Macho fern is Texas-sized

When you take your first glance you might think you’re just looking at a Boston fern. Who among us hasn’t seen hundreds of those? But what if it would take four Texans to reach around one? That couldn’t be just an ordinary Boston fern.

That’s the way it is with Macho ferns. Tracing its ancestry to humid tropical regions of Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and much of northern and eastern South America, this is a distinct species (Nephrolepis biserrata) from the much smaller Boston fern (N. exaltata and its cultivars).

The discovery was made during the late 1980s, and by the 1990s a particularly vigorous selection was given the much-deserved cultivar name ‘Macho’ and brought into cultivation in Florida production facilities.

Macho’s fronds are wider, thicker, and very much longer – sometimes reaching 6 ft. in length under ideal growing conditions. If you imagine a plant splaying out leaves east, west, north, and south, 6 ft. in each direction, that’s a big mama of a foliage plant. That’s a whole lot of grace, green, and good looks growing in one shade-loving tropical plant.

My Macho fern has been in this same shaded spot in our landscape late April through October for 6 years. It was an innocent 12-in. hanging basket when I bought it. Oh, how times have changed.

Now it’s growing in a 10-gal. pot. I’d repot it into a larger container if I could handle it, but it’s already difficult to get it in through the door of my greenhouse. I guess I could put it on the dining table in our sunroom for the winter. Oh, wait – it’s 4 ft. wider than the table is. We’d have to add a room. And it certainly isn’t going into the garage. That’s where ferns go to die over the winter. I’ll figure a way to get it into the greenhouse just like I have for the past 6 years. I love it too much to lose it.

Grow Machos in highly organic potting soil with 50-60 percent sphagnum peat moss, 20 percent finely ground pine bark mulch, 10 percent well-rotted compost, and 10 percent perlite.

Machos are heavy feeders during the growing season. Use a water-soluble, high-nitrogen tropical plant food each time you water them. Keep them moist at all times.

Little pruning will be needed but remove old leaves from the bases of the plants as they start to turn yellow. They will be replaced by new growth as new leaves emerge in the spring and summer.

Macho ferns are propagated by division or commercially in large scale from small plugs. Growers do not use spores that might develop on the undersides of the leaflets.

Few insects or diseases bother ferns, but scale insects may show up. Use an insecticide that is labeled for use on ferns to treat small outbreaks if you see one. Ferns can be sensitive to insecticides, so be sure your product is safe for your plants before you do widespread spraying.

Do not expose your Macho fern to direct sunlight after 8 or 9 in the morning. Similarly, do not expose them to temperatures below 45F.