Leaderboard

I can design something for you... just tell me what you have in mind!!

My friend Cindy and I walked out to view the lava ocean entry. I've never been to the newer lava flows before so I took a lot of photos!! I'm still "processing" my shots, so they are not going to be in order... so much for the "log" part of the travel log. This is looking towards Pu'u O'o.... uh oh!

A.K.A. city of refuge... a very photogenic place.

Sometimes the trail got really close to the edge... At the new lava... This was taken with my point and shoot.

Here's some shots with a point and shoot camera... Cindy in the wind... Me... getting burned.

More!

For those who did not feel like reading my article linked above about watering palms, there was one paragraph in it that specifically discusses this crown watering. I don't know if I am just the most unlucky palm grower there is, but I don't think so as I have seen plenty of cases of bud rot from crown watering in other gardens (most notably in Huntington Gardens). But, as I said in the article, there are some species or categories of palms that are much more sensitive to this bud damage than others, and after growing hundreds and hundreds of palms, and watering them carelessly for over 15 years, I have learned that there are definitely palms you do NOT want to water in their crowns in the cooler times of the year (rarely do have problems with crown watering in summer). These palms include ALL pinnate non-crownshafted palms (at least all the ones I can grow in this icky inland southern California climate). This includes Butias, Syagrus, Phoenix, Howeas, Jubaeas, Parajubaeas, Raveneas etc. I have rotted and killed at least one of each of these this way, and some of these I have killed many more than just one (at least 3 Butias, 2 Syagrus... some seem less senstive than others, dozens of Phoenix, about a half dozen Howeas (note: seedlings seem much less sensitive than do older palms), 3 Parajubaeas (sigh), 2 Jubaeas and several Majesty palms and one R glauca). I have NEVER killed or injured a crownshafted palm with crown watering, and believe me, I have watered plenty of Kings, Rhopalostylis, Dypsis and Chamaedoreas this way and never had a single one rot on me (not from this at least). This crown watering taboo I have self imposed also includes some palmate species, notably the blue, arid-climate ones (Bismarckias do NOT seem to be affected adversely by crown watering)... this includes Nannorhops, Chamaerops (green ones also are sensitive to crown rot, by the way, but the cerifera variety is ultimately sensitive and I have rotted multiple heads with my garden sprinklers... so no more garden sprinklers), blue Braheas and blue Livistonas (and losing one of those is a REAL drag). Never had a problem overhead watering of Washingtonias, Livistonas that are not blue, Sabals etc. Probably one of the most commonly killed palms by overhead crown watering are the Phoenix roebelleniis, which I have seen many rot in many local gardens from lawn sprinklers (these palms are often low enough to be affected this way). As I also said in my article, there is definitely a huge difference between rain water and tap water... I have learned this to be true with other types of plants as well (I grow a lot of cacti and succulents) and some of these are also extremely sensitive to crown watering, though much less so by rainwater. Many of these plants are reluctant to be crown watered ANY time of year, some more so when it's hot than when it's cold... no idea why other than they are plants that are from areas where there are no summer rains (Echeverias are high on this list, as are many aloe and agave species). Anyway, this is all observation, no scientific fact... would love to hear more about others experience with this.

Thanks for the compliments you guys! This was near the beginning... where there was red lava brought in for a trail. Palm victim. The new lava was very shiny and iridescent.

This is what stopped us from getting closer to the main ocean entry! Here is a shot of the main entry.

We had to stop here because it was getting pretty active! We wanted to go to the main entry but as you can see there is steam that was just a few yards away. This lava is about a week old. Poor cocopalms!!

Cindy is in the right hand corner.... hmmm... maybe she was trying to lose me... Looking towards Pu'u 'O 'o again ... I think this flow is from 1983. (I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong! )

Hear, hear. I'm with Bill (BS Man about Palms) & Meg (PalmatierMeg)!

Hear, hear.

Any palm that doesn't grow............. Regards Andy.

Let me be the first to say I don't like DEAD palms...

If you don't mind me asking, what is the HDR program?

Yup it is HDR. There are a lot of steps to it. I use an HDR program and then Photoshop. I've been actually skipping a few steps because I'm not going to make a big huge poster out of them and I'm still experimenting (and I don't have the other program needed yet). When I come across a total awesome shot I'll put in the effort.

Hey Angela, is that HDR or whatever? Is that difficult to do with Photoshop? I was reading about HDR the other day, and what I was reading was in layman's terms, so I'm sure its more complicated than the explanations I read.

:)

Today's sunset..

More from today... looking towards the volcano Hualalai!.

Thanks for all the nice feedback!!

One more for now.... more to come!

More experiments...

Angela - Love the surreal look you are getting with this technique! Especially the Honaunau and sunset shots, outstanding! Your Hawaiian Kitty pix are irresistible. I remember only Tiki from last October, but you have a whole tribe now!

Shot of the driveway looking towards the road. And some Hawaiian graffiti...

Don't cry Dave... just sign up for the tour!!!

Wow what nice kitties!

Tis and palms living happily together in the Hawaiian forest!!

More experiments with multiple exposures!

Beast of burden... the Gator!!

= speechless at the beauty of it all...

AWWWW!!! HOW CUTE!!! What a beautiful cat!!!

This is a kalij we named "Gimpie" she has kind of a gimp leg. The second to last pic is of a rare hawaiian forest cat attacking a hapu'u!!

This is Bruiser... you can guess how he got the name... someone dumped him and I can almost understand why.

This is our first kitty "Tiki" He showed up when he was about 5-6 mos. old. It took about 6 mos. before he let me finally pet him. Now he's super sweet.

Kami punya tiga kucing juga! Here are some regular snap shots of our kitties.... no artsie stuff. Do you have pictures of your cats? You should post some! This is Smudge our newest cat that showed up. He was totally feral but I am a cat whisperer. I guess he is a blue point siamese. Sorry for the low quality... I forgot where the originals are!

Smudge and Tiki.

It's Smudge!

And now for some random shots of kitties!!!

I'm re-uploading some of these because the quality was bad on the last ones.

JEFF HELLOO!!! You know we have room for you guys over here... that's why we invited you.

We get between 50-70 inches but it varies a lot. Makasih!

Most of my palms are so tall that they never get water in the crown unless it's from rain in the Winter. One of my problems is having it rain and then freeze at night. If there is standing water in the crown, the ice can make a ring around the emerging spear. I've had this happen even with Butias, but it's kind of rare. If I use a sprinkler in the summer where water gets in the crown, I do it early in the morning and then the afternoon heat evaporates all the water. I'm particularly carefull that the Parajubaeas dry out before nightfall. I had a Brahea armata over 35 years old and with several feet of woody trunk develop a crown problem this last spring. I did nothing and it sat for awhile, and then grew some very deformed, twisted fronds. It's grown out of it and the new fronds are normal size. I have never had this happen before. I hardly have to water in the winter time, because after a couple of rains the soil remains moist until the warmth of spring. Dick

I kinda water everything while being aware of where the species comes from and season. I soak all of my Caryotas since it originates from South East tropical Asia - a wet place with lots of rainfall. My wife once pointed out something she read that water drops in the noon-time cause the suns light to magnify on the leaf /frond which causes damage...so if I soak the whole plant, I do it in the morning or night. Here in California everything drys up quick. In winter I water very little.

I only water my yard if it has not rained in over two or three weeks. I don't usually water when we are having cold spells - temps in the 30's (0 to 4ºC). I don't avoid watering the crown during any time of the year.

I avoid watering the crown, if possible, on the Washingtonia, Butia, and Brahea, but don't care about the others. I think it makes a difference as to which palms you are raising.

I marked it today, we'll see if it keeps growing fine. (Haven't sprayed fungicide yet) Hey! I just noticed, for those of you that have been here, I intend to plant the OCWS about 12' to the left of where its sitting in the picture on post#38!