Cultivation
The Nikau makes an excellent pot plant, and is quite hardy. It tends to be slow-growing. It grows readily from seed if the fruit is soaked in water for a few days and then gently scrubbed to remove the flesh. The seed will then germinate readily if placed in sealed plastic bags in semi-shade, after which they can be planted in deep pots. The pots should be tall and narrow to provide room for the taproot and to lessen the likelihood of root damage when transplanting.
Transplanting juveniles is generally successful if the main root is left intact. The Nikau does not have a true tap root. Once the main root has been established to a fairly shallow depth of about 400 mm) its roots take on form consistent with other palms. Successful transplanting is possible but the Nikau is very fickle if there's any trunk. It is best done in summer but a substantial root ball should be preserved, and shade should be provided at the new location - at the very least by tying the outer fronds closer to the centre. Ground watering is recommended because crown watering can induce terminal rot at the very slow growing new spike. Delays should be avoided in getting the Nikau into its new ground and substantial die-back of all but the central spike can be expected.
The Nikau thrives on cool temperatures but is not subject to freezing weather in its natural habitat. It can survive a few degrees of frost, but it is damaged even more severely by sudden large drops in temperature even above freezing. It does well in areas with a mild Mediterranean climate.
Read more about this topic: Nikau
Famous quotes containing the word cultivation:
“Let these memorials of built stone music’s
enduring instrument, of many centuries of
patient cultivation of the earth, of English
verse ...”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“If the minds of women were enlightened and improved, the domestic circle would be more frequently refreshed by intelligent conversation, a means of edification now deplorably neglected, for want of that cultivation which these intellectual advantages would confer.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“The cultivation of one set of faculties tends to the disuse of others. The loss of one faculty sharpens others; the blind are sensitive in touch. Has not the extreme cultivation of the commercial faculty permitted others as essential to national life, to be blighted by disease?”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)