Save the Pups!

Palm pups, that is!

Today I will show you how I saved some palm pups from being destroyed...or at least mowed over. My parents have a sago palm tree:

Notice the smaller baby-sagos (pups) under the mama-sago's protective sheltering fronds.

Close up.

Close up on my favorite of the pups - the little baby frond. Soooo cute.

1. Gather materials - potting soil, small pots for pups, garden spade, knife, gloves, knee pads if you're into that.

Sorry, I guess I only documented the spade and knife tip. You'll have to imagine the other materials.

2. Stick spade into grown around pup, and kind of "cut" the grass around the root - which is going to be like a bulb. You just circle the spade around the pup, or stab the ground around the pup. Then you recall everything you learned in high school physics about levers and fulcrums. Basically, add brute force to the handle of the spade. It kind of looks like this:

I admit, I made this beautiful diagram in Microsoft Paint. It reminded me of my childhood, when I used to spend hours creating art on the computer. My skills haven't improved much.  

Here I am demonstrating in real life. That's the look of determination, folks.

3. Brush off plant, and stick it in a pot of potting soil.

These are the smaller ones - they're between 2-4 inches. I accidentally knocked the leaves off the pup on the far left. Oops.

This was the biggest. My dad actually used the knife to cut this one off, becuase the pup bulb was kind of big. I had to transplant it to a bigger pot when I got home.

That's basically it. Simple. If you search blogs on how to do this, you'll find more involved step by steps. Some people like to make it complicated. But, why? Do you like complicated? Are you crazy? No? Okay, well you can like complicated stuff if you want. I won't judge you...anymore.