In which season should I divide palms for propagation?

I have a potted dypsis lutescens (golden cane/ Areca) palm. It’s got a fat sucker ready to be separate from the mother plant (it’s the leftmost, leaning stem in the photo), but I don’t know which season is best to do it.

I’m in a Mediterranean climate (like San Francisco) in the Southern Hemisphere, so it’ll be winter in a few weeks.

Hello!  I've separated palms like that at all times of the year.  I prefer to do it when it is warmer because in my experience and the transplant establishes/grows quicker.  I have done it in the winter here (we get very few freezes, zone 9a-b) and have just kept an eye on the transplant until it warms up.  The guys I've grown are pretty resilient.  If you are someone who will worry the whole winter, then wait until it warms up.  If you can be relaxed about it, do it now.  Good luck!

That’s fantastic, it means I can do it!

Summers are very hard for me because our climate’s so hot and dry that everything needs constant watering and shelter to survive. Autumn/ fall is my favourite because rainfall is usually enough to keep things watered and we still get warm days that can be the same as a north European summer.

My plants are overwhelmingly ones that produce food but I do love the beauty of palms, and it’s in a spot that gets no direct sunlight all year so I use it for ornamental plants.

It was very easy to separate. I didn’t unpot and only planned to remove one stalk, yet a second one fell off by itself. So now I have three palms (assuming they survive)! Two more are falling over on the mother plant, so if these survive I’ll remove the other two to make five palms from one single mother palm. Amazing if it works.