parajubaea sunkha is a wimp

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

30% leaf damage at 26.6F. See http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/39792-parajubaea-sunkha/ for photos. What a joke, less hardy than p. cocoides, one specimen in a much colder location fully exposed further down the hill has no damage. Seems pretty darn wimpy to me.

A similarly sized 15 gallon copernicia alba 10 feet away same elevation and exposure sailed through the freeze. Note the nearby citrus that are undamaged. A freeze that won't even touch citrus fries a p. sunkha? No way that species is hardy to 20F. Torallyi remains the hardiest parajubaea.

[Stevetoad]

My winter last year was horrible. I had a week with below 32 nights and one night hit 26 and the next was 28. My sunkha saw zero damage. I wonder if there are variations with in sunkha. Seems like parajubea is a pretty funky family anyway so I wouldn't doubt it.

[Perito]

Any chance it is misidentified? Others have reported great cold hardiness with P. sunkha.

[Perito]

Also, how big is it?

[palmsnbananas]

Uh oh, I need to make sure because I was about to replace some PTVT with sunkha, I guess Ill leave the sunkha in pots outside and see how they fare this winter before planting.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Any chance it is misidentified? Others have reported great cold hardiness with P. sunkha.

Could be because they're seedlings with juvenile leaved. They are 15g specimens that should have split leaves by next year. They are supposed to be sunkha.

[Phoenikakias]

I have also the impression that sunkha is more cool tolerant than torallyi (it still grows during an average winter while Pt stops), but this does not mean also by logical necessity that it is hardier to below freezing temps.

[gyuseppe]

Axel for personal experience in my garden the parajubaea sunkha,is more cold resistant of copernicia alba!

of copernicia alba are died 3!

is not cold resistant as they say-for me

[Perito]

Barring another brutal freeze this Winter, in a couple years the sunkha will make your cocoides look like a helpless wimp!

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Barring another brutal freeze this Winter, in a couple years the sunkha will make your cocoides look like a helpless wimp!

That's my hope too. I was banking on sunkha for a substitute for cocoides. I was surprised to see that I was the first person to actually post anything about sunkha. Why don't people post their reports of survival?

[Geoff]

how old is your P sunkha? Mine was about 3' tall when we got down to 24F 2007... not a hint of burn on it. Same frost/freeze killed many other palms.. some Sabal mauritiiformis killed, all the Dypsis plumosas (all seedlings, even my dypsis decipiens seedling (about 2' tall) was badly burned. Lost all Archontophoenix save a few right against the house. Lost a lot of Chamaedoreas. Rhopalostylis badly damaged, Livistona fulva defoliated (but lived), both Ravenea glaucas defoliated (one lived, though), Pritchardia defoliated (but also lived), Trachycarpus 'oreophila, martianus and nana all badly burned (notu sure nana or oreophila real things, though)... but none of my Parajuabaeas were damaged much.. .two torralyis showed some leaf browning... even Washingtonias down street damaged a bit, and owners 10' Majesties all defoliated (though came back strong). But P sunkha showed nothing. Still growing strong and has a good 3' of clear trunk on it now... pretty sure it's safe from now on.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

how old is your P sunkha? Mine was about 3' tall when we got down to 24F 2007... not a hint of burn on it. Same frost/freeze killed many other palms.. some Sabal mauritiiformis killed, all the Dypsis plumosas (all seedlings, even my dypsis decipiens seedling (about 2' tall) was badly burned. Lost all Archontophoenix save a few right against the house. Lost a lot of Chamaedoreas. Rhopalostylis badly damaged, Livistona fulva defoliated (but lived), both Ravenea glaucas defoliated (one lived, though), Pritchardia defoliated (but also lived), Trachycarpus 'oreophila, martianus and nana all badly burned (notu sure nana or oreophila real things, though)... but none of my Parajuabaeas were damaged much.. .two torralyis showed some leaf browning... even Washingtonias down street damaged a bit, and owners 10' Majesties all defoliated (though came back strong). But P sunkha showed nothing. Still growing strong and has a good 3' of clear trunk on it now... pretty sure it's safe from now on.

Leaves are not yet divided. This palm must gain hardiness with age.

[Geoff]

Took a photo of mine planted in hell (Acton) this summer... winds are whipping the crap out of it, and sucking the life out of it... but freeze last week (22F) with well over 50mph winds didn't kill it... did kill a Phoenix palm (yikes), defoliated a number of Encephalartos, melted my aloes (that I was too lazy to put in garage), killed a bunch of Agaves, even nearly defoliated my Jubaeopsis... yet not these two dinky strap-leaf seedlings in full brunt of the freezing winds... Yeah they don't look great and I do expect them to die eventually (gotta try, though)... but if 22F (plus whatever wind chill 50mph adds) didn't kill them, I suspect the summers will have to be the ones to do it (last one killed most of the things I brought up here so far). Took photo of it today (in winds of course.. it NEVER stops blowing here!).

[ghar41]

see post #11

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/39792-parajubaea-sunkha/#entry617336

[Phoenikakias]

Here's mine, in the background TVT, you can observe the difference in growth speed as both plants are of same age. PVT grows also during hot summer days (albeit slowly), while sunkha almost stops. Besides sunkha is not yet satisfactorily rooted and leans.

BTW Geoff, which Phoenix has been killed by recent cold spell?

Edited December 18, 2013 by Phoenikakias

[Geoff]

it was a rupicola hybrid... was a transplant so not wonderfully rooted, but it seemed to be doing OK. Oh well.. more room for another new palm.