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Whether SAPW over there or RPW here, they have arrived to stay. Terribly sorry saying it, but you are bound to spray preemptively monthly in order to prevent or minimize effects of infestation. I have been following this practice since two decades. That said spraying is not a heavy task, provided you are properly equipped. A high pressure oil motored pump and a telescopic cane are indispensable. You do not have to spray the whole crown, just few liters directly in to the growing point and the immediately surrounding it leaf bases. I use a solution one sachet (not the whole content of the bag) of Merit and 15 mm of a contact insecticide in 100 lt water. I sprayed yesterday and today I have found a dead bug below my Livistona mariae Like I written in the beginning, regular, monthly spraying does not guarantee 100% prevention of infestation but it certainly prevents a severe infestation by the time first signs of latter become visible. Here is a recent example in my juvenile Jubaea. Initial infestation did not progress deeper in to the growing point and as new leaves and spears were emerging signs became visible on certain spot of the leaves but newest spear is absolutely free of any marks. Newest spear is absolutely healthy

I've done some research on this and if I recall right, I think someone online said that someone went on a trip down south so many decades ago (maybe the 1960's) maybe to Florida or somewhere like that and brought some sabal minor back with them and then they have spread and naturalized all over that little Tennessee town since then. So they are most likely naturalized in this area rather than native but it is still very impressive. They certainly seem to thrive there. There are a few other areas where sabal minor has naturalized in Tennessee. One area I know of in zone 7b Tennessee is where the owner of a property planted some sabal minor in the 1960's and there are now dozens of them all over his property and some even across the road by a fence. I'm guessing birds carried the seeds and perched on the fence and dropped them there. But the thing about sabal minor is it may produce many seeds but most of the seedlings usually are going to end up in one small area even over the span of decades. I'm guessing this is due to their seeds being relatively heavy and many of them probably just dropping right by the parent plant. They seem to expand there native range extremely slowly. Birds seem to really like sabal minor seeds but they seem to digest them very quickly and drop them very quickly a short distance away from the parent plants. Since the last ice age, it has taken them a very long time just to get up to their known native range. Another problem is humans keep destroying the environment so there is less and less favorable habitat for sabal minor to expand into as time goes on. So since the 1960's, that area that I was talking about in Tennessee, the sabal minor reproduced and spread a lot but only in a relatively small area, only reaching to barely across the road by a fence. The ones you show in Hornsby Tennessee seem bigger though. I'm guessing that is a zone 8a. The area I am talking about is a zone 7b. Back in the 1960's, I'm not sure what the cold hardiness zone for each place was. It's very interesting to think of what kinds of winters all these sabal minor in Tennessee have endured over all these decades. The problem is sabal minor just spreads so slowly northward or in any direction (unless I'm guessing if water is involved like a creek or something to help move seeds). If sabal minor spread faster, I'm sure they would probably already be proven native in Tennessee and all over most of Tennessee. Sabal minor don't have feet like animals and people do and cannot simply walk to where they want.

I was at Jeff's place a few days before the storm, buying some palms. He seemed pretty concerned. I spoke to him a few days ago on the phone. He said he had one large palm blow down, but that he had others of the same variety come through intact. Flooding was the worst problem he faced. Too many neighbors above him had cleared their land bare, which let the rainwater flow over the properties and into Jeff's place. He said the nursery sections were fine. My place on the east coast north of Hilo came through the storm fine. No palms lost, only a couple of bananas blown down.

This pod split open today, which is always amazing. I'm having trouble understanding the difference between the butyracea and cohune. The fruits seem a little different but to my eye not by a lot. What should I look for to figure out which of the two I have here? Many thanks in advance.

It was a 36 inch box. No chance I could do that, it weighed around 1000 lbs. I couldn’t even get it in the backyard without a crew of men or bobcat. I’ve already had a funeral for it in my mind. I will never buy a large specimen again. Better to buy 15-25 gallon palms.

It doesn’t smell but every spear that emerges immediately desiccates as soon as it opens. I would probably try if it were in my backyard but this was my flagship palm. It’s coming down. I decided to replace it with 15-25 gallon alexander king palms.

Volusia County coconuts coming back from 23/24°F

Something just dawned on me. I did lose one years ago. Gophers chewed off all of the roots. Do you have gophers?

I collect from several different Jubaea palms around Santa Barbara . Most adult Jubaea have rare or no twins but one tree I collect from has ~ 25% of its seed crop with twins. It is a relatively young Jubaea maybe half its adult size. I will check future seed sets and see if every year it throws twins. Seed size is also small on the young Jubaea compared to the Mission palms or the one at the lawn bowling park.

Hi guys I’m in the Sacramento, CA area and recently got my king palm planted on Friday. Looks like it is experiencing some transplant shock, and I just wanted to see if this amount is to be expected. Palm was in 30” box and transported from San Diego last Tuesday and planted in the ground on Friday. It’s been hot (90-100) here and during the open air trailering from San Diego. First picture is how it looks today, second yesterday, third on Saturday, and fourth on Friday. Current watering schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday with 90 minutes on 5 gph worth of drippers. On Friday and Saturday I also manually gave the tree bigger waterings. Tree was planted in a 36x36x30 hole with Kellogg palm mix soil and a light application of Sunniland slow release fertilizer. I also planted an 18’ coconut queen hybrid the same day with the same setup. It doesn’t look like it’s affected by transplant stress as much as the king palm. I’d like to know if this is normal or if I should adjust anything to help out the king.

I’ve had this occur relatively commonly in a few of Juvaea’s relatives (Parajubaea sp, Butia sp, Syagrus sp). I’ve never germinated Jubaea in any great quantity but I’d expect it’s not all that uncommon in Jubaea too based on its closest relatives. Here’s some interesting ones from a recent batch of Syagrus campestris. A twin with 2 seed petioles (middle of the photo of the container), but then also a split twin from one seed petiole which I can’t say I’ve seen before.

In my experience, B. alfredii needs well draining soil. Their requirements are very different than those for Archontophoenix. B. alfredii, in their habitat, are subjected to fairly long seasonal dry periods. Archontophoenix are typically growing in areas that are very wet most of the year. I water my Beccariophoenix well but its soil drains fast.

Nice haul! I notice your pindo seeds have those very defined three spines on the back of it. Mine are lacking those.

I drove by to see the state of these palms. Based on google these must’ve been planted about a year ago. The crown shaft is a little fried and the edges look somewhat cooked. But honestly not bad considering this is the worst heatwave of the year. These definitely look like alexander kings. Im certain the nursery potentially moon valley recommended these instead of the cunninghamianas.

SAPW infestation on my jubaea seems they entered down low as opposed to in the crown /growing point . I’m fighting them with imadacloprid and foggers! IMG_2337.mov IMG_2338.mov

As you say, it’s supply and demand. The only thing I’d add is that to an extent it doesn’t matter what it costs you to buy and grow, if that sets the price too high people won’t buy. Over the course of a couple of years I spent hundreds on rare Syagrus seed from RPS to end up with 1 S harleyi and 1 S cataphracta. That doesn’t mean they are both worth $300-500 on the open market. If I set that price just trying to recover my cost I know no one will buy. On the flip side, as a collector, there’s species that I might be willing to pay a significant amount for and likely much more than cost price because there may not be other alternatives. Again, all comes down to supply and demand.

Considering how hot it has been, 104F at 2:28pm local time ain't too bad. Would've been nice to have more than just sprinkles ..at the house at least... behind another big duster / wind event last night but, ..Is what it is.. Final week of August and Meto. Summer looks ...Yucky.... Both here, and across S. Cal. as an unusually strong ....by late Aug standards.. piece of the 4c ridge straddles the CA / AZ / Mex. border for the next few days. ...That said, ..fingers crossed, it looks like we may ..finally... get out of the furnace by the weekend ahead / start of next week as the first hints of autumn - season, N. Pac. troughiness starts exacting some deg. of influence over the Pac. N.W. and causes the 4c high to back off ..or at least shift it's greatest influence southeast a bit towards Chihuahua / S.W. TX. ..We shall see.. Combined with what could be moisture surges generated by an active stretch in the E. Pac off Mexico, 4c high positioned to our southeast ...and not quite as strong / expansive as it has been, combined with some deg. of troughiness developing off -at least-Cen. and Nor. Cal. to help induce southerly flow over head / grab onto moisture from passing tropical systems and send it north toward AZ and CA., this could send another good surge of moisture back into AZ as August ends / September arrives. On that note, a look at what the EPS is thinking, rainfall -wise, as we enter September / the final stretch of Monsoon Season 2026.. We'll look at where Monsoon- related #'s stand, for August, next Monday. Note that what your seeing is a blend of 51 model outcomes. Idea here is to follow any trend seen within those 51 outcomes, NOT what one, or two, ....or 3 ( .....of 51 ) models think. Because this is the " free " product from WXmodels.com, viewable data lags by 3 days, ....so, What you're seeing on these charts is from the August 20th update, not today's, or what they were thinking yesterday. Not paying $ for a day to day chart either. ...Like all forecast - related things, longer range products especially, while this is not Gospel / a guaranteed outcome ...and should never be taken as such, It is a good way to track trends. How things might shake out as we head thru September.. ...For now at least.... Note both the model mean and spread in the lower section of the chart.. IE: While the suggested avrg. 45 day precip. mean here in Chandler may be near / at 2" at the moment, forecast spread ( lowest and highest possible outcome range ) has us reaching 5" ...potentially.. by the end of next month. How likely is that?, ...or barely reaching the suggested ensemble mean? We'll have to wait and see. Want more rain, particularly up here, around the valley? cross them fingers darker and darker red + shades start replacing the green, blue, and light yellow on the charts as we head into next month. Again, NO guarantees....

100%. I actually reached out to the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden up in Olinda last year with the thought to start to introduce some cool climate palms there. Twice the rainfall up there as down here by the bay, and much less severe heat extremes. They only have a single Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and a Livistona australis currently, but both specimens were as good or better than any I’ve seen in metropolitan Melbourne. Everything is very lush up there.

I noticed Mercedez Benz of Valencia has what appears to be an alexander king palm or maxima in full sun. You experts know better than me, the petioles don't look like cunninghamiana. It doesn't look bad. Its the first business I have seen with a king palm in the front.

I would have thought that was the case for the Alfredii but it croaked. Now I have a scare crow on the lawn. Luckily, spooky season is upon us. I absolutely LOVE the look of king palms. They make for an amazing skyline.

Yes it is. We just had a NCPS meeting in Redwood City this past Saturday. And we have a Lakeside Palmetum clean-up party scheduled for Saturday morning, September 12th from 9:30 - 12:30 in Oakland. P.M. me if you want to be added to the email list.

Other than some heavy rain, Moke luckily stayed south of Hawaii as it passed and is now a depression as it continues into the Cen. Pacific. Next storm on the board ( Iselle ) should remain a fish storm, ..though some moisture sheered off of it may pass over CA in the coming days. Expect more storms to follow Iselle as the E. Pac. ( ..and beyond ) really gets cooking as we head into the start of September.. This includes the ..currently... non - zero potential for solid, remnant moisture surge ..or more??? - type of events... getting a bit closer to... ( ...or into?? ) CA and AZ. in the days ahead.

No need to fix drainage problem if you plant Archotophoenix in that spot. They LOVE wet feet. They will grow happily even in stagnant water. I know since some of the fifty Archontophoenix growing in my yard have submerged roots year round.

Wow, that’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing you guys. I wonder what the occurrence rate is.

I'm in Southern California. and have similar weather as you and the heat is not an issue at all. I got one a few years ago, dug it up, took another day to get in the ground and it has never once missed a beat. I have not even trimmed the original leaves because they are still a bit green even though they are 2 years old. It's a very durable palm in my experience. If you could, get it out of the ground, hose off the roots and repot in the backyard in the shade. It might stand a chance of survival.