What Would Survive In Your Garden Without Supplemental Watering

[Really full garden]

I am currently in my beach garden and my irrigation system just finished its am watering ( 7-8:30 am and 7-8:30 pm). The leaves are shining in the clear blue morning light.

I also just received my first jaw dropping electricity bill of the dry season. I was thinking what would my garden look like without supplemental watering. We get no rain , not a drop for five months Nov - March.

I currently have 90 palm species, orchids , bromeliads and flowering shrubs. Without the watering I imagine that only 9- 10 palm species would survive .

Edited November 30, 2019 by Really full garden

[Really full garden]

[Really full garden]

[Kailua_Krish]

Im curious about this too as I live in a similar climate area of Hawaii. Does a high water table mitigate this on established palms? Im just starting out here so I don't know but Id love to hear experiences

[Darold Petty]

In my garden I assume that only two palms would survive, Chamaerops and Trachycarpus.

[kinzyjr]

With over 50 inches of rain annually and a high water table, probably just about anything that can tolerate our cold snaps.

[Jubaea]

I have thought about the same concept before.  I would expect Brahea edulis and Jubaea to do reasonably well with no water.  If it was for one or two summers I think that many of the palms would survive but be bad shape if they have been in the ground for at least 5 years.  If we had an extreme heat or wind event that could cause a lot of problems for a lot of palms with no irrigation.  I think that they larger king palms could survive for several years as many around town seem to survive on rainfall alone, although they don't look very good.  This would be in coastal California with around 18" of rain on average with  mostly falling between November and April. 

[Kim]

In my San Diego garden, everything would die except the Phoenix roebelenii, but there isn't much there to begin with.

In the east Hawaii garden, nothing established would die -- there is no need to irrigate at all, ever, as the rains are frequent enough and fairly regular throughout the year.

[Really full garden]

I have a high water table. Fresh water is about 15- 20 feet down, so most palms eventually do tap into that. How do they survive the 4-8 years it takes most to grow into the moisture?

[greysrigging]

I have the quintessential Wet/Dry tropical garden, and fully established for 30 odd years.  I receive around 72" per annum which falls between October and April, the other months are virtually rainless.
I'm on town water and have truely frightening water bills during the 'dry season' But its the price one pays to have that 'equatorial' look in a wet/dry monsoonal climate.
Some years I have obtained employment away from home in other parts of Australia and the understorey tropical plants in the garden have suffered somewhat due to lack of water, but by carefully choosing rhizomes, bulbous and tuber type plants that naturally die back at the end of the 'wet', the damage is limited.
My fully established and mature palms ( at one stage 85 species in the suburban back yard  {sigh] ) get a bit ratty and drop more fronds than normal and I suspect, being under a bit of stress, they are more susceptible to Ganoderma wilt.
I lost a few really equatorial species ie Cyrtostachys renda and Areca catechu, during the times I wasn't at home to lavish water on 'em,  but fully mature old growth palms seem to handle the dry conditions sorta ok.
 

Edited November 30, 2019 by greysrigging
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[sandgroper]

Everything would die in my yard, we have virtually no rainfall between November and April, have high temperatures with strong drying winds and very sandy soil. It would look like the apocalypse pretty quickly.

[GottmitAlex]

32 minutes ago, sandgroper said:

Everything would die in my yard, we have virtually no rainfall between November and April, have high temperatures with strong drying winds and very sandy soil. It would look like the apocalypse pretty quickly.

Same here. My garden sliver is atop a 26 ft. rock retaining wall with the top most layer of soil composed of 3ft deep of pure sand....  not even washies can grow here without irrigation. I suppose after several years, once the root system develops, grows beyond the sand layer and taps into the native soil, then washies, phoenix, Syagrus r., and the rest of them would live, not thrive here. Since our rainy season is in winter.  Here again, from a seedling stage: mortus est.

Edited November 30, 2019 by GottmitAlex

[kinzyjr]

35 minutes ago, Really full garden said:

I have a high water table. Fresh water is about 15- 20 feet down, so most palms eventually do tap into that. How do they survive the 4-8 years it takes most to grow into the moisture?

A couple of factors in my case:

• I do grow a lot of palms from arid and Mediterranean climates
  • Phoenix sp., Medemia argun, Chamaerops humilis, Washingtonia filifera, Washingtonia robusta, etc. 
• Some of the others are Florida natives that are able to grow with no intervention at all
  • Sabal sp., Rhapidophyllum hystrix, Pseudophoenix sargentii, Thrinax radiata, Serenoa repens, Acoelorrhaphe wrightii, Roystonea regia
• A good portion of the yard has oak canopy.  That keeps the sun from drying out the soil too quickly.
• My soil is more dark and loamy than sandy => more moisture retentive
  • Sometimes causes issues for desert dwellers
  • See graphic below with a small clump of potting soil next to native soil on a new planting
• Almost all of my plantings are mulched
• We typically get at least some rain each month (see graphic below)

I'll water the coconuts to make them grow a little faster during the warm months, but it's not required.  The cold would get them before lack of water.

[palmsOrl]

I'm finding out this month that when it comes to potted stuff, not much.

[rprimbs]

I've got a Bismarkia that I planted seven years ago from a one gallon, but never got around to running a drip line to.   I did go down three feet with a wire cage around it. It has never been watered other than when I initially planted it.  We're in inland San Diego County, in Escondido, not that far from Gary Levine.  I'm surprised by how tough they are.  Definitely one of my favorite palms.

[Really full garden]

1 hour ago, rprimbs said:

I've got a Bismarkia that I planted seven years ago from a one gallon, but never got around to running a drip line to.   I did go down three feet with a wire cage around it. It has never been watered other than when I initially planted it.  We're in inland San Diego County, in Escondido, not that far from Gary Levine.  I'm surprised by how tough they are.  Definitely one of my favorite palms.

I am sure that Bismarckias would be on my survivors list too. They are very deep rooted palms in my sandy soil.

[Yunder Wækraus]

We are renters here in Cairns area. Our home is in a drier patch between Cairns and Palm Cove. The field behind us is not in danger of turning into forest, for example, and I suspect the original habitat was semi-open eucalyptus woodland. However, rainforest is only a few miles away. I do virtually zero supplemental watering during the dry season (about 4 times a year I run sprinklers on the front lawn). We have several large foxtails and some lipstick palms. All survive just fine, though it’s possible my neighbors’ watering makes that possible. 

[MattyB]

On my rocky hillside the only palms that can survive with no water is Washintonia and CIDP but they need about 3 years of irrigation to get them established first.

 

[Merlyn]

In swampy Florida, I think almost everything would survive without extra water.  The stuff that might suffer or die are bananas and a bunch of ornamentals and flowers.  The only palms that might hate it are Ravenea Rivularis because they hate the combo of full sun and inconsistent water.  The only bad times here in NW Orlando are generally early May and September-October.  Most years are reasonably rainy, but sometimes we get 2-3 weeks with zero rain.  Since ultra-tropical stuff won't survive here in borderline 9a-9b, I only have a few like Licuala Grandis in pots that get protected in the winter.  They require swampy feet, so without supplemental water they would definitely suffer and might die.

[GottmitAlex]

The title of this thread is a bit misleading or lends itself to different interpretations.

I assumed sprouts/seedlings. Others, established palms...

[Kim]

26 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

The title of this thread is a bit misleading or lends itself to different interpretations.

I assumed sprouts/seedlings. Others, established palms...

 I replied about "established palms" in east Hawaii,  to be sure to cover everything, but...  so many seedlings are sprouting, especially Areca vestiaria, that I have to remove them by the dozens. (I mean dozens under each palm.) They are even sprouting on the trunks of tree ferns and on rock formations. I don't even know how they get there. Anyone is welcome to come take some home.  

[Merlyn]

17 hours ago, GottmitAlex said:

The title of this thread is a bit misleading or lends itself to different interpretations.

I assumed sprouts/seedlings. Others, established palms...

I assumed at least semi-established palms or good sized potted plants.  I figured it was a given that seedlings required extra care and consistent watering of the right amount, which can't be guaranteed almost anywhere.

[Really full garden]

51 minutes ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I assumed at least semi-established palms or good sized potted plants.  I figured it was a given that seedlings required extra care and consistent watering of the right amount, which can't be guaranteed almost anywhere.

You are correct. My thoughts concerned palms that had been established and for whatever reason were left to fend for themselves, drought, water rationing or apocalypse.

[palmsOrl]

On 11/30/2019 at 7:31 PM, palmsOrl said:

I'm finding out this month that when it comes to potted stuff, not much.

Fortunately, I only lost a couple small, thirsty, non-palm plants (including amazingly a small Ficus aurea that tipped over and thus managed to miss the little rain we did get) before I got with the program and started watering in earnest.  

The past month or so has been exceptionally dry and fairly chilly by our standards with almost a complete lack of rain other than light drizzly type events which don't do much if anything.  I saw a large Bismarckia at the entrance of an apartment complex near work today that has very suddenly died and I suspect it has to do with the lack of soil moisture.  There is another identically sized specimen right next to it that looks well as of now.  I have noticed some other stuff in local landscapes that looks drought stressed, though much present in our local natural or planted flora is either in a semi-dormant state due to the cool temperatures and short days or is actually leafless on account of being deciduous.  Speaking of Ficus aurea, there are at least 10 epiphytic specimens on a long row of Sabal palmetto along the edge of my complex that are looking really yellow and wilted.  Will they survive the dry season?  Certainly we have been cool and very dry but we have had no conditions that would not be present in the dry season in many parts of deep South Fl (comfortably within Ficus aurea's native range).  The native Florida strangler fig appears to have recently expanded its range to Central and Northern Orange County Florida, which is north of its officially vouched for northern edge of its range, Osceola County, though i have heard of its presence in extreme southern Orange County.

[palmfriend]

Hi there,

I do barely irrigate at all. Our regular typhoons during the summer are causing usually

a good amount of rain - I remember just one summer with five weeks without any a couple years

ago -  spring, fall and winter are not problematic at all, not too hot with a fair share of rainy days, too.

So, at the moment I would say, all of my currently planted palms should survive. 

Still in my green house are a few C. renda, but I think that these - when planted out - will need 

extra irrigation, no doubt.

 

Best regards from Okinawa -

Lars

 

 

[NOT A TA]

Everything I plant in the ground would survive. Probably easier for me being in a subtropical rainforest 10 B area. Mostly because I grow common plants known to grow well here once established without any assistance. Euphorbia milii typically shows the first signs of drought by dropping their leaves and not looking as nice during dry spells but will pop back when rains return.

[RyManUtah]

Provided a time to get them establish, likely only Washingtonia filifera and Chamaerops sp. 

could be worse. I love those palms.
 

[tropicbreeze]

The dry season here is long and hot so very little would survive without irrigation. The natives of course should be okay.

Livistona humilis pops up everywhere (volunteers) except where there's irrigation. Good for anyone who has the warm climate but doesn't want to irrigate.

Livistona mariae ssp rigida has recently been showing up and seems to be quite drought tolerant.

Carpentaria acuminata really rockets along with lots of water but still manages to do okay without during long dry periods. I've seen seen well established Carpies die without supplemental water but suspect they grew up with it and couldn't cope when it was turned off.

There are a number of exotics that volunteer on my place. Caryota mitas mostly comes up where there's irrigation. A number that have established themselves away from supplemental water but only in very shady places and do cope.

Ptychosperma macarthuri come up mainly in irrigated areas but some do appear in drier areas and manage to survive, but again only in good shade.

Another lot of volunteers have leaves a bit like a green Bismarkia but I suspect they're Sabals. Seem to be 'cast iron'.

The surprising one is a Coconut I planted about 12 or more years ago without extra watering and it's still like a newly sprouted plant. Looks sickly and doesn't manage to recover before it's hit with the next dry season. Some how it manages to linger on, very stunted.

With around five or six months of waterlogged soil followed by six or seven months of very dry soil and low relative humidity it's surprising any of them survive, but some do.