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Lytocaryum weddellianum as Bonsai


Pal Meir

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My 10 Lytocaryum weddellianum grown up from seed in 2013 were more and more getting too tall :huh: for my desktop, except one (N°1306c) which I had kept quite small by very brutal :crying: root pruning. (But even the other pruned palm N°1306a is growing too tall …)

Now I am intending to keep my 3 one year young L batavum as small bonsai palms. First, I will keep them as long as possible in their tiny Ø8xH9cm clay pots. Second, I will expose them also to direct sunlight, but watching that they don’t get burned. B)

@Jamesasb , you have mentioned (and posted a pic) one year ago that you are making one of your L weddellianum to a bonsai. Are there already visible and positive results? 

Here the desktop-sized N°1306c:

5b521f1576eb4_N1306c2018-07-20P1040770.t

And here the 3 new bonsai candidates:

5b521f1e7cad3_N1701-032018-07-20P1040771

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My photos at flickr: flickr.com/photos/palmeir/albums

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  • 2 weeks later...

As N°1306a is already much too tall for a desktop bonsai I intend to separate both palms and make only the small N°1306c to a bonsai. Do you think it is possible to separate the palms without killing one or even both?

N°1306a too tall:

5b64ed2723c1d_N1306ac2018-06-06P1040628.

I’ll separate N°1306c:

5b64ed30cffb0_N1306c2018-08-02P1040807.t

Inside the tiny Ø12cm H10cm pot:

5b64ed381cefe_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040816.

Can I separate the roots without killing the palms?

My photos at flickr: flickr.com/photos/palmeir/albums

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I would not try to separate the palms. I always avoid to interfere the roots by any means. Risking such a beautiful palm is just not worth it. The concept of growing palms in a bonsai form is not what I would do. Many small understorey palms are available especially from the genus dypsis. Although I have to admit that I try to grow dwarf dypsis now unsuccessfully for several years. D. bonsai, d. thyriana, d. poivreana a. s. o.. They all died in bunches. I will now use your Seramis mix to try this again. 

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50 minutes ago, Alcibiades said:

I would not try to separate the palms. I always avoid to interfere the roots by any means. Risking such a beautiful palm is just not worth it. The concept of growing palms in a bonsai form is not what I would do. Many small understorey palms are available especially from the genus dypsis. Although I have to admit that I try to grow dwarf dypsis now unsuccessfully for several years. D. bonsai, d. thyriana, d. poivreana a. s. o.. They all died in bunches. I will now use your Seramis mix to try this again. 

Thank you for your answer, but it is already too late … Yes, if I didn’t have so many L weddellianum I wouldn’t try separating them, but I have problems with space. Almost all of my L weddell are becoming too tall for the desk in my home office. So I decided (1) all three L batavum shall always stay dwarfs, (2) N°1306c shall become a small compact palm. As I don’t have so much space here I don’t know what exactly to do … :unsure:

And here the result: pics #1 to 4 separating the 2 palms; pic #5: separated; pic #6: the bonsai mix PalMeirA™; pic #7: the two palms N°1306c and N°1306a repotted; pic #8: the future bonsai N°1306c (pushing its 18th leaf).

5b6590dc9cc65_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040818.

5b6590e25a0d4_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040820.

5b6590e9c2e43_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040821.

5b6590f1b231b_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040824.

Separated!

5b6590f927075_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040825.

 

Bonsa mix «PalMeirA«™:

5b659142dc36e_BonsaiSoil2018-08-04P10408

5b6590ffa5341_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040828.

5b65910813a74_N1306c2018-08-04P1040830.t

 

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My photos at flickr: flickr.com/photos/palmeir/albums

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@Pal Meir

Do you always remove the old soil completely when repotting or was it only done to separate the two palms? I'm just asking because I bought Seramis today and now I think about completely removing my old mix. 

Edited by Alcibiades
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1 minute ago, Alcibiades said:

@Pal Meir

Do you always remove the old soil completely when repotting or was it only done to separate the two palms? I'm just asking because I bought Seramis today and now I think about completely removing my old mix. 

Nonono, of course I don’t, it was in that case the only way to separate the densely tangled roots of the two palms. Esp. in case of L weddellianum you should never disturb the roots.

5b65f9f9e2762_N1306ac2018-08-04P1040815.

My photos at flickr: flickr.com/photos/palmeir/albums

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

That growth progress is encouraging.  I think the black marking and monitoring of the growth is one of the best things you can do after a risky repotting.  It's so visual and objective.   Otherwise, your mind may play tricks on you as you assume the worst and may over-react with other care measures. After I bought my first Johannesteijsmannia altifrons, I feared repotting because of their notorious reputation for failing after root disturbance.  It was potted in a heavy peat-only mix and I knew I had to change the mix. Removing it from pot went horribly wrong, all the peat fell to the table and I had a saturated bare root Joey palm in my hand---panic!   I thought for sure it would die.  Anyhow, I transplanted into the fast draining potting mix that you and others have recommended in numerous posts, and I black marked the new emerging growth.  I was so relieved that the growth mark kept rising in that week and following weeks.  This encouraged me that all was okay and I just continued with the present care routine rather than panicking and 2nd guessing myself by over or under-watering. Those are beautiful potted palms, so delicate in appearance.

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Update of the 3 L batavum bonsais, which were exposed to direct sun for over 2 months:

The leaf 2-03 and the upper half of leaf 3-04 got burnt by the sunlight. Palm N°1701 has leaves with saturated green colour without any harm by the sun, while the weaker N°1702 got a bit yellowish. N°1701 and N°1702 have spears of their 6th leaf, N°1703 of its 5th. The older shade grown leaves 1-03 and 3-03 are much wider than the newer ones.

5bc26e33dc395_N1701-032018-10-13P1040924

My photos at flickr: flickr.com/photos/palmeir/albums

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  • 2 weeks later...
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The 6 year old N°1306c is pushing the 2nd leaf (= leaf #20) since the separation from N°1306a:

1013436503_1306c2019-04-26IMG_9621.thumb.jpg.ba3c7d1a1ff017fcd59d25795cd005dd.jpg

I hope the newly growing leaves will become more compact than the older fronds because they are exposed to almost full sun from noon to sunset.

My photos at flickr: flickr.com/photos/palmeir/albums

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 8/4/2018 at 12:45 PM, Pal Meir said:

Thank you for your answer, but it is already too late … Yes, if I didn’t have so many L weddellianum I wouldn’t try separating them, but I have problems with space. 

 

I wish I had space for one, I would take one off your hands! Gorgeous palms.

Larry Shone in wet and sunny north-east England!  Zone9 ish

Tie two fish together and though they have two tails they cannot swim <>< ><>

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  • 4 years later...

It is not easy to keep a Lytocaryum weddellianum small without killing it. At present it has four fully developed fronts, but the latest one is much to large for a bonsai. Even posing the palm tree to direct sun didn't help …

N1306c2023-10-29IMG_1433.thumb.jpg.3641606a23acd0ff99c64205d3413755.jpg

My photos at flickr: flickr.com/photos/palmeir/albums

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