Attalea Cohune - repotting a bare root with a heel?

[Merlyn]

The below bare root Attalea Cohune just arrived as part of an order from GardenOfDelights nursery, and it's the first tillering palm that I own with a large and very visible heel.  I've potted it up temporarily and will probably put it in the ground in about a month, but I'm not sure about planting depth with a tillering palm.  All the photos I've seen show the heel above ground and the root initiation zone on the vertical trunk section should be planted below ground.  About half of the active roots appear to be coming from the heel, but I didn't take a picture of the bare rooted plant.  Below are three pictures, two showing the root/heel detail as I have it planted, and one with about 0.5" of soil brushed away from the root zone on the trunk.  The horizontal wet line on the third photo is just where I washed away dirt to make the root initiation zone more obvious.  So does this seem like a good planting depth, or should I add or remove a little soil?

[JubaeaMan138]

Mine came from the exact same place exact same size . Last year didn’t do very well but just realized it has been growing roots are coming out of the bottom of the pot and it is pushing a new spear but it did nothing for a hole year didn’t really die off but it just sat there . I potted mine pretty much in the same size pot and same soil level . Wish the seller wouldn’t of hacked so many of the leaves off . Pretty much cut every leaf to the halfway point 

[Castro210]

I just planted 3 cohunes that came in 45 gallon containers. These are my first as well but I planted them comparatively at the same depth as yours with a few inches of heel above ground. The plants are bigger so the heel is bigger but that looks right to me where it is.  

They have been in the ground 7 weeks and are absolutely flying. The spear on each has grown 15 - 20" after sitting idle for 3 weeks or so. 

[Merlyn]

A few days after my original post I *finally* made up my mind about the back yard layout, and planted it in the ground.  I put it in approximately the same height and have a single 2gal/hour dripper on it, running about 35 minutes/day = 1.2 gallons/day.  It sat for about a month and was looking noticeably wilted in the early April heat, so I gave it an occasional spray with the hose to make sure it would survive going from shade cloth to lots of sun.  After ~3 weeks the spear started moving about an inch/week.  The tip started opening 2 weeks ago and initially I thought it had gone back to solid, despite being pinnate in the nursery's shade cloth.  But today I noticed windows appearing in the lower fronds, so I think it'll fully open it's first "full sun" leaf soon.

And yes I know the "local and imported hardy perennials" need a lot of work...   

[JubaeaMan138]

Mine is slowly pushing a new spear I have 5 of these guys 

[Merlyn]

Yikes!  5 Attalea Cohune will take up a ton of space!  Of course I also have an Arenga Pinnata in the ground on the W side of the backyard, it'll take up just about as much space.  I also bought another Attalea Cohune seedling+ from MB Palms at the Leu Gardens sale, and it's growing very quickly in a ~2.25g pot in my semi-shaded nursery area.  I have no idea where I'm going to plant it...  

[JubaeaMan138]

4 of my 5 came from mb and they are doing good but man these things are slowwwww in Southern California . I have a couple speciosa as well and they are a little faster than cohune in my opinion . And yeah they will take up a lot of room in 30 years but I’m on just over a acre and a half . For some reason I always go for the species that take up the most room. Haha 

[Merlyn]

Here's an update on my planted Attalea Cohune, it took a few more weeks for the leaflets to start fully opening.  The frond on the left below is the large center frond in the June 5th picture.  The new frond on the right wasn't even a visible spear 3 weeks ago, and I just noticed tonight that it had opened!  There's no sign of a new spear yet, but I'll have to keep an eye on it to see how quick the next one grows.  It did have some signs of nitrogen deficiency, so a handful of 6-1-8 in July might be the reason it suddenly sprouted a new frond.