All Activity

I was never able to keep a palm consistently happy unless I knew the watering depth. If the soil has some clay, watering depth is determined by time, not flowrate. Excess flowrate that isn't spread around the root zone can run off, evaporate, or channel in the soil. Faster flowrates tend to cause more channeling. Irrigation drippers can be used to great effect in dry areas. You get perhaps 10 degrees more heat there than in Alfredii's native habitat. To me it looks like classic desiccation in the hot season by underwatering. If you went away and watering was not automatic in your absence in the heat, there is the likely culprit. I would water for at least 1 1/2 hrs at low flowrates of 6 gph((3) 2 gallon drippers spaced around the root zone every 3rd day in the heat, less frequent when the high temps drop below 75. You can buy timers and drippers that can be attached to a hose. I have killed plenty of palms by just hand watering, automatic watering is needed and drippers tell you what the flowrate is so you can calculate the total water in gallons. Your palm does not have an established root system, they don't come that way. IF you want it to be happy, you will have to make sure its getting the right amount of water and wet a good root zone area for the first two years. When established they are a low maintenance palm aside consistent watering like most palms. Once roots are established it will carry a full crown like this. I've seen these grown in the arizona desert and all over socal so it can be done. I don't recommend getting the tallest one as its roots have been bound for a long time in a pot. 15 gallons would be fine. I started with a 3 gallon and the above pic is the end of the 3rd full growing season. Here is the 3 gallon 6 months after planting Today its 30 foot tall, and just as wide with a 34-36" thick trunk

I am closer to the coastal influence but it has been very warm here . I am about 30 miles from Valencia/ Santa Clarita area due west . I have a palm I want to plant in a sunny area but I think I may wait due to the heat , yesterday was 86f here and is going to be in the 90’s again next week. I have never had a drainage issue here except for one spot and that was cured with a Queen palm that sucked up the moisture in that corner. We hand water 3 times a week when it is like this and the ground isn’t soggy at all. Our palms love the water , even the Triangle palms. I think the OP’s palm is just settling in and probably will take time to start looking better. July and August are warm months in our area . Harry

These old threads are helpful . I just got a nice example from @DoomsDave and am planning on planting it in the ground . Dave has them planted in sun and a couple in shade , they are all doing well. His climate is very similar to mine but it is good to hear of other’s experience as well . Any others out there , post pics of yours , I think this somewhat tropical palm with SoCal tolerance is worth a good look! We are experiencing an extended period of heat/humidity so I may delay planting it right now . The place I have in mind is out in front of our side yard and gets afternoon sun (warm). As soon as it gets a bit lighter out I will post a photo of it. Harry

@kinzyjr Thank you for the suggestion. I was waiting to see if anyone else had suggestions but I guess Allagoptera arenaria is everyone's facorite. I'll check it out.

Here

Thats a huge palm!! Nice.. I think you might be surprised on how well it does.. Im in a dry climate but here's mine..

Hi! These huge double foxtails are absolutely high and gorgeous, approximately around 12 meters or higher, but the other one is shorter, I believe they are about 30 years old! The appearance First Foxtail is going to bloom its flowers Second Foxtail is currently riping its fruits

Thanks again for your replies. The two explanations combined may be the answer. The alternating sex and unpollinated flowers. 👍🏽

We are having the best summer ever here in Greece. The weather has spared all the horrendous heatwaves that have been battering W. Europe this summer; we have had zero heatwaves so far and we are already in the middle of July. I cannot remember anything like this in the near past.. Max temperature so far in my garden has been 94 F / 35 C and that only for a couple of days. Most days have been like 89 F. Minimum is a stable 66 F / 18-19 C. This is the first summer I have had zero issues with spidermites so far, in the entire garden!!! I am in heavens. If only every summer was like this.. All plants are growing happily. Even gardenias have finally bloomed! And it seems that a cold front (!!) is coming our way soon:

Thank you for your reply.

This is the tallest and probably the older queen palm I 've seen in person. It's in Lisbon, Portugal. It competes some of these tall washingtonias.

I can confirm this observation 100%. Such spp are called polygamous. One year they can produce inflorescences of exclusively one sex. Sex may alternate from year to year. In other years or specimens can be produced within same year inflorescences of both sexes, frequently in a strict sequence depending on season. In other years or other specimens hermaphrodite flowers are produced. Nature finds a way...

I think I’ve heard that if female flowers are unpollinated, they can develop into those 3 loved fruits. There won’t be any seed inside.

We have one anthurium Guatemalan hybrid that sits in a shallow cup of water all year long and it’s fine, even in the middle of winter outside just sitting in the garden. There are various self watering containers but they don’t mind hydroponic like growing, it just depends on the medium you use it has to have super good drainage.

The other question is, why do those seeds look so strange? Only few have a normal shape.

That Queen palm is positively a dwarf at 57 years old! I’ve got 20 year olds that are triple that size or even taller. So sorry for that Sylvester.

This is my sign to check my seed bags I guess. Lol the thermostat for the mats is set at 85 and the temp is reading 92 right now. I got tons of the UF causiarums to sprout, I got one butia, and I'm still getting serenoa occasionally. I basically pushed all my baggies to the corner since I've been so preoccupied with everything else.

Grab the grass and yank it out.

@Looking Glass looks awesome! The growth rate on your palms is way better than most of mine, especially the Gaussia Princeps near the walkway. At least I think that's what they are. I have a bunch of them and they are all slugs...barely more than a foot tall after 5ish years. What kind of roids are you feeding them?!? 🤣

@SCVpalmenthusiastthe "eating" of the older fronds seems at least normal, but I would have left the oldest ones on until fully crispy dry. At this point it might just be adapting to hot and dry. The old fronds do look a little bit stretched out, just in the spacing between leaflets...but it's hard to say for sure. If so that could explain the quick burning, at least partially. I'd do: Contact the nursery and tell them the old leaves are dying fast. If there's any kind of warranty make sure you get their input asap. Make sure your trickle of water is fully distributed on the existing roots and not just the nearby dirt. It'll take 6 months to really grow a lot of roots out into the surrounding dirt. One other possibility is that it's getting too much water and has root rot. I'm on sand here in FL, so it's tough to overwater. Excess water just sinks down to the water table, which at my place is about 6 feet down. But in clay I have read of dug holes basically filling with water like a lake...and not draining out at all. I have never dealt with clay soil, so I don't have any suggestions on what do do or what not to do with clay. Maybe someone out West can comment?

Bro lol. This grass is unkillable. But I'll snip that out once the mosquitoes chill. They're horrible this year. They're the size of silver dollars and they are violent. Thanks again for the plants. Bananas are going nuts too. If you want some exotic ones for your new yard they're waiting here.

Probably either red-crowned or lilac-crowned amazons.

My Nannorrhops seed came from 2 or 3 sources which got mixed together. It could have been from a local palm, from ebay, or possibly from @JohnAndSancho.

That would be a nice little Job for retirement LOL. Actually, I have been experimenting with the self watering containers for some Anthuriums and ferns, plants that can’t quite go the entire week without water. They’re kind of expensive if you need a whole lot of them, but they are working pretty well.

Looking good! And that's definitely grass next to it. Destroy it before it spreads.