How tough are D. Leutescens?

[Palmdude]

I just dug up a clump of Leutescens, they were grown in the typical fashion of many seeds in one pot. I did a pretty good good job of separating them and didn't break too many roots. How tough are these things? Do they move/separate well? I gave them to my neighbor and helped him plant them, I hope they hang in there and do well for him.

Also what do you think the perfect spot for them is? Most I see in full sun don't look so good, they're necrotic or burned looking. Maybe they need to be fertilized and most people don't bother? The ones I see with partial sun and some shade seem to look better, what do you think?

Edited March 30, 2015 by Palmdude

[_Keith]

They don't hold up here on the Northern Gulf Coast, but where you are I would think they would do fine. On sun, they look OK in shade, but love morning sun and afternoon shade. But then again, doesn't just about everything love those conditions.

[DoomsDave]

Keep them warm enough, and out of the wind for a while, and you'll likely get a 100% survival rate.

[Palmdude]

That's encouraging thanks guys

[Silas_Sancona]

Split a beat up 15 gal last Spring. Largest division survived. Notice that the older specimen between mine and our neighbor's driveways is always yellow.. It is in full sun.

An escapee which had been hidden beneath overgrown Pepper tree I cleared along the property line out back is always vivid green. Soil there is black and is always moist. Thinking years of built up organic matter there has helped also.

Seedlings I found in that same area were easy to transplant. No issues with shock so far.

-Nathan

[DoomsDave]

That species may be endangered in habitat, but the world is its oyster.

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

Too cold in my 9b climate.

Chill gets em every winter

[DoomsDave]

Here's one of my weensy babies of old all grown up, about 12 feet (4M) tall to the tippy-top of the tallest spear.

EVERYONE falls in love.

[willo68]

Hey Dave, do you remove the suckers from the trunk? Mine has so many suckers( hundreds) at the trunk that you can barely see the stems unless i drastically prune them, which is a pain since there are soooo many. Thanks

Will

[DoomsDave]

Will you have a lot of plants jammed together. Mine is just one, and they'll get about 20 or so.

[willo68]

This is one of those typical ones you buy at the store as Areca palm. Been around for about 25 years and probably 20 in the ground and its always been sucker happy. Once upon a time it was so large i had about 20 of them pass the roof of the house with hanging orchids all over them. Then we had one of our special winters that reduced it to nothing but suckers coming out of the ground and it still mostly sucker heaven.

[Tyrone]

Dypsis lutescens is an easy transplant. Just keep it moist for a few weeks following the transplant and it will be fine. They're not fussy. They even grow here where they get frost, but they'll never look great if they get cold and frost. As others have said if you give them morning sun, a bit of protection, a ton of fertiliser and some good moisture and they'll think they're in Madagascar and look green and beautiful. The best ones don't look too gold. The leaflets must be green.

[Palmdude]

It's been about five days and they haven't skipped a beat. I think part sun and a good amount of fertilizer are the key. I have one in a pot by the pool that is in a decent amount of sun and it loves fertilizer. It's a nice deep green

[Bigfish]

My mom has three in large pots here in Gainesville that she's had for well over 15 years. Every few years I repot them for her. I mutilate the rootball, LOL. They tend to want to push themselves up out of the pot, so I take a saw and chop off the bottom half of the rootball. They never even act like anything happened, as long as you keep them well-watered afterwards. I'm battling a massive scale infestation with them right now though.

[O'o Bar Master]

About a year ago Lee wanted to plant something else where a row of D. leutescens were growing. I started to work on them with a bar and then just got tired of the time it was taking and threw a rope around the base and pulled a dozen or more out of the ground with the truck. They lay in the sun for about three days, pretty much bare root when I decided I would throw them in pots and see what happened. They were about 10 feet tall and didn't miss a beat. I sold the entire batch of them about two months ago. The new owner says they are doing really well. This may be the easiest palm to grow in Hawaii but even for an easy palm, that was a lot of abuse.

Mike

[Jesse]

I'm going to take a shot at dredging up this topic.  I have a couple clumps of D. Lutescens that I absolutely love. My wife and I planted them in the ground 2 years ago from 5 gallons I believe. We would like to try and separate some out to put in pots. I would like to try if possible to dig out the back half without removing the front half. Anybody want to chime in on methods of success? Is it possible?  If it comes down to possibly loosing the main clump then I'd rather not even try. Thanks in advance!

[Jesse]

Surely SOMEBODY has tried to split a Lutescens clump.  They aren't THAT cheap.

[DoomsDave]

 

@Jesse, in my experience lutes are cheap, as cheap as talk. If you want another clump, I suggest buying one. You'll spare yourself and the palms involved a lot of pain.

BUT . . .

(You may know a lot of what I'm about to say already. I offer this for general knowledge. Hope it helps.)

Splitting yours can be done, I think, and could provide valuable lessons and insight for when/if you find yourself splitting a clump of something a lot dearer. I've separated clumps in my time, and I guess it beats a good flogging. It can be arduous, but it can be rewarding. I've separated many clump, particularly Chamadoreas, but also a Dypsis lute or two.

It looks like you have a "clumped clump" meaning more than one plant in the original pot that survived and clumped, along with its pot-mates. You might have several plants in there, which might yield a number of corresponding clumps.

My plant is one clump, one plant. I don't know if it can be split.

I think you can separate your clump into more than one, but I'd plan on removing the entire thing, dividing it, potting the pieces, letting the pieces re-establish, then replanting them. To do a good job of splitting it will require you to look really closely at where one plant leaves off and another begins, and I think leaving half in the soil would be impossible. The roots join the rest of the plant by way of a "plate" out of which they grow, and if you break that plate off a trunk, everything dies. (I've broken many a plate, alas.)

I recommend the following procedure:

1. Starting as soon as possible (in the spring, like now), trench all around the clump, about 6" from the bases, to about 12" deep. This will stimulate new roots which will replace the ones you'll destroy in the dividing process.
2. After a month or two, dig the whole thing out, and remove all the dirt from the roots. In my experience a "gordian knot" can be separated if you pull off the dirt, which helps hold things together. Also, use one of those fierce nozzles, after soaking in a tub of water, pull out, shake to remove soil, dunk again, finally the nozzle treatment.
3. As you go along, gently, but firmly twist the clump, and see if you can spot places where it might come apart without cutting. Usually, it's a few small offsets around a big stem in a clump like yours.
4. Be careful to back off if you feel/hear that sound of tissues tearing too much.
5. Twist, pull, twist, pull. Keep doing it. Patiently, gently.
6. Eventually, a fault line should appear, as it were, and gently pull, then push (to untangle roots) then pull again. Gently, patiently.
7. You may find that you have a big Kahuna plant in the clump, and one or more "satellite" plants that clung to life without being snuffed completely in the crowded pot. This will result in a big, bodacious plant, with one or more pitiful-looking ones that will likely grow anyway, once separated.
8. You may have two, or more Kahunas, each with a big stem, and smaller ones. It's not always easy to tell what you'll get at the beginning. I see two big, fat stems in your clump, and it could be one or more Kahunas.
9. Once separated, plant the divisions in pots of potting soil and keep moist and well-drained, and out of the sun and wind till they re-root. It may take a month, it may take more, the warm season will come and that will help.
10. Treat yourself to a serving of your favorite liquid.
11. After the divisions establish, plant out.

If, after reading this, you decide you'd rather get a new clump, you won't be wrong. But, you may, someday, get yourself something like, say, a D. onilahensis clumped clump that will reward your efforts.

Let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out!

 

[Umbrae]

The washy of dypsis clan .... they will get burned back every so often here but usually enough of the clump survives to regen 

[Jesse]

22 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

 

@Jesse, in my experience lutes are cheap, as cheap as talk. If you want another clump, I suggest buying one. You'll spare yourself and the palms involved a lot of pain.

BUT . . .

(You may know a lot of what I'm about to say already. I offer this for general knowledge. Hope it helps.)

Splitting yours can be done, I think, and could provide valuable lessons and insight for when/if you find yourself splitting a clump of something a lot dearer. I've separated clumps in my time, and I guess it beats a good flogging. It can be arduous, but it can be rewarding. I've separated many clump, particularly Chamadoreas, but also a Dypsis lute or two.

It looks like you have a "clumped clump" meaning more than one plant in the original pot that survived and clumped, along with its pot-mates. You might have several plants in there, which might yield a number of corresponding clumps.

My plant is one clump, one plant. I don't know if it can be split.

I think you can separate your clump into more than one, but I'd plan on removing the entire thing, dividing it, potting the pieces, letting the pieces re-establish, then replanting them. To do a good job of splitting it will require you to look really closely at where one plant leaves off and another begins, and I think leaving half in the soil would be impossible. The roots join the rest of the plant by way of a "plate" out of which they grow, and if you break that plate off a trunk, everything dies. (I've broken many a plate, alas.)

I recommend the following procedure:

1. Starting as soon as possible (in the spring, like now), trench all around the clump, about 6" from the bases, to about 12" deep. This will stimulate new roots which will replace the ones you'll destroy in the dividing process.
2. After a month or two, dig the whole thing out, and remove all the dirt from the roots. In my experience a "gordian knot" can be separated if you pull off the dirt, which helps hold things together. Also, use one of those fierce nozzles, after soaking in a tub of water, pull out, shake to remove soil, dunk again, finally the nozzle treatment.
3. As you go along, gently, but firmly twist the clump, and see if you can spot places where it might come apart without cutting. Usually, it's a few small offsets around a big stem in a clump like yours.
4. Be careful to back off if you feel/hear that sound of tissues tearing too much.
5. Twist, pull, twist, pull. Keep doing it. Patiently, gently.
6. Eventually, a fault line should appear, as it were, and gently pull, then push (to untangle roots) then pull again. Gently, patiently.
7. You may find that you have a big Kahuna plant in the clump, and one or more "satellite" plants that clung to life without being snuffed completely in the crowded pot. This will result in a big, bodacious plant, with one or more pitiful-looking ones that will likely grow anyway, once separated.
8. You may have two, or more Kahunas, each with a big stem, and smaller ones. It's not always easy to tell what you'll get at the beginning. I see two big, fat stems in your clump, and it could be one or more Kahunas.
9. Once separated, plant the divisions in pots of potting soil and keep moist and well-drained, and out of the sun and wind till they re-root. It may take a month, it may take more, the warm season will come and that will help.
10. Treat yourself to a serving of your favorite liquid.
11. After the divisions establish, plant out.

If, after reading this, you decide you'd rather get a new clump, you won't be wrong. But, you may, someday, get yourself something like, say, a D. onilahensis clumped clump that will reward your efforts.

Let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out!

 

Thanks Dave.  I really appreciate this insight.  I will have to think a little bit about how much time I have and how much work I want to put into this.  I'm thinking currently that I don't want to dig up the entire thing.  I know it's popular for indoor lutescens to plant a whole heap of them in one pot. Maybe I just look for a cheap indoor one and release it to the wild.

[Phoenikakias]

On 31/3/2015, 7:21:00, JEFF IN MODESTO said:

Too cold in my 9b climate.

Chill gets em every winter

Do they survive nevertheless?

[DoomsDave]

On 2/28/2018, 6:27:41, Jesse said:

Thanks Dave.  I really appreciate this insight.  I will have to think a little bit about how much time I have and how much work I want to put into this.  I'm thinking currently that I don't want to dig up the entire thing.  I know it's popular for indoor lutescens to plant a whole heap of them in one pot. Maybe I just look for a cheap indoor one and release it to the wild.

You have the right idea. They roar out of the gate, no problem.

I've got some younger plants . . . .