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Carpoxlylon Macrospermum Seed from RPS


AndyR

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Hi folks

Have recently received another shipment from RPS which was 20 different species. The seeds look in pretty good nick but these Carpoxlylon Macrospermum are a bit of a concern. They've been soaking for 4 days like all the others... and all are still floating.

They feel like they have a bit of weight for their size but not convinced it's enough. There were also a few Latania's that were clearly not viable.

Wondering if anyone has experience with this seed in regards to floaters.

Naming RPS as I reckon it's good to share this given limited suppliers of palm seeds around the world.... but not interested in bagging them, just working it out for myself and seeking support with this particular species.

Thanks in advance, Andy

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The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now...

~ Chinese Proverb

 

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I would probably just write to RPS with your concerns. Most business people would just send replacements. Floating not good I wouldn't think......but I know nothing about this species.

David Simms zone 9a on Highway 30a

200 steps from the Gulf in NW Florida

30 ft. elevation and sandy soil

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I have no experience germinating this species but a good general suggestion for big seeds is ''just soak longer...''. As long as you change the water frequently enough not to allow any fungal growth,they should be fine and eventually sink. Or you could sow them as they are and they will eventually soak up enough water to germinate. That is,however,assuming that this species has a built in mechanism to survive some drought and remain viable after drying out some. But big seeds usually are ok with that and are not much affected. If you are concerned about them,just write to RPS and they will give you good advise. They want you to be happy after all and get good germination from their seeds :)

''To try,is to risk failure.......To not try,is to guarantee it''

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I seem to remember my Carpoxylon seeds floated (back in 2006) and they still came up. I think they're a bit like a coconut in that regard. Water could be a dispersal agent. Speak to Toby though if you're worried.

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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I once had some older Pritchardia seeds that floated. I got impatient and broke open the outer seed coat to find there was an air space between it and the actual seed. Just saying, maybe it could be similar with Carpoxylon.

Hawaii Island (Big Island), leeward coast, 19 degrees N. latitude, south Kona mauka at approx. 380m (1,250 ft.) and about 1.6 km (1-mile) upslope from ocean.

 

No record of a hurricane passing over this island (yet!).  

Summer maximum rainfall - variable averaging 900-1150mm (35-45") - Perfect drainage on black volcanic rocky soil.  

Nice sunsets!

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Happy to report that over the next week 8 of the 10 seeds have sunk and are 'on heat' as you read this!

Hoping for some nice action there as they look like very interesting seeds...

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now...

~ Chinese Proverb

 

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I bought C.macrospermum from RPS, quite a lot of them and had very good results. They were quite moist when I got them so I didn't soak. All 100% sprouted roots and a pointed tall shoot within a matter of a week or two, 30%c 80% humidity. Keep in good strong light for strong plants.

Having said that this always seems to happen to me with RPS for some reason. The more expensive seed always seems good and ready to germinate, pre-soaked, but the rest of the order is a dry load of old dusty kakha that usually sits and rots.

So I limit my order to the more expensive seed and only if it says NEW on the listing. Im not tempted anymore to just order as my heart desires from the entire list as the wastage is simply too high.

Don't know if it's just my climate but I hardend C .macrospermum seedlings off for a week or two then planted out in the ground in full sun. Keep watering and feeding is key. If it's shady they tend to stall, in full sun they grow incredibly quickly. We are humid though so maybe this wouldn't work if its very dry but Im thinking they will stall anyway if the light isn't very high? I tried all sorts of different spots with this batch and the ones in the sun are so much bigger they look four years older, thicker and with big leaves and wide leaflets. The ones in the shade are not much thicker or bigger than when I hardened them off and first planted them out.

They seem fine in sub-tropical conditions taking temps as low as 44.6 or 7%C for a short week or two in the dry season the only time I stoped watering. Seems a robust easy palm to grow overall.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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I've got a nice one I grew from seed in my Perth garden. It'll take temps around 3C OK. What I found with them in pots is that it's a very very fine line between too wet or too dry in winter. Too dry and they die, too wet and they rot and the bit where they are happy is a very very fine line when temps approach 18C as an average max. In the ground they take much more variance and are almost trouble free.

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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Ya good points Tyrone. I found the same I don't water much during the dry season, just keep the soil from becoming hard pan, keep them green. This is our cool season, our dry but no where near as cold as Perth. The fact that our cool is also our dry is something of a blessing all round for palms.

That these can happily take 3%C in your wet season is remarkable!

I don't know much about them in pots as I planted straight out in the ground from three leaf stage, the ones in the full sun settled in almost immediately.

I see quite a lot are in fact sold in pots in America at quite a decent size too.

I want to transplant the ones I planted in the shade into full sun. Not sure how that will work out but Im not entirely pessimistic as they seem so robust generally. Having said that I will wait until next wet season when the humidity is ranging from 80-100% and steamy hot. Sure if I hung them on the clothes line then they will still grow.

One thing I have noticed which is interesting is that they look almost exactly like a rather brutish Archontophoenix sp. Not a bad thing, those will BTW grow in the shade and look beautiful doing so in groups especially cunninghamiana.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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Thanks for the input fellas, much appreciated.

Not a huge fan of Archontophoeinix though, maybe just a bit too common here and with so many options for terrific palms.... we don't sell any of them in our nursery.

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now...

~ Chinese Proverb

 

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Actually Carpoxylon macrospermum when its older looks exactly like a robust Carpentaria acuminata, only its not as cool sensitive. I can see people from the Northern Territories turning green,the Carpentaria saturated and completely satiated.

I know Archontophoenix grow like weeds here too self seeding all over the place. I like them very useful. Horses for courses and all that but a decent grove of them in the forest looks incredibly evocative of place. Unfortunately most are planted in straight lines and horribly over used by municipalities in horrible plantings.

Here where I live you can tell where a village once was by theses poking their lovely wands out above the forest canopy, been around a long time.

Im going out to find me some large seedlings tomorrow I need instant height in a shady area under a giant camphor tree, a fast back drop to the more collectables growing there. Of course I would love to dash out and buy six trunking Normanbya normanbyi which would look fantastic in the shade but guaranteed Archontophoenix will do the trick and even more so in the shade looking charmed and unique. Haha ha. I don't think there is a single Normanbya in the whole of China, I've got them on order at the moment from Thailand, tiny seedlings as of last week.

Im always surprised and sobered by how effective it is in fact to grow just one species of palm and well no matter what it is.

Grow lots and lots of it and nothing else your property will magically turn into paradise, like a small patch of a distant tropical land. Mix it up and it doesn't have the same sense of place and serenity, think fruit salad........ (: not exactly a good comment for for most palm collectors to digest but it's true nonetheless, its also how these things tend to grow in the wild of course. You can add another species as understory but be disciplined and you will be very very pleased with the result.

If I ever start again that's exactly what I will be doing and its the advice I give to anyone starting palm planting, choose a species and stick with it same with understory palms, just choose one. If it's Archontophoenix as a base Im not at all fussed, gets the job done even quicker.

Three cheers for Archontophoenix, Im going to dig up my mottley bunch of others LOL....not quite.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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I meet lots of people who started their garden on a budget and fill it with Alexanders and Golden Canes, and when they see the options they kick themselves for being too hasty. I've a few in my garden, just too tall with not much on top. They look good in the first 6 years then not so great...

I hear you re picking a plant, would love to see a grove of Kentiopsis or Satakentia....

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now...

~ Chinese Proverb

 

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Yes not very inspiring the golden canes with Alexanders. Having said that one of the nicest gardens I know has a base planting of just golden canes and travellers palms, absolutely stunning garden right on the sea.

Nature mostly get these things right luckily and is well worth using for inspiration.

Satakentia is a new one for me Im loving it already!

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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I love Archontophoenix and wish I could grow D. lutescens. I bet you lot think Washintonia are interesting, funny how geography colors these things. :winkie:

Ben Rogers

On the border of Concord & Clayton in the East Bay hills - Elev 387 ft 37.95 °N, 121.94 °W

My back yard weather station: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=37.954%2C-121.945&sp=KCACONCO37

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I love most palms (and plants come to think of it) and I love Washingtonia robusta they give me instant memories and a deep sense of place when ever I get to Baja California (: Which is ony twice but still.

Just thinking but there isn't honestly a palm I can say I dislike no matter how common though some of the more obscure chamaedorea's I might be tempted to overlook.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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I paid a tree lopper $1,200 to remove a massive Washingtinia from beside my house. It was planted in the wrong place and would drop it's mess all over the place. Cockroaches used to live in it too so I'm not a fan of that fan!

Going back 20 years when I got into palms we were a bit arrogant and full of ourselves, we had a term UFP - Ugly Fan Palm! We loved our Licuala's and Pritchardia's but things like Washingtonia's and Sabal's got that UFP tag!

I do like this forum as it helps me to see other peoples passions ans likes and whilst I don't always agree can appreciate that's how we roll as humans. If I lived in Melbourne it would be a different ball game for sure!

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now...

~ Chinese Proverb

 

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I could never live in Melbourne AndyR if it it wasn't for Phoenix canariensis.

When I was a student I had nothing but a sunny square garden courtyard and in it was one mammoth Phoenix canariensis, plumb in the middle and in each corner a variegated lime (my addition). I loved that garden, its deep blue and green tiles from Morocco the birds the lizards, a pot of scarlet geraniums even today I love it's simplicity. It was the best place to think clearly. That palm a fountain of inspiration an entire ecosystem on its own bustling with life.

Hmm take that back I don't think I could live with Melbourne's climate, once I was there it was a heat wave the next it was worse than London in winter.

After something of an inexplicable epiphany my Mum crossed continents and moved to Tasmania at 82, I've purposefully never visited in her winter so am charmed by it still. Completely Mediterranean isn't? (: I live up to my nick name I had at school, "Snake". I need the heat.

Edited by Cedric

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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