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Wow, quite low...

All year round. In summer sun has a higher trajectory and created canopy prevents overheating of soil, which remains nevertheless moist for a longer time.

They are stunners indeed. You should keep us updated about their progress. Fingers crossed for you!

Just seen this. I'll look it up. I'm inside a valley and most days are not windy indeed although the southern wind can get strong some days. I think the wind direction being parallel to the direction of the valley accelerates its speed

So true. I'll get some black geotextile which allows water to go through. Do you live it on the ground 24/7 during winter?

I'm attaching a photo of my thermometer this dawn. Inside the fleece and right outside. Ground level.

Beautiful plant, there is one in Sydney royal botanical gardens and it’s the oldest one in Australia and largest. It’s one impressive tree.

Couple of dioon spinolosum with the new leaves loving the heat!

It probably needs more water and some sulfur will definitely help it. The soil here in coastal San Diego is very alkaline.

They look viable to me and the right colour although white is technically not a colour. They will set seeds but very rarely in my climate, I had a few this season but the rats got them. It I got the rats in the end! Keep an eye for them in the garden it may take a while to germinate. Richard

It amazes me how often Alocasia, Colocasia and Xanthosoma are so mislabeled these days.

Here are my croton pics taken on December 17, 2025.

What was your low in the early hours today?

When they are grown in the home garden they’re absolutely delicious and very sweet, like candy. Unfortunately, the ones sold in stores give papayas a really bad reputation.

That's what I try always to point out! Now go figure out what advantage it may create a black soil fabric laid around the root zone. But you need sunny day and southern exposure (in northern hemisphere)

Have you seen what I've done with that add-on room? I think you'll be proud. If I could just get the damn pilot light on the heater to stay on and focus on one task at a time instead of giving myself panic attacks about how much work there is to do, I'd be OK.

A little bit of luck with my metallica palms. I achieved success last season and wanted to see if I had cracked the process of hand pollination. This season I tried again and it seemed to work out good. So I will say I have worked out jow to pollinate my metallica palms. It’s just a matter of observation for male pollen collection and then through observation of the female plants. I know now when they are ready to go and what to look for. It’s not rocket science and it’s quite easy it only took me two season to learn the signs, now the next challenge will be my plumosa Chams.

I don't actually know if it's hardier. But it's got very cool circular mottles instead of the regular one. I remember seeing them also being called Lanonia Sp "solar eclipse". They look so cool! I hope they work!

Great news! That should do it as long as there is sun to warm up your heaters. I used 1 gallon bottles that I would set in the sun while I was out surfing . Surprising how warm the water was when I used it to rinse the salt water off after a session in our cold Pacific Ocean. It felt like heaven . I imagine that’s how your palms feel. Harry

First you have to get seeds sent to you as application approval process can take as long as germinating palm seeds, and that depends on what variety you’re trying to germinate, or you can skip all the application process and just get a qualification free of charge, but that also has an application approval process as well. You have to post all your dead plants like @JohnAndSancho did, the old saying no shame no gain @happypalms if you can kill it or grow it yourself, then the 101 course Is a breeze, basically you gotta grow as much as you can with limited resources and space like @JohnAndSancho did, but most importantly you have to have fun love palms and any other kind of plants have a zest for life and love animals, all the course is conducted on Palmtalk at you’re leisure, you just simply have to log into palmtalk and the course is there with the guidance of all the palmtalk members around the world. The only real thing that you need to do is become a IPS member and the rest falls into place 🌱🌴🤣

Funny , I just posted a pic on another thread. I started with a Caryota Urens in a 4’ band size about 30 years ago . It looked about like yours , maybe smaller . I kept it in a pot for 5 years before planting it in the ground . It seems like it was pretty slow back then . Once it got its roots in the ground it was “ to infinity and beyond!” Harry ‘The tall one on the left of the Caryota Obtusa . Both grown from the size you have! Not sure how much longer they have before they flower . I also have Caryota Mitis , a clumper , in four or five places around my garden. They can get 12-15’ tall before they flower and have to be cut down , but only the flowering trunk . The pups keep growing and the cycle continues. Harry

Buddy lol. My thread on here is 9 pages long now plus the YouTube. I have picked up a thing or 2. That was probably an issue too. I'm trying to do 1000 things at once and I've had lots of jobs where the ADHD/anxiety were an asset. This is not one of those. I need to finish one thing and then move on to the next. It's environment changed too, I dunno how sensitive these are to that but it went from pretty much a normal houseplant into a virtual jungle so some shock there too? I just didn't expect it to get so rootbound so fast. Yeah maybe a smidge wouldn't hurt. I'll have a 3 gallon pot free once I finish the banana bucket wall and I'll give it to this guy. I'm kinda surprised at how much faster it is than the foxtail, I thought they were about equal. It's still in the same fast food cup it's been in since 2023 and isn't close to being rootbound at all.

I know what I did wrong. I read 100% humidity so I had baggies over the pots, and didn't put any ventilation in them. Some of them got damping off fungus because my dumb ass added compost into the mix, the baggies collapsed on some of the super fragile stems from the weight of the water collecting on the bags. Now I put pencils in the soil to keep the baggies from collapsing, and little slits in the baggies and gradually give them more and more air. The ones that have survived are doing pretty good now. It's a learning process. But it's practically summertime in my grow room, it's 80° and humid all the time. I think I've got the process down for both these and the mangos now.

Mine is almost 25 , no flowers yet but plenty of frond size . Not nearly as tall as Urens . Harry ‘Caryota Obtusa at over 25 years old on the right. , Caryota Urens even older on the left . No flowers yet🤞. Already talked to the tree service about cutting them down when the time comes. I was quoted $300 for the Urens . I may be able to do the Obtusa myself , neither one have flowered. This pic was taken over a year ago. Harry