growth rate of "fast" palms

[elHoagie]

After the thread where Larry and I tried to see who's Veitchia was bigger, I decided to post some pics showing the growth rates of "fast" palms here in SoCal.  The first pic is an Archontophoenix cunninghamiana that I planted as a small palm in a 5 gallon (20l, 250mm) pot back in spring 2004.  It didn't show any clear trunk until spring 2005, and now it has about 30cm (12in) of clear wood.  The overall height is about 3m (10ft).

[elHoagie]

Here's a Wodyetia bifurcata I planted from a 5 gallon pot in fall 2004.  At that time it was just about to start showing clear trunk.  It now has about 50cm (20in) of trunk, and is about 2.5m (8ft) tall.

[elHoagie]

Finally, here's the Veitchia arecina I planted from a 5 gallon pot in fall 2004.  Like the Wodyetia, it was also just about to start trunking at the time.  It now has about 30cm (12in) of clear trunk, and it's a little more than 2m (6.5ft) to the tip of the spear.

[elHoagie]

Sorry for the dark pictures, the sun still hadn't come up when I took them this morning.  Any comments or comparisons to other climates are welcome...

[MattyB]

King palms grow faster (and look better) in less sun. Jack, yours look really nice for an exposed spot.  You can tell that you water it a lot.

Here's another fast one, Ravenea rivularis.  This pic was taken 9/04.

[MattyB]

This pic was taken 5/06 (20 months) later.  Check out the fence for a good scale comparison.  This palm has since put on another 4 inches of clear trunk and another couple of feet of overall height.  The leaf bases are falling off real smooth and easy now.  They hung on before.

[bgl]

Jack,

the pics are fine as far as I'm concerned. The way I measure growth rate is to see how many ft of trunk (or inches I guess for the real slow ones!!) they add per year. This is not an exact science, but I do believe you can get pretty close, assuming you keep some sort of records. I know exactly when I bought each and every palm, and the size container. So, I may know that I bought a particular Veitchia in 1997 in a 1G pot. That tells me the approximate size, and it also tells me that that particular palm probably began to form trunk in 1999. So, I estimate the height of the trunk today, let's say roughly 20 ft. Divided by 7 years, that'd be about 3 ft of new trunk per year. I could be off by a couple of inches, one way or another, but being that I'm not out there making a note of the day when every single palm begins to form trunk, this is the best system I can think of.

As far as growth rates here, the fastest one, by far, is the Pigafetta, which under ideal conditions will add about 7 ft of trunk per year. #2 in my experience is Actinorhytis calapparia with about 4 ft, and then there are a whole bunch around 2.5-3 ft of trunk per year: Clinostigmas, Veitchias, Archontophoenix, Carpentarias and probably a few others that I can't think of right now.

I would rate 7 ft per year as a 10 on a 1-10 scale (or super fast)

4 ft = 8 on a 1-10 scale, or very fast

2.5-3 ft = 7 on a 1-10 scale, or fast

1.5-2 ft = 5 on a 1-10 scale, or moderately fast

1 ft = 4 on 1-10 scale, or moderate

Less than 1 ft = slow!

These are just my own conclusions!

Bo-Göran

[Walter John]

I've heard that said about Actinorhytis calapparia before but mine just doesn't want to play the fast growing game. Maybe not enough water.

I'd love to have these palms seen grown next to each other for a race off. Pigafetta is scratched as it did not pass the drug test.

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana

Archontophoenix alexandrae

Wodyetia bifurcata

Carpentaria acuminata

Veitchia joannis

Veitchia arecina (mcdanielsii, montgomeryana

Foxy Lady

Dypsis pembana

Clinostigma harlandii

Clinostigma samoense

Washingtonia robusta

Syagrus romanzoffiana

Caryota urens

[MattyB]

Here in So Cal, I think it would be C. urens, followed by S. romanzoffiana and Washingtonia robusta tied for second.

[Matt in SD]

I haven't grown Caryoto urens but I've also heard they are the fastest as far as adding trunk.  King's are probably the fastest for me as far as adding trunk, but Majesty's and Caryota gigas sure put on a lot of biomass in a short time.  As far as spear emergence rate goes, Right now my Dypsis pembana is one of the fastest surprisingly, the spear is going at a bit more than 1" per day.  

Matt

[spockvr6]

(elHoagie @ Aug. 10 2006,16:56)

QUOTE

Sorry for the dark pictures, the sun still hadn't come up when I took them this morning.  Any comments or comparisons to other climates are welcome...

Jack-

First off...that Archonto is a real beaut!  That bad boy has developed a nice fat base and looks to be happy.

Although I am not too fond of direct comparisons as they somehow seem to be arrogant---

As for a comparison to the climate in my parts, Id say that the same palms are growing two to three times faster in my area.  

As for Bo's speed scale....I like it...but I certainly dont have any 10's in my yard!

[DoomsDave]

To paraphrase Tracy Chapman:

I got a fast palm, but is fast enough

To compare with Hawaii?

I don't really even care . .

Okay, needs some work.

Here's an Archontophoenix alexandrae that I planted from a 32 gallon can in July of 2003, when it was about 5 feet (1.666 m) tall.

Now it's about 18 feet (6 m) tall, and growing fast.

dave

[Fred Zone 10A]

Matty B--Your majesty is quickly going to outgrow the narrow space in which it is planted.  That said, I've had mixed success with majesties.  The ones I've planted that already had clear trunk are moving quite fast, thank you very much.  HOWEVER, in 2002 I planted one from a 5 gallon and another from a 15 gallon and they still are not trunking in spite of ample water.

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and alexandrae are my fastest growers.  But a Caryota mitis isn't doing badly.

I planted a 15' tall Caryota urens in the fall of 2002 and it has thrown a grand total of four leaves since.  It's a real slow poke for me.

My Trachycarpus fortunei are growing pretty quickly and have doubled in height (and added a couple feet of trunk) in three years.  For me Caryota gigas looks to be pretty quick as well.  I water it almost every day.

Other moderately fast growers are Livistona australis and nitida and Sabal palmetto (go figure).  I posted "Before" and "After" photos of the latter taken 2-1/2 years apart on the old board.

Oh, and if you give Phoenix roebellini sun and ample water you'd be surprised how fast they grow.

[bgl]

One important thing to keep in mind is the fact that there are definitely differences between individuals (of the same species) when it comes to growth rates, so it could be very misleading to plant, for instance, an Archontophoenix, a Veitchia and a Carpentaria and then draw conclusions from just those three individuals. I have numerous group plantings, and one thing that's almost a given is that if you plant six of the same species in the same area, under the same conditions, they will grow at different rates. Sometimes VERY different. So, sometimes when I look at one of these groups, I say to myself "wow, if I had planted just ONE of these palms, and if that one happened to be the slowest in the group, my opinion and understanding of the growth rate of this species would be completely different."

And talking about growth rates, I forgot #2. Above I had Actinorhytis as #2. Well, my mistake, that one is actually #3!

#2 is the mystery Clinostigma that was sold under the incorrect C. harlandii name back in 1997-98. It's definitely not C. harlandii (which of course is a valid name). The mystery one will add up to 5 ft of trunk per year, which on my 1-10 scale would definitely give it a 9. I guess if I had to describe it (in line with the above descriptions) it would be 'extremely fast'.

Here's a photo with the mystery Clinostigma in the center (the tallest palm obviously), and most of the others below it are C. samoense. All these palms were planted in May 1997, and almost all of them were about 5 ft tall. That's 5 ft OVERALL height! The mystery Clinostigma has about 35 ft of clear trunk today.

[bgl]

And this is what you see when you look straight up the trunk of this impressive Clinostigma.

Oh, and by the way, Dave, practice that metric conversion stuff....!

[elHoagie]

(spockvr6 @ Aug. 10 2006,21:30)

QUOTE

Although I am not too fond of direct comparisons as they somehow seem to be arrogant---

As for a comparison to the climate in my parts, Id say that the same palms are growing two to three times faster in my area.

Larry, Matt, Bo, everyone,

Thanks for the nice comments!

Larry - It's not arrogant to say some palms grow 2-3 times faster in your climate, it's just the way it is.  I'm not jealous at all .  At least I don't have to worry about a big freeze killing mine .

Jack

[MattyB]

Fred Zone 10A · Posted on Aug. 10 2006,21:47

Matty B--Your majesty is quickly going to outgrow the narrow space in which it is planted.

Yeah, Fred, I think you're right about that.  Although I have about 30" of width there in that spot, I think that someday the base of the trunk will start to creep onto the driveway and push on the fence.   Especially since it's planted directly into clay w/ no ammendment and when it rains the water from the upper houses really puddles up right there.  That's ok, I'll repair as needed.

[spockvr6]

(elHoagie @ Aug. 11 2006,13:00)

QUOTE

(spockvr6 @ Aug. 10 2006,21:30)

QUOTE

Although I am not too fond of direct comparisons as they somehow seem to be arrogant---

As for a comparison to the climate in my parts, Id say that the same palms are growing two to three times faster in my area.

Larry, Matt, Bo, everyone,

Thanks for the nice comments!

Larry - It's not arrogant to say some palms grow 2-3 times faster in your climate, it's just the way it is.  I'm not jealous at all .  At least I don't have to worry about a big freeze killing mine .

Jack

The the problem with FL....99% of the time there is no worry....its just that once in a while front that ends up limiting what can be planted

[Frond-friend42]

This Metroxylon vitiense is a pretty fast grower. Probably the fastest I've had at this stage. Here it is about 3 months from breaking the surface.