palms thrive in containers filled with the same kind of quick-draining soil as you would for other succulents. For optimal results, mix one part potting soil with one part perlite and one part sand. Ponytail palms should ideally be planted in clay pots, or at the at least, pots with drainage holes, as they don’t like damp soil.
Make sure you are in a USDA hardiness zone 9–12 if you wish to plant outside. Plant the palm 12 to 15 feet away from other plants in well-draining soil, and place a 1-inch layer of mulch 4 to 6 inches from the plant’s trunk.
Watering and nutrients
Ponytail palms prefer submerged environments rather than overwatering because of their arid and rocky natural habitat. Ponytail palms can last for extended periods without water because of the caudex, a flare-shaped or swollen region at the base of the trunk that stores water. Allow the top 1 to 2 inches of soil to completely dry between waterings to prevent overwatering.
Soak the soil and let any surplus water drain completely before watering again. Ponytail palms don’t require a lot of fertilizer. Use a cactus/succulent fertilizer twice, once in the spring and once in the summer, for maximum results.
Pruning
Ponytail palms don’t need to be pruned or trimmed on a regular basis to keep healthy. In spite of the plant’s toughness, it is best to avoid too much disturbance because its leaves are delicate. To maintain the plant’s beauty, you can trim the insightly sections with clean, sharp scissors or shears if you see that the leaf tips have turned dark or discolored. If your ponytail plant produces offsets, or “pups,” that you want to remove and repot, cut the pups from the trunk using a sharp, clean knife or pruning shears.
Pests and diseases
Stem rot, which is a major disease that can damage ponytail palms, is brought on by overwatering. These symptoms include soft or mushy stems or yellowing leaves. To prevent stem rot, make sure to let your palm dry out in between waterings. The spider mites and scale that can cause brown or black lumps on leaves are the most frequent pests that harm ponytail palms. Cleaning the plant thoroughly with a mix of one teaspoon dish soap to one quart warm water will help you get rid of an infestation.
Soil
Ponytail palms dislike sitting in wet soil, therefore in addition to creating a watering schedule that meets the plant’s minimal water requirements, you need also choose the right soil for the plant to flourish in. It is important that the soil drains adequately because this will help to prevent overwatering of the plant.
You can make your own desert plant soil mix by mixing equal parts perlite, sand, and potting soil, or you can use a cactus or succulent soil mix. Grow your ponytail palm in a container with drainage holes so that water may run out and keep the roots from becoming soggy. Although it is not necessary, a clay pot would be the best choice for this plant because it will absorb some water from the soil, allowing the soil to dry out more rapidly in between waterings.
Light
In its natural environment, this plant would thrive in a place with direct sunlight. It thrives in bright, direct light as a houseplant, ideally for at least five hours each day. The amount of new leaves this plant produces may diminish, but it can tolerate brilliant indirect light and some shadow. This makes it an extraordinarily forgiving plant when it comes to lighting requirements.
The ponytail palm is said to be content as long as it receives bright light for half of the year. If you are able to place this plant outside in your garden in a full sun position during spring and summer, you can then house it indoors for the remaining half of the year in almost any lighting position you like, even relatively low light.
Temperature
This plant can be cultivated outside in USDA hardiness zones 9 to 11. It may be kept as a houseplant in any house with an average room temperature because, as the expression goes, if you’re comfortable in your home, your plant will be too.
Ponytail palms do need a somewhat cooler atmosphere in the winter, ideally between 50 and 55 F, so you might want to think about shifting it to a cooler part of your home, but be careful not to let it go too cold. The Old Farmer’s Almanac advises keeping this plant away from chilly drafts in the winter and against placing it close to a window where it might freeze over night.
Humidity
Ponytail palms thrive under normal or even low humidity levels, which is good news for indoor gardeners as the air in our houses is frequently quite dry. The air in our houses becomes dryer as a result of indoor heating systems used in the winter and air conditioning systems used in the summer.
For plants that require frequent misting and thrive in humidity, this can be a concern, but it has no effect on ponytail palms. This plant is simple to care for and doesn’t require much humidity, which makes it a great house plant for beginners.
Pups, or side shoots, that develop around the base of an established mother plant are the simplest way to multiply this plant. If your ponytail palm produces puppies, don’t remove them from the parent plant until they are a good size, ideally 4 inches long. They will have the best chance of surviving as a distinct plant if they do this. Wait until spring to remove them, and then remove enough dirt from the area surrounding the plant’s trunk so that you can see where the pup joins the mother.
Take a clean, sharp knife and carefully cut the pup away. The puppy must then be planted in a moist potting mix, especially one made for succulents or based on sand. High humidity will help the pup root more efficiently, so create greenhouse-like conditions by covering the pup with a clear plastic bag and placing it in a well-lit, warm environment. You can lift the bag every few days to softly mist the potting mix’s surface with water to keep it moist. It can be repotted and cared for normally once it has established a robust root system.
Ponytail palms can also be grown from seeds in the spring. Ponytail palm seeds can be harvested in the early fall after they have flowered, albeit the majority of these plants won’t bloom if maintained indoors. Instead, you could purchase ponytail palm seeds to spread the plant. You must take the same actions no matter how you obtained the seeds of this plant.
The seeds should first be placed between several layers of damp paper towels, after which they should be kept in a cold, dry, and dark place for a few weeks. Occasionally check on the seeds to make sure they aren’t drying out, and if necessary, moisten the paper towels. When the seeds begin to grow, you’ll see sprouts. With only the green shoots protruding, place these seedlings in a succulent potting soil. Place them where they will receive no more than 2 to 3 hours of direct sunlight each day to prevent the seeds from drying out and dying.
Water the seedlings twice daily, making sure the soil is just moist enough. If you live in a warm area, you can put them outside in the ground after they are a manageable size or in larger pots.
Repotting
Ponytail palms grow slowly and only require repotting every two to three years, at most. They thrive in rootbound conditions, but you should repot this plant once it has outgrown its current container so that it has more room to increase in height and girth.
The ponytail palm’s trunk should have about an inch or so of room between it and the pot’s lip, depending on the container you choose. Always check to see that the soil level on the trunk stays the same height and that the bulbous portion of the trunk is not submerged beneath the dirt.
This plant might be too tough to repot as it becomes larger. Ponytail palms can grow up to 30 feet tall in their natural habitat, but when grown inside, they rarely exceed 10 feet. When the plant reaches this size, you won’t need to repot it; instead, topdress the soil to renew it.
How much sunlight do ponytail palms need?
Ponytail palms are photoperiod plants, meaning they prefer direct, bright sunlight. These plants may, however, endure in a range of lighting situations because they are resilient. Keep your ponytail palm in a location where it will receive bright, full sun throughout the spring and summer for optimal results. The plant can withstand low light levels in the fall and winter.
How large do ponytail palms grow?
Whether you are growing a ponytail palm indoors or outdoors will affect its final size. Ponytail palms typically reach heights of 3 to 4 feet indoors, with leaves that are as long as the stem. Simply maintain your indoor ponytail palm in a small pot if you want it to stay little. These plants have a potential height of roughly 10 feet when cultivated outside.
How long do ponytail palms live?
Be prepared to own a ponytail palm for a very long time if you decide to get one. Ponytail palms can live for many years, in part because to their hardiness. However, because of their slow growth, you may have to wait a few years for them to reach their maximum size. Ponytail plants can, however, grow and last for years with the appropriate kind of care.
How do you propagate a ponytail palm?
A pup or offshoot from the primary plant is required to generate a new ponytail palm. Ponytail palms don’t typically have offspring, so if you spot one, you might want to seize the opportunity. With a sharp knife or pruners, carefully remove the pup once it has grown roots. Put it in a pot of its own, and keep the soil moist to encourage the growth of its own roots.
Are ponytail palms actually palm trees?
No. Ponytail palms, despite their name and outward appearance, are not related to palm trees. These plants, which are native to eastern Mexico, are actually more closely related to agave and yucca plants than to other desert species. Because of the peculiar design and hue of its trunk, which resembles an elephant’s foot, the ponytail palm also goes by the strange moniker of Elephant’s Foot Palm.