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Who grows palms inside, and what kinds?


The Silent Seed

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Do any of you grow Palms inside, or is it just me? (It doesn't seem that there are any others in New England on this forum) - If you do, I'm curious what kinds you grow, and which do well inside with artificial light. What have you tried, that does not work?

I grow Sabals, Chamaedorea, Trachycarpus, Veitchii, and Phoenix, and have seedlings of several other genera, all growing inside, and they all do great. The only ones I've had issues with are Dypsis.

Encephalartos, Cycas, Ceratozamia, Zamia, Macrozamia, and Dioon all do just fine inside, as well, which surprised me. (Never know till you try!)

Just thought I'd see what your experiences are with indoor-growing.

I use regular Home Depot strip lights - nothing fancy - it's not even bright in my plant house.

Edited by santoury
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Santoury, If I grew plants inside, it would be for only two reasons: first reason that I have brought palms inside is a cold snap. We get them in South Florida--maybe 3 a year, that last for a few hours. The second reason for keeping a palm inside is for decoration. Chamaedorea is probably the best genus to grow inside. Rhapis is another.

But from what I hear from you, Santoury, is you have them in just one room with lights?? Why not place them all around your home and utilize the true beauty of them? Phoenix is not a great genus for you, nor are the others you mentioned(in the long run). If I were you and was dead set on living in a palm dead zone, I would stick to what can actually be achieved. You will have plenty of failures just sticking to these two genus! Plenty of challenging palms in Chamaedorea and my Rhapis sp. super dwarf is probably an inside palm only. Hope that helps :)

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The palms that I listed, are ones that I've had long-term inside, not just fresh experiments. Thanks for reminding me of the Rhapis - I have one as well. Phoenix are actually one of the ones that do best for me, under these conditions. (And I grow five or six of the species.)

Yes, I keep them all in my plant house, which is an old garage that I converted into a plant house - approx 20x25, with a 20 x 10 addition that I just built onto that.

In four years of growing Palms like this, I have not had one single failure - except for ones that I watered too much, or let dry out. True, they will never grow as fast, or as "beautiful" as if outside, but they don't look half bad either. Maybe I just have a magic touch with keeping them all inside?

I don't utilize them around the house, for several reasons: First, it's hard enough keeping up with roughly 24,000 plants in one space, and second, I have other specimen plants already in the house. You see, Palms are one of my newer addictions :)

I think one major contributing factor to my success in keeping all these palms under "fake" conditions, is the fact that they started out as small plants, or seeds, in there, so there was never any adjusting for them to do. That reminds me, I had once brought two Coconut seedlings back with me from Florida, and both died within a month. Go figure! (They were out in my yard, though.)

Would love to hear from anyone else who does this.

Edited by santoury
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Consider these two:

Howea forseriana

Chambeyronia macrocarpa

Phil

Jungle Music Palms and Cycads, established 1977 and located in Encinitas, CA, 20 miles north of San Diego on the Coast.  Phone:  619 2914605 Link to Phil's Email phil.bergman@junglemusic.net Website: www.junglemusic.net Link to Jungle Music Palms and Cycads

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Thanks! Will check 'em out!

I think I actually have some C. macrocarpa coming this week. Should be fun.

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Wow..............

24,000 plants in 700 sq/ft of space, thats 35 plants per SQUARE FOOT and thats not allowing any room for walkways.

Now living the life in Childers, Queensland.

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i'd love to see some pix of it.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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In four years of growing Palms like this, I have not had one single failure - except for ones that I watered too much, or let dry out

So besides rotting or drying out your palms don't die. That's great optimism. I think I'll adopt that for myself. If you don't count my heart stopping and all the tissues in my body decaying, I'm immortal.

Matt Bradford

"Manambe Lavaka"

Spring Valley, CA (8.5 miles inland from San Diego Bay)

10B on the hill (635 ft. elevation)

9B in the canyon (520 ft. elevation)

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I have maybe a dozen Howea forsteriana seedlings that I'm hoping will survive so I can put them throughout the house. All the research I have done says that Howea forsteriana is an excellent choice for indoors.. Hopefully I will find out

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I'll get some pictures - probably over the weekend, for you guys.

Matty, those types of deaths are the same as are experienced out in the backyard. Except for the fact I don't have to deal with weevils and the like.

N8N8 - That's cool! How big are they? How long have you had them so far?

Are N8 and I the only ones crazy enough to do this ? :)

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inside you have issues such as mites,which can be just as deadly for palms. have you had any mite problems?

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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My two worst offenders are spider mites, and mealy bug - and of course, fungus gnats. I don't use chemicals as a general rule, but occasionally I go over the plants with the light spray of a generic insect killer that takes care of this as needed. For the fungus gnats, I use the yellow sticky traps to keep the population down. To make a long story short, I don't allow them to become a problem, per se.

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Wit that many plants the humidity level must equal that of the Amazon rain forest, or Hilo. biggrin.gif

Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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You got it - it can be unbearable - especially with these unusually hot weeks everybody has been having. I have a ceiling fan that I plan on having installed, to help with improved air circulation. That is another reason I don't fill the house up with plants - it would cause a lot of moisture issues.

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I don't use chemicals as a general rule, but occasionally I go over the plants with the light spray of a generic insect killer

I now see how it's impossible to fail

Matt Bradford

"Manambe Lavaka"

Spring Valley, CA (8.5 miles inland from San Diego Bay)

10B on the hill (635 ft. elevation)

9B in the canyon (520 ft. elevation)

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My two worst offenders are spider mites, and mealy bug - and of course, fungus gnats. I don't use chemicals as a general rule, but occasionally I go over the plants with the light spray of a generic insect killer that takes care of this as needed. For the fungus gnats, I use the yellow sticky traps to keep the population down. To make a long story short, I don't allow them to become a problem, per se.

For my indoor palms and bug problems I use a couple drops of dish soap in a spray bottle. It seems to knock them out every time.

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that works for me,too,but i dont have 24,000 plants in my kitchens garden window. :mrlooney:

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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I've tried soap, and NEEM, neither of which seemed to work - maybe they enjoy "Dawn" or other specific brands! :) What kind do you use?

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Shelves, my friends, shelves :) And not much room for walking, granted :)

i thought about putting shelves in my shadehouse so i could cram more plants in there,too,but the ones on the bottom didnt get enough light and got too much water

from the ones above. how did you approach these problems?

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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I've tried soap, and NEEM, neither of which seemed to work - maybe they enjoy "Dawn" or other specific brands! :) What kind do you use?

blue.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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I've tried soap, and NEEM, neither of which seemed to work - maybe they enjoy "Dawn" or other specific brands! :) What kind do you use?

I use dawn.

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Good question on the lower plants getting too much water, and too little light. As much as I can, I put the water lovers down below, as well as the shade lovers. Many of the plants that don't require that much light, don't mind being wetter than not - but given the extreme humidity of the place, I water only once or twice a week, and twice a week is rare - so there is not a constant deluge of water.

For example, currently, most of the lower level shelves (and floor) are mostly aroids, aspidistra, Rohdea, and other non-fussy plants.

The succulents, most palms, and seedlings, get the top levels, closest to the light, which is about 2 or 3 feet above them.

The lights are also not directly above the top shelf, so there is ambient light reaching the lower shelves as well. It does take getting used to, and adjusting, but over time, it sorts itself out, or the plants do...

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My two worst offenders are spider mites, and mealy bug - and of course, fungus gnats. I don't use chemicals as a general rule, but occasionally I go over the plants with the light spray of a generic insect killer that takes care of this as needed. For the fungus gnats, I use the yellow sticky traps to keep the population down. To make a long story short, I don't allow them to become a problem, per se.

For my indoor palms and bug problems I use a couple drops of dish soap in a spray bottle. It seems to knock them out every time.

I am impressed. Can not wait to see photos. Here is a photo of our shade house with 8000 seedlings. So I can only imagine what 24,000 look like in a garage.

post-1930-086106900 1312233646_thumb.jpg

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erik you could fit alot more in there if you had shelves & you only have to water the top shelf.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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That's awesome, Erik! Think about it this way: Multiply those 8,000 with 3 or even 4 levels - and I can see you could do that very easily in there :) What's the size of that house? It looks pretty big!

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24000 plants in a 700sf room!!! yikes how can you find anything??? how tall of a room is it? why not thin it out and make a indoor jungle... id love to see a pic of your space. whenever i make shelves it seems that i have about half the room i thought id get out of it...

"it's not dead it's sleeping"

Santee ca, zone10a/9b

18 miles from the ocean

avg. winter 68/40.avg summer 88/64.records 113/25

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Steve - it's difficult sometimes to track certain plants down, that's for sure! I've actually thought about doing the jungle idea - That would probably work better, with the "new" walls (See my new post in the OFF TOPIC forum) - I'd really like to do that with this place.

The walls are 8 feet tall, and the roof goes up to about 16 or 18 feet. (Or maybe 15... have to measure.)

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erik you could fit alot more in there if you had shelves & you only have to water the top shelf.

Then it would be a job.

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That's awesome, Erik! Think about it this way: Multiply those 8,000 with 3 or even 4 levels - and I can see you could do that very easily in there :) What's the size of that house? It looks pretty big!

We have shelving in the green house. Shade house is 30 x 10 Then move everything to the shade house, then it goes out doors after it is over a year old.

post-1930-074259100 1312234731_thumb.jpg

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what do you do once they get to 1 gal size???

"it's not dead it's sleeping"

Santee ca, zone10a/9b

18 miles from the ocean

avg. winter 68/40.avg summer 88/64.records 113/25

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That's awesome, Erik! Think about it this way: Multiply those 8,000 with 3 or even 4 levels - and I can see you could do that very easily in there :) What's the size of that house? It looks pretty big!

We have shelving in the green house. Shade house is 30 x 10 Then move everything to the shade house, then it goes out doors after it is over a year old.

sorry 16foot wide.

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Just curious Jude.....of all the 24,000 plants you are growing, how many can eventually go outside, year round, in your area?

Joe Dombrowski

Discovery Island Palms Nursery

San Marcos, CA

"grow my little palm tree, grow!"

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There was this dude growing under artificial lights in Cape Coral. The cops raided his house and arrested him. He had quite a garden as they said his plants were worth almost a million dollars. That is some collection.

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