Leaderboard

I am 20 miles from the west coast in Southern California. I put one in the ground a while ago ( weeks) it is in sun on a south facing slope . It has opened a new green frond . I water it a couple times a week . Harry It came in this terra coat pot that I broke open to plant the palm with minimal root disturbances. that new spear has now opened and is dark green . I had to trim a couple of old fronds that burned. It is growing well now. Harry

This is a first for me - I germinated a palm from a seed collected from a palm I grew from seed! I know @kinzyjr and likely many others have done this. If it weren't for Palmageddon (February 2021 freeze) it would have happened sooner but 7 years is still pretty quick for this to happen. Here's the mother palm (non-trunking Chamaedorea radicalis) grown from seed sent from @DoomsDave

I don't think coastal Carlsbad about 3/4's mile from the Pacific will qualify, but i just took a photo of mine earlier today. Great choice in species if you can get this Sabal to grow for you.

A recent pacsoa purchase, when I arrived I was greeted by a man by the name of Colin Wilson, so your happypalms he said with a smile. Yes indeed iam Mr happypalms and the first question I asked him was what have you got that’s rare, and with a grin from ear to ear he proceeded to give me the story behind the rhizomatosa, I thought interesting tale of a palm I must have it in my collection. So it has been planted in the ground and it loved winter. So upon knowing you can propagate it by division so out come the snips and the rest history we have a new palm. Very easy and rewarding knowing a rare palm has just been reproduced. So @palmtreesforpleasure thanks for the rhizomatosa, it’s in good hands, and I wonder who in palm land wants one these beauties now one has become available!

Some interesting little palms in this lot, a nice batch of seedlings doing well. They all have taken winter well and are quite tough. Give them a couple more years and they’ll be heading to a garden somewhere on the property!

Here are two from Otavalo, Ecuador. My adult plant died before shedding much fiber.

I recently became caretaker for my father's place in Santa Barbara, including his palm tree collection. I have a question about the growing habits of the mature specimens. Below is a pic with a trio of Parajubaea cocoides on one side, and a single P. cocoides on the other. The trio is 15-20 years old, and has the classic hairy-looking trunk. The bottom 10-15 feet or so are smooth, having dropped the frond bases entirely, but from there on up the trees are holding tight to the remnants of the dead fronds. The single P. cocoides on the right is well over 50 years old. As you can see, the trunk is smooth almost to the top. It appears to me that P. cocoides begins shedding its fronds as they die once it reaches maturity. I really want to be right about this. I want someone to say "that's right, you won't need to trim the older tree at all, it will simply drop its fronds like a King palm." Because that would mean that I have one less really tall palm tree to trim. Does anyone know what these trees are like at this age?

I have Yapa in very hot (112 F) but humid area

Encephalartos kisambo flushing. It also had to get a haircut of its oldest flush

Terrific! Congratulations on that . I have done the same with my Radicalis tree form time and again . It is so great feeling to have a few generations growing in the ground. They are really nice palms and germinate freely , produce copious amounts of seeds for more palms. Free is always best. Harry

My 18 year old torallyi recently began dropping old leaf bases. Not super smooth underneath but I imagine over time it will be.

There is another sucker that will be taken soon as well. Plant enough of them and I will eventually have some stock plants to work with. Then I Can supply Australia I jut need five years. But in the meantime I should be taking orders 🤣

Recovery as of today

My wife's favorite palm is our Caryota gigas. It is probably the most commented on palm in our Carlsbad rental's garden. It caught my attention when I was over there today.

Encephalartos transvenosus flushing. I had to remove a lower flush in preparation to give access to painters.

After seeing the one @Cindy Adair posted a picture her palm, the one she was so proud of showing. I was loving the fact I have two of them. And even more happy about them living through winter taking temperatures as low as 2 degrees Celsius, very impressive for a Calyptrocalyx in my subtropical climate. One beautiful palm iam looking forward to seeing grow in the garde.

Well Dave , it seems that your confidence is my confidence!😂 Harry

They do well for me; they should likewise for you!

I went for the full sun option , even though they look so much better with shade . It went through our dry summer with ease ( and regular watering ) . It seems like it has a bit of speed to its growth now that it is in the ground. It was in that pot long enough to crack it so it was probably held back or limited. @doomsdave has a beauty out front that is in a shady spot . The fronds are at least 6’ tall! We’ll see , in a few years , with mine . I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to acquire this palm. I bought it from a photo Dave sent me and , when I got down there to pick it up , it was double the size I thought it was . I felt ok putting it in the sun as I talked others in Southern California that had it in sun in the inland areas. They said the same thing “keep it watered”. Harry

An interesting palm from Thailand. A bit a Livistona on tropical steroids that’s had Botox. They took a while to germinate and did so sporadically. They made it through winter as seedlings so a good sign so far. I will be keeping an eye on these newbie’s in the collection.

I got two in my garden both growing well, they have endured droughts and very high temperatures of 42 degrees hot dry winds that cook Joey palms like eggs in a frypan. Both in shade one is a lot smaller than the other one which is stretching petioles with huge leaves the size of a dinning table with a lazy Susan in the middle. Easy to grow but they do like water, if you can irrigatate it will take hot weather and grow well.

He knew who it was going to, it was like being handed the keys to the city getting this palm an ode to a true palm nut. He knew it was in good hands now all I have to do is get some tuerckheimii seeds of him! Richard

I remember Colin telling me all about that palm and the time and trouble he went through to bring it in to Australia. He was hoping that whoever bought it would appreciate what they had. It seems like he got his wish !!! I would have liked it but it clumps. Peachy

Archontophoenix purpurea …

I’m 99% sure you’re right. I’ve never grown Parajubaea to that size, but online images of very old ones show clean trunks. This is common to many species. Washingtonia robusta is a really good example. Old tall ones are clean while younger ones have retained leaf bases (and fronds if not trimmed). What I think happens is as a palm reaches maturity, its trunk girth stays uniform and doesn’t expand much after the crown is developed like it would when it was younger. It’s this expansion that locks leaf bases together. Happens clearly in Dictyosperma and Hyophorbe too. I’d suggest not trimming the fronds will actually speed up the process because leaf bases are more likely to fall with fallen fronds from wind.

Beautiful palms, your new garden is going to look great with all those. I haven't had much luck with my seeds. A few have germinated then just turned brown and died. At least my single palm in the ground is growing well, a good size to appreciate the crown.

John, if I were you, I wouldn't screw around with bins and fridges and small amounts of stuff. If you want fast results, then hot composting is the way to go, and that requires volume, usually at least a cubic metre, so three feet cubed, or more. I'm lucky enough to have a tractor with a loader, so I make a big pile every winter, but you don't need that to get similar results on a smaller scale. You guys are heading into Autumn now, so I assume that over the next couple of months there's plenty of fallen leaves around? If so, you could make a big pile of alternating four inch layers of leaves and grass clippings...put all your kitchen scraps in the middle of the pile, water the crap out of every layer (if its dry like the leaves) as you put it on the pile and cover with a tarp to keep vermin out and heat in. The C/N ratio of leaves and grass clippings should be pretty good without any other inputs but the scraps will help. Turn it every few weeks with a fork and by spring you should have some beautiful compost. PM me if you need any more info.

A few more going in the garden, an Areca Laos dwarf it lived through winter so it can go in the ground. And a couple of plumosa one you don’t see much of on palm talk, I have seen them planted in full blazing sun and looking good, the only time I seen it having trouble was on a 43 degree day in a paved lined courtyard, absolutely scorching heat and the crownshaft sort of cooked and it split, the palm has since recovered and has a black wound but is doing fine. And a draceana goldieana just for a bit of tropical colour, spring is here so time get the water into the garden with all the new plants!

My Sabal mauritiiformis is growing many miles inland from the Calif. coast, in an area that has very hot, dry summers. What seems to help it survive is the shade it enjoys during the sunniest part of the day. It puts out usu. three leaves a year. I took this picture yesterday. To its right is what I believe is a Ceiba acuminata (orig. from Yuccado).

Nice ones there. I’m sure they will love their future home in the garden. I planted a Cyphophoenix Nucele earlier this year and it is getting ready to open a new frond . I’m pretty sure it will be ok in the garden this winter , we’ll see. Harry

Prra. Rapeepatha Pink blooming again

Selfishly I’d say give it to me, but I reckon keep it Richard. Whatever you’re doing with it is working, so I’d say give it a year in the pot to establish its roots then plant it out again. And repeat every time you get a good sized new stem. In no time you’ll have a bunch of them.

It is very very very much a forest outside of all the cleared out former farm land. Anyway back to the original topic of composting, I want to at least pretend to hide the pile. So I figure I can buy this, and caveman bend it to 3x2x2 leaving one side open. Buy 4 2"x4"x2 foot chunks of lumber and some black (or dark green if I really want to try to hide it) spray paint and I'm sure I still have enough wood screws in this house from my car audio days. 12 cu ft sounds small but I'm only on the hook for like $25 and I can feel good about myself for filling it up. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Union-Corrugating-2-16-ft-x-8-ft-Corrugated-Metal-Roof-Panel/3317582 Or I could just get 2 sheets of the metal and a couple extra chunks of wood and end up with 60 cu ft which seems massive. Ideally I'd want to face the opening to the east since we rarely get winds out of the east unless it's a tornado in which case it doesn't matter.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I've wanted a pure Butia for a while. Maybe you saw that in my 87,000 posts about me wanting a Butia, maybe you missed those. Anyway, I shared an ad for an eBay link of essentially a stick. @Scott W says "I've got hundreds that look better than that," and now he has 2 less. He also sent me a butt load of seeds to go along with them. Not a single floater in the bunch. Maybe I'll experiment and file a few of those down too and see if it gets faster results. Subtractions? This Philodendron cutting. It was my friend's first time ever shipping plants so the moss and paper towels weren't wet enough, but now my Happy Gilmore cup from Subway is free to grow something else. And I thought it'd be safer to just put Mystery Nanners in a tent style setup vs sealing it. I guess we'll see.

Female E. Trispinosus

E. longifolius, this one’s yet to cone for me!

From where I am sitting right now, looking out the window at 2 different species of Archontophoenix and a Coconut, I think the leaflets on the photographed palm are too narrow for Archontophoenix and too clustered for a Cocos variety. On the other hand Archontophoenix are quite variable, depending on feeding, watering or total neglect. See how easily I clarified everything ? Peachy

I’m confident with my opinion above. I would be very surprised if it’s not Cocoa nucifera. I’m as certain as I could be from a distant photo of only the crown that it’s not Archontophoenix. Unless it’s a trick of lighting, the yellow petioles are inconsistent with Archontophoenix and align with Cocos. The crown shape looks inconsistent with Archontophoenix to me too, they don’t really hold multiple upright fronds at a time. The newest expanded frond also doesn’t look like Archontophoenix growth habit to me; they tend to fully send out a spear before expanding whereas Cocos and other cocoids expend while still pushing the spear. Even the frond colour looks typical of Cocos and not like Archontophoenix unless, again, it’s a trick of the light or recent cold damage but I know you’re coming out of summer. I will say that I’m on the other side of the world and not all across your climate. But from official climate data both average temperate and winter recorded minimums, I’d say there’s a chance short term Cocos could grow especially considering the location close to the ocean relative the the official weather station which is further away. The palm is also clearly close to a large brick structure which helps significantly. On this forum we’re repeatedly told Cocos doesn’t grow in Southern California and while that is maybe generally true, there are documented cases of them there. It only takes one. There was also a photo posted recently of a small Cocos in southern Europe and the only argument against it being Cocos was that they don’t grow there. Appearance wise it was typical. If there’s healthy Hyophorbe out in the open in nearby locations, there’s at least a chance Cocos could grow. Think we need someone to do a door knock to get a photo of the whole palm. If a photo shows it is Archontophoenix I’ll double my usual Save the Species donation this year.

Lol and this is how I learn armadillos attack palms. We have armadillos too. I'm remembering why all of my palms stayed on a 2nd floor patio or in a bedroom for 5 years.

Cool lol. I just went down another rabbit hole including a long thread on here about insecticides and palm fortresses and planting palms in cages filled with rocks and mesh and all kinds of stuff that seems mildly effective to moderately effective at best (thank you @Ed Askew for all the info my fellow Mississppian) I am gonna get really hardcore into Bermuda grass since that seems to be the only thing that doesn't have a natural predator.

I am hoping to get half of the potted transplants to survive . So far one has died but the others seem to be going ok. At least three of the ten show no signs of any set back. We will see as it has only been a few weeks. Harry

I have never owned a Holden in my life Richard. First car was a Buick Riviera which I had for many years until I was talked into buying a Stingray Corvette which was nothing but trouble. When I moved to Queensland I had my Volvo wagon, which I wish I still had as it could carry so many plants. Where I live now everyone either has Land Rovers, Land Cruisers or electric things of all varieties. These days I just have a little Toyota Ractis which is currently for sale because I have dogs and cats in need of dental work. I go nearly everywhere on my granny scooter and rarely use the car. (and yes I have driven it home loaded high with palms and just enough space to peek through so I can see where I am going)

I just returned a message . It looks like I never hit send! Duh , I apologize . Check your messages and let me know . Had a sick cat that inevitably did not make it so things got a bit behind . I will start shipping in order of request , so far there are plenty for everybody . I just got another load Monday. Harry IMG_4441.mov

Yeah @Jonathan that was the general consensus from r/compost on Reddit, except those people REALLY like to pee on things. I still think trying Bokashi with the kitchen waste and the "soil factory" is something I want to try, but for the bulk stuff I just need to build a pile. And I really need to get all the branches collected and just burn those - we've got tons of cardboard and not so much in the way of leaves unless I wander into the woods, and from there it's just picking a site where the hose can reach but keeping it a distance from the house. It's amazing that decomposition can create so much heat in an open air environment.

For about 3 years now I have a few flowering in the garden and no seeds yet. They do set seeds in my area theres a couple mature palms in town with hundreds of seeds. If mine set I would be more interested in the ornamental factors rather than the seeds themselves. And you definitely don’t want sinsemellia watermelons!

Have a small one that has been locked in it's 3gal pot for years.. Grown under bright, high canopy shade, so i can't say how it would handle full exposure to our sun. Never noticed any issues ( ..other than needing to get into a bigger pot ) w/ ambient heat or the cool spells during the winter.

I had a nice visit to JLBG today. They have their Fall open house next weekend. Very worth a visit if you're able to (Raleigh, NC). I see something new every time I go. And buy something new as well!

Yeah. I really need to make my own. God knows I've got the materials and the space. I think the Bokashi soil factory combined with traditional composting is the way to go for me. Maybe add some worms... Less waste less stink, pretty much fresh soil on demand. One of the YouTube videos I watched on Bokashi, the whole time I'm thinking wooooow this guy is a freaking moron - and if he can do this, I can.

@JohnAndSancho I attempted to control the variables, but composting has so many factors that are constantly changing. Even if I only composted one thing, say lawn clippings, and ensured that the moisture and humidity were constant, the heat and light levels are constantly changing throughout the year. Even trying compare year to year, you can’t really count the number of earth worms, armadillidiidae, and other critters that are doing the heavy lifting. As such, I consider composting an art more than a science. Either way, compost soil is really “black gold.” I find that a 50-50 mix of compost and native soil is better than any bagged soil available for purchase.

Yes, I potted it like this and this is how the double headed butia looks like right now