I am going to be moving a rather large and unhappy King Sago. On advice here I will wait a bit to dig her up but yesterday I got lucky and found the right container. I was at a local nursery and saw that their Landscape department had recently planted trees elsewhere and they had some Huge containers containers lying empty in their back (big enough to stand three of my four kids in and past the waist on my 6 year old height wise?) . I know from other container planted King Sago's that this would be a great container size wise and asked the manager if the would sale them to me. She said they would cost me $5 each. I took three because that was all I could fit into the back of my van. Very Lucky; Anyway Is there any specific type of soil that you guys would recommend? I would like to maximize the Sago's growth so I am trying to get the optimum soil, light, water, nutrients and will do my best to keep the pests away. Thinking about ordering a praying mantis egg sack off ebay and filling my garden with them. Thanks in advance for the help given, George aka Jester.
Got Lucky on a HUGE container now what soil do I use? Cycad
I will preface this with "I am by no stretch of imagination, an expert".
We have a gazillion Sagos down here that do well in the ground. We have a lot of sand in our yards and we supplement with topsoil. So I would suggest a mixture of 25% sand and 75% soil. After planting, put a layer of mulch on the soil. (I didn't say potting soil because I don't think it would be dense enough to support a tree.)
Why is your Sago unhappy?
Molly
I put a trampoline in the back yard for my kids. Since then the fronds on one side have started to yellow. I think its a sun issue.
Yellow fronds are not necessarily a bad thing for a cycad... could be sun burn... but won't hurt the rest of the plant any. New fronds will come out and be adjusted to the sun (actually prefer sun probably unless you live in a blazing hot area- not sure what San Antonio's climate is like). But if this is a really big plant there are several things you should be careful with: 1) don't bend the caudex (stem)... a cracked caudex usually means dead cycad. Support it's weight carefull and evenly all along it's lenght (if it doesn't have length, or is just a round ball, then it's not a very old plant and moving it will be easy; 2) if temporarily putting it in a pot, I would put it in perlite (100% is OK) or if going to be in a pot for a long time, potting soil with 50% perlite, or some similar mixture of perlike and orchid bark and sand... but 75% potting soil sounds like way too much (cycads rot easily). And then DON"T water it for a week or so. 3) best when moving cycads to cut all their leaves off (unless you are planning on selling it right away... harder to sell a leafless plant).
Thanks PalmBob for the information (and for the answering my question on the Griffith's Cycad the other day). I did not now it was ok to cut the leaves off. I will go that route and that should make it easier. The sun is blazing here but it seems that the Sago's in my area like full sun anyway. Several large specimens (2-3 feet of trunk) in my neighborhood. 50% mix it will be then. Thanks again, George aka Jester.