Double Drop

[TomJ]

Almost didn't post this. But with so much time on my hands....

This was a week ago after all that rain we got here in So Cal. Nearly 8 inches in one week.

For me to get one leaf sheath to drop is extraordinary, but the double drop?

I was in the back yard three hours earlier and nothing. I would hold onto the lower one to duck under it on way to our chicken coop.

three hours later...

[PalmatierMeg]

What a gorgeous, chunky palm!

[PalmTreeDude]

That’s a Dypsis decipiens right? If I were in California, it would be the first palm I plant! Looks great! 

[TomJ]

1 minute ago, PalmTreeDude said:

That’s a Dypsis decipiens right? If I were in California, it would be the first palm I plant! Looks great! 

Dypsis Prestoniana   AKA  Big Curly

[Matt in OC]

That's amazing, Tom. How old from how large in the ground?

[TomJ]

2 minutes ago, Matt in OC said:

That's amazing, Tom. How old from how large in the ground?

It was a 15gl. 

How long in ground.....  mmm   hard for me to remember last week....

A sheer guess is seven to eight years.

It was about the circumference of a baseball when planted.

Always grew fast, but seemed like it took forever to get first ring of trunk.

At first it grew big more than vertical.

 

 

[PalmTreeDude]

25 minutes ago, TomJ said:

Dypsis Prestoniana   AKA  Big Curly

Dang, I need to work on my Dypsis identification. I’m assuming these need it to be dry? 

[Tracy]

3 minutes ago, PalmTreeDude said:

Dang, I need to work on my Dypsis identification. I’m assuming these need it to be dry?

Not like a Dypsis decipiens in requirements for dry.  My two D prestoniana were grown to 15 gallon size in Florida because they can get to that size so much faster there than here.  They respond well here to plenty of water, but I do also have a sandy well drained soil.  Perhaps because of the wider and thicker leaflets it looks better at the end of spring than my Dypsis lutescens with the thinner and narrower leaflets planted nearby, so it's a good grower here in California.

54 minutes ago, TomJ said:

This was a week ago after all that rain we got here in So Cal. Nearly 8 inches in one week.

For me to get one leaf sheath to drop is extraordinary, but the double drop?

That is unusual to see both of those drop like that Tom.  Even in early Autumn when I'm seeing the fastest growth on mine due to the momentum built from spring through summer, I don't recall seeing two leaves drop within a month of one another.  The newly exposed sheath and rings always have the best color which tends to lose the bright orange over time.  It looks like neither branch dropping did any damage coming down.  I have a few more things in the dangerous "drop zone" in my smaller back yard so I am a little concerned about future drops as the height of the drops keeps increasing.