Soil mix for Floribunda Arrivals

[Looking Glass]

So, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on an order from Floribunda.   I've got an assortment of 1 gallon stuff, 4 inchers, and some seedlings coming in at some point in the next 2 weeks or so.  

I don't know much about how they arrive, except for pics I see on the internet.  I'm figuring that I'm going to have to be ready to pot up stuff imediately on arrival here.  

It's nothing super exotic or zone-pushy, and of course I'll post the low-down when it arrives, for all to see...  and rail on.  

I'm most worried about murdering the 4-inchers (D. Orange crush and R. hildebrantii) and seedlings (Dysis sp. Lafazamanga).  So I want to have an idea of what soil mix I should mix up, with the goal of keeping them going and then getting them in the ground when strong enough.  I can baby these and keep them shady under my roof overhangs and porch through their infancy.    

I've got tons of palm/cactus bed mix, peat moss, garden soil, local ground sand and composted manure on hand, and I'm going to pick up some potting soil and perlite and pine bark chips tomorrow.

I can invent a well draining mix, but anyone have a favorite concoction or any recommendations?????  The last seedlings I raised were watermelons in the 3rd grade.     

I figure if the corner gas station can grow these in car-trash receptacles in a mix of used diapers and ash tray tossings, with no care whatsoever, I have at least a reasonable chance of success with some effort in this area.

 

[JohnAndSancho]

That's just really lazy composting there 

[redant]

The stuff you get will come in lava rock. Some of them may be able to stay in the stuff they ship in for a while while others are begging to get into bigger pots. Not all palms want the same soil but generally want moist, well draining soil. Lots of perlite and vermiculite with good organic soil usually works for me. I leave the lava around the roots but try to free up any root bound ones. Orange crush ehh, even experienced growers struggle with that one in fl.

Edited April 12, 2021 by redant

[Looking Glass]

47 minutes ago, redant said:

The stuff you get will come in lava rock. Some of them may be able to stay in the stuff they ship in for a while while others are begging to get into bigger pots. Not all palms want the same soil but generally want moist, well draining soil. Lots of perlite and vermiculite with good organic soil usually works for me. I leave the lava around the roots but try to free up any root bound ones.

Do you go by feel, or do you have an approximate percentage of components that you use?  I’ve got a bunch of big, 50+ lb pots out back that I mix up solid for based on who’s planted in it, but the margin of error on those larger guys is huge.  
 

I know the babies will be a challenge......  I tend to be too heavy of a mixer in pots.  

 

47 minutes ago, redant said:

Orange crush ehh, even experienced growers struggle with that one in fl.

 

I know they won’t all make it, but climate gives me a little boost, down this far.  

 

 

[Merlyn]

My mix is generic Lowe's topsoil, perlite, and Turface MVP in roughly equal parts.  I get the Turface from the local Ewing Irrigation store.  If a palm is water-loving (like Licuala Grandis) it gets less inorganics.  If you want more potting soil info than you can digest, there is a huge thread in the "Palms in Pots" section on soil mixes:

And a recent one specifically on seedlings:

 

[WaianaeCrider]

Here on the West Side I just mix up a batch of 1/3 black cinder, 1/3 compost or soil conditioner, and 1/3 of what ever it is that my dry stream deposits after a big rain.,  Not sure what my "native" soil is.  W/o water it will dry rock hard.  Well If it's not sand, the in Hawai`i its decomposed basalt lava.  Most of my palms from FB will survive as long as they get water.

[JohnAndSancho]

3 hours ago, Looking Glass said:

 

 

 

 

I don't have an answer but I respect your meme game 

[Looking Glass]

So as a warm up, I went out and grabbed a bag of Miracle Grow Cactus/Palm Potting Soil.  I had two stray seedlings of unknown type growing in a random Palm I got.....  

I used the Cactus/Palm Soil for the moment, but it felt way too dense and muddy and peat heavy for my liking.  It didn’t drain well.  So I added a lot of yard sand & perlite, a little wood chips, and a few handfuls of composed manure and mixed it by hand, until it felt right and airy, and water moved through it quick.  Seemed ok then   

I traumatically removed the mystery seedlings from their tangled root host (one had rooted into a medium sized rock, so I left it in the rock).  And put these test pilots to work in the new mix....

Any ideas on what these are?????   One seed snapped off in the process....  that’s probably not good.  

Fly little mystery test pilots....  fly.....

 

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Looking Glass

[WaianaeCrider]

Could be "Manila"  palm, seed is the right shape.

 

[Looking Glass]

11 hours ago, WaianaeCrider said:

Could be "Manila"  palm, seed is the right shape.

 

NOOOOOOO.....  AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!.........  I was hoping someone would tell me it was anything but V/A merrillii.   There are a dozen of these overhanging my property from the neighbors on all sides.  I have to shovel up their palm acorns by the bucketload.  As I was transplanting these out of there, I was looking at one of their seeds on the ground next to that pot, and it looked a little fatter.   But it would be just my luck....  when I looked at pics online, I thought ....please no...