You can propagate fan palms yourself from seeds. However, you need a lot of patience for this, because it takes a lot of time for a real palm tree to grow from a seed. This is how the propagation of a fan palm works.
How can fan palms be successfully propagated?
To propagate fan palms, allow seeds to pre-swell in late summer or autumn, place them in seed pots, cover with soil and keep moist. Germination takes several months. Then repot the young palms and protect them from direct sun.
Propagate fan palms from seeds
You can grow a fan palm from seeds. You can get seeds from gardening stores (€4.00 on Amazon). It is rather unlikely that an existing fan palm will produce seeds itself in our latitudes.
When is the best time for sowing?
Unlike many other plants, you sow fan palms in late summer or autumn.
How to propagate fan palms from seeds
- Soak seeds in lukewarm water
- Prepare cultivation pots
- Put out seeds
- cover lightly with soil
- press carefully
- keep moist but not wet
- set up bright and warm
All palm seeds are hard-shelled and must pre-swell. This increases the chance that the seeds will actually germinate.
Place one seed per pot. Cover it with a thin layer of substrate and press the soil lightly.
Place the pots in a warm and bright place. Keep the substrate evenly moist, but avoid waterlogging. You can also place the pots in clear plastic bags to maintain consistent soil moisture. You must ventilate the bags once a day to prevent the seeds from becoming moldy.
Continue to care for young palm trees
It takes several months for the fan palm seed to germinate. If you are lucky, you will find out in the following spring whether you have successfully propagated the fan palm.
After the cotyledons appear, remove the plastic cover if necessary. Do not keep the seedlings too moist, but make sure that they do not dry out either.
When the young palm trees have grown several centimeters high, you can move them into new pots. Continue to care for them like adult plants.
Protect from the sun in the first few months
Do not place the newly propagated fan palms in the sun straight away, but rather slowly get them used to the light.
Tip
Like all palm trees, the fan palm cannot be divided in order to propagate it. However, some plants produce side shoots that are suitable for propagation. They are cut off and planted as cuttings in potting soil.
