The life span of a palm tree

If you have stately palms in your garden, you might be wondering how long their lifespan usually is. The answer to that question is something that we will look at in this post. 

First of all, it really depends on what type of palm tree you have and whereabouts you live. Palms typically prefer sub-tropical conditions but should be okay in temperate climes as well as long as the winters are mild enough. 

Zones 6 and colder are not going to be any good for growing palms,  so look at something else instead. If you are in a zone 7-8 cold, the following palms should be considered.   

• California Fan Tree 
• Canary Island Date
• Chinese Fan Tree
• A Date Palm Tree  
• European Fan Tree 
• Mexican Fan Tree 
• Queen Palm 
• Palmetto Palm 

So How Long is Their Lifespan? 

If looked after properly and in ideal growing conditions, a palm can live upwards of eighty years or more. There are subspecies of palms that can survive for almost seven hundred and fifty years. According to Scientific American, the way the cells develop could make palms the oldest living trees.
 
While a pine could grow for thousands of years, the cells in it go through different life stages, eventually, die off and are regenerated. This does not happen with the palm – the cells in a palm are one stage cells, meaning that they do not die off and get replaced.

Maybe a better description would be that palms have cells that live the longest? In any event, palms are very slow growers and, if firmly established in the right soil, can continue to be healthy well into old age. 

How Do I Know How Old My Palm Is? 

That is a tough one to answer because they age really gracefully. You can usually tell an immature tree from a fully grown one, but further than that a distinction becomes a lot harder to make. 

How Do I Make Sure it Lives a Long Time? 

The first step is to find the right palm. Choose a species that will do well in the area that you live in. The next space is to put it in the right location in your garden.

It is important to realize that the root systems of palms can be quite extensive so make sure that they have plenty of room to spread out. 

The next step is to prepare the soil well for your palm, keeping in mind that the root system will spread out over time. Palms do better in soil that is slightly more acidic so it won’t hurt to check the acidity of the soil first and possibly add some sulfur in if it is very alkaline. 

The next step would be to water the roots of the palm before you fill in the hole. Be careful when planting that the soil is not stacked up too high against the trunk or you could run the risk of it rotting.
 
The last stage when planting is to put mulch around it in quite a wide area. Also, consider this an exercise in preparing the soil for new root growth so cover a few free around the palm. 
​
Once it is established, you need to replace the mulch every year or so, top up the nutrients and maybe trim some of the lower fronds. Call a tree removal company you can trust if you need some help with one that just won't stay healthy.