Copernicia prunifera mystery solved

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Last month I posted about my copernicia prunifera that grew fine last year but this year came to a screeching halt. http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/42196-copernicia-mystery/.

Well, my copernicia prunifera mystery is solved. I dug up the palm today to move it into a full sun location where it's very hot. What I discovered is that the palm was completely bone dry. It's a miracle it was able to hold on, but there was ZERO water in the rootball.

This is where I am completely at a loss as to what happened. Drip didn't even penetrate the rootball. I was putting drip on it AND I was hand irrigating it. Only the surface native soil got wet, the water would not penetrate the rootball. I really f@@ing hate peat moss, it just stinks. Once it dries out, forget it. I had considerable drip going into it. Nothing would penetrate that soil. It apparently dried out during our dry Winter, and even the February rains just weren't enough to penetrate the soil and water. Nothing except soaking this palm in a tub of water is going to re-wet that rootball.

I will never again plant another palm in the ground that was grown in peat moss. When I buy such a palm, I will just bare root it and repot it in decent soil and give it a year before planting. Peat sucks. This brings my losses to about 10 such cases. Peat moss grown palms are a complete rip off.

Seems heat isn't the problem with copernicia in California, it's the lack of water. I am more and more convinced that our lack of Summer rainfall is a far bigger growth constraint than anything else. It would take a massive amount of irrigation to replicate Florida Summer conditions in the soil, it's just not economically feasible even without water restrictions.

What a shame, this was a real nice palm. It will be a year before I can nurse it back to health. It's going to the palm hospital for now.

[Phoenikakias]

Last month I posted about my copernicia prunifera that grew fine last year but this year came to a screeching halt. http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/42196-copernicia-mystery/.

Well, my copernicia prunifera mystery is solved. I dug up the palm today to move it into a full sun location where it's very hot. What I discovered is that the palm was completely bone dry. It's a miracle it was able to hold on, but there was ZERO water in the rootball.

This is where I am completely at a loss as to what happened. Drip didn't even penetrate the rootball. I was putting drip on it AND I was hand irrigating it. Only the surface native soil got wet, the water would not penetrate the rootball. I really f@@ing hate peat moss, it just stinks. Once it dries out, forget it. I had considerable drip going into it. Nothing would penetrate that soil. It apparently dried out during our dry Winter, and even the February rains just weren't enough to penetrate the soil and water. Nothing except soaking this palm in a tub of water is going to re-wet that rootball.

I will never again plant another palm in the ground that was grown in peat moss. When I buy such a palm, I will just bare root it and repot it in decent soil and give it a year before planting. Peat sucks. This brings my losses to about 10 such cases. Peat moss grown palms are a complete rip off.

Seems heat isn't the problem with copernicia in California, it's the lack of water. I am more and more convinced that our lack of Summer rainfall is a far bigger growth constraint than anything else. It would take a massive amount of irrigation to replicate Florida Summer conditions in the soil, it's just not economically feasible even without water restrictions.

What a shame, this was a real nice palm. It will be a year before I can nurse it back to health. It's going to the palm hospital for now.

It is useful that we rememberl now and then the actual reasons for the absence of a particular palm from the palm 'menu' in most gardens in a certain climate.

[Palmə häl′ik]

Are you sure its not your fault for not watering it enough?

Darned peat moss... Dryin out n all..

Silly, silly peat moss

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Are you sure its not your fault for not watering it enough?

Darned peat moss... Dryin out n all..

Silly, silly peat moss

How would you know? You live in Florida, you have no idea what it's like to try to grow tropical palms in a dry climate.

[MattyB]

Compacting the backill should solve this in the future, even with peat, assuming you're watering properly. I've made the mistake of backfilling with too much organics and not compacting it with dirt. Same result that you're seeing. A big aggressive palm, like a Royal, can drill down, find that saturation zone, and fatten up past that peat. But a smaller, slow growing plant will go dry.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Compacting the backill should solve this in the future, even with peat, assuming you're watering properly. I've made the mistake of backfilling with too much organics and not compacting it with dirt. Same result that you're seeing. A big aggressive palm, like a Royal, can drill down, find that saturation zone, and fatten up past that peat. But a smaller, slow growing plant will go dry.

Exactly! This one is a painful lesson, it was such a healthy grower for me before I let it dry up. I hope I can save this palm. Last year, this palm outgrew my copernicia alba 2 to 1. I re-potted it up and I am soaking it in a tub for 12 hours. I hope I can save it. It actually came out really easily, so it's just as you say, it just doesn't have that ability to drill down like some other palms do. The roots didn't really ever leave the original rootball.

[MattyB]

I'd put it back in the ground. These aren't so great in pots. They have aggressive roots and really respond better in the ground. With a long summer ahead I think you'll see results if you keep it moist.

[Gonzer]

Just add a surfactant to your water every couple waterings.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

It grew two inches overnight while soaking in a tub. Lots of pent up growth wanting to come out from prolonged water stress. I planted it into the hottest part of the garden today, my brahea aculeata grotto. The silver will be a nice contrast to the metal-green aculeata. I used all the techniques I know of to make sure this thing gets ample water. That includes soaking the new hole with water, soaking the hole with water again after planting and backfilling half way, making sure the water pools around the rootball. Then I backfilled the rest with better draining organics, and soaked it yet again, it's as wet as it can be right now. Instead of the usual 2x1gph drippers I am giving this one 4x1gph drippers.

It's going to get a weekly 20 gallon water bag treatment for the rest of the growing season.

Whoever sold it to me had taken a 5 gallon clay-based soil plant and surrounded it with peat moss mix in a 15 gallon. That's what went into the ground last Summer. No wonder it did so poorly. The peat moss all fell off during the transplant, I had to support the clay rootball on some limestone in the middle of the hole so I could backfill soil around it and get the roots in there. I figured since copernicia tends to like lime, the limestone shouldn't hurt, so I left it in place.

[pfancy]

did it ever make it back?

[Josh-O]

4 hours ago, pfancy said:

did it ever make it back?

Axel no longer is part of this forum.