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Copernicia Cowelii update


Gbarce

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I choose to ignore these guys because they are sooooo slooooow. Paying attention to them makes them grow even slower I think.

Besides these don't really seem to need any attention -- but I did notice that they are showing good form right now. The summer sun did them a lot of good.

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nice an silver underneath

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Gene

Manila, Philippines

53 feet above sea level - inland

Hot and dry in summer, humid and sticky monsoon season, perfect weather Christmas time

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/

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With a coffee cup for scale

This one has the longest leaves but for some reason is still not palmate

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Gene

Manila, Philippines

53 feet above sea level - inland

Hot and dry in summer, humid and sticky monsoon season, perfect weather Christmas time

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/

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Gene, nice to here you have them growing over in your part of the world, and should have no reason that they shouldn't do well. Mine here in my yard has been planted for about 10 years, one of the first seeds ever out of Cuba I'm sure. Sooo, I know what you mean when you look at them often and they seem not to grow. Lol. :)

Searle Brothers Nursery Inc.

and The Rainforest Collection.

Southwest Ranches,Fl.

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Gene,

I lost one that I had planted. I'll have to live vicariously through yours. You and I are about the same age so that thing should start to look like something by the time we're 65. Hopefully I'll be retired and checking out your plants on whatever palmtalk is 25 years from now.

Jason

Gainesville, Florida

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Gene, your Copernicia cowellii plants look good in their containers. I have one super small plant that just germinated and has a strap leaf emerging in the quart size pot and I would like to keep it in a container as you are doing (at least for a while). Can you give me any pointers as to what you've done to grow them so well? Things like soil type, watering schedule, amount of light you give them, any fertilizer? Did you transplant them from a smaller size pot to a larger one and did they handle the move OK? Those would be some of the questions I might have in order to feel better about having success in growing them. Any advise or comments you might give me will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Al in Kona

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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I too have undertaken the long term commitment to try and grow out a few cowellii's.

While on a recent trip to Cuba,I collected some seed and was amazed it was already sprouting only 4 or 5 days after being picked off the trees.Everyone says it is an extremely slow growing species but for me,the first seed leaf anyway has been anything but...

First pic shows my sprouts which at this point are only 10 weeks old.Seeds were individually potted in standard 1 gallon pots which I can see are already too small as a few have roots trying to escape the drain holes already.Tall 1 gallons or citrus pots probably would have been a better choice.I used mostly my native alkaline soil,amended with lots of perlite,and some chelated iron and osmocote for good measure.(native Cuban soil appeared to have LOTS of iron in it) pics 2,3,4,5. These plants are also VERY durable,as I have some growing in full all day Arizona sun for testing purposes.We hit 116 degrees F a few days ago and the seedlings are still doing fine.I suspect our winters though may thin out the herd a bit;time will tell.

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

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Mesa, Arizona

 

Temps between 29F and 115F each year

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Gene, on a totally different note, how did your palms and plants fare in the recent typhoon? Heard it was devastating. Any pictures? Hope your palms didn't suffer too much.

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Jeff - I'd love to see pictures of your 10 year old plants in the ground. I have one in the ground too but it is not growing as fast as the one in the pots. I blame it on it's microclimate.

Tank - I sure hope they look a lot better a LOT earlier than 15 years from now. I want to see that big ball of leaves ASAP

Al - ill put my notes in growing them in a separate post.

Kepel - Most of my palms are fine. Just a bit of leaf damage. It's the regular dicots that were damaged a lot-- broken branches. Most palms are adapted to storms.

Gene

Manila, Philippines

53 feet above sea level - inland

Hot and dry in summer, humid and sticky monsoon season, perfect weather Christmas time

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/

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Al - I also have one cowelii in the ground but for some reason it is a lot slower. The major factor I think is the amount of sun it gets. Teh one in the ground is so tiny it is shaded over by surrounding plants.

One thing I did was to transfer these guys in oversized pots. I read somewhere that even if there is little action with the leaves on top, with a lot of slow growing palms there is a lot of growth happening with the roots.

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I also noticed that cowelii only has a few large fat roots that grow very long very fast and the have very few "feeder" roots. These fat roots are very quick in escaping through the holes of their pots. So the extra large pot should keep them contained for a long time

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My mix contains a lot of Pumice -- which is mostly for drainage but It also increases the mineral content (vs. organic content). I also threw in old coins and rusty things in their soil mix.

I threw in slow release fertilizer

I water them when the top soil looks dried up and i think I have even neglected their watering but they don't seem to mind

I also moved them to this area which has long sun exposure- which they seem to like.

Gene

Manila, Philippines

53 feet above sea level - inland

Hot and dry in summer, humid and sticky monsoon season, perfect weather Christmas time

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/

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Thanks Gene. BTW, what size are the containers you have them in now - diameter and depth? Good idea about throwing in some old coins - makes the plants worth even more! LOL When you transfer them to a larger size pot does the old soil tend to fall away from the palms roots (since you say they don't really have much finer feeder type roots to help bind the soil together)?

Besides adding slow release fertilizer to your soil mix when you potted them up, do u ever do any other type of fertilizing later on?

Again thanks for your growing info.

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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These pots are about 2 feet wide and 2.5 to 3 feet tall by my estimate.

Yes the rootball could hardly stay together because there were very few for the finer feeder roots that other palm (or plants have) they just have several of these fleshy roots that were a bit long already.

I think I just added a few more scoops of osmocote on the surface. But basically I just ignored them.

Oh and I weed them when the weeds look like they will outgrow the seedling already.

Gene

Manila, Philippines

53 feet above sea level - inland

Hot and dry in summer, humid and sticky monsoon season, perfect weather Christmas time

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/

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Copernicias put down big long roots that go to the bottom of pots, whatever the length of the pot, and then wrap around the periphery of the bottom of the pot. This means that tall, thin pots are bad for them, because there is not enough room for a large root to "wrap around". I know nursery growers who have killed scores of Copernicias in a few months this way.

I use normal 2-gal or 3-gal pots, depth doesn't matter, so that they do have room for the root to "wrap around". I have kept many Copernicias of various species in pots for many years this way. An experienced Florida grower advised me once that one can get them to fairly good size by putting them in larger and larger pots (5-gal, 15-gal, etc.). The best formula for growth, though, is "in the ground".

Mike Merritt

Big Island of Hawaii, windward, rainy side, 740 feet (225 meters) elevation

165 inches (4,200 mm) of rain per year, 66 to 83 deg F (20 to 28 deg C) in summer, 62 to 80 deg F (16.7 to 26.7 Deg C) in winter.

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Here's one C. cowelii that I put in the ground maybe 4 years ago. This little guy is teh same age as the ones in the pots. He was shaded in by a Coccothrinax crinita that was growing beside it.

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Gene

Manila, Philippines

53 feet above sea level - inland

Hot and dry in summer, humid and sticky monsoon season, perfect weather Christmas time

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/

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  • 1 month later...

I got mine a couple years ago when my wife was upset after seeing them in a habitat photo, 'we have all these palms and not that one!' I told her they don't grow well and she implored, 'you can't grow one?'... well she baited me and I am glad she did. However, just after I planted this palm, a feral dog came into my backyard and bit up this thing! I guess it could tell there was some fresh digging that had gone on there and maybe a thorn or two got him to stop his destruction. When I saw it, I was fuming and did not expect this palm to make it--it had broken and was laying on it's side. fast forward about half a year and I notice it's not dead! I checked even closer and it had rooted in, the way it was knocked over, so I weeded it and put protective blocks around it. Fast forward to a few days ago, I saw it popping out of the weeds. I pulled all of the weeds and admired how well it is doing! Sure it's slow, but I am glad to have something like this palm to look forward to.

Gene, yours look fantastic--the nicest one I have ever seen is also where I got mine from--Dale Holton. His are HUGE and he says they like as much water as a Lipstick!

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