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Great idea, Bill! We could stand "you" up in the lobby and after touring each day everyone could decorate the cutout with momentos from the day -- you know, palm leaves, hat, seeds, t-shirt, beads, shells, speedo... I can't guarantee it would make it back to you in the same condition it left -- might be some autographs and lipstick smears on it... Bo's right, I may have to rethink this... It really sounds great, BS... Hey Bo, is there still a room for 4 people available at the Windsor Hotel? I'm sure Bill won't dare to leave the triplet ranch hands in California this time...

I think the salt was considered a way of increasing the fruit yield. In the Phillipines in commercial groves they found that the coconuts near the ocean performed better than inland coconuts and giving the inland groves salt supplements the yield and vigour of the plant picked up. My thoughts are that the salt helps keep away root fungi which would attack my coconut through the cool winter months here. So I give it salt every few months and it has grown like a rocket, but I also give it heaps of NPK and trace elements. My sand here is 800000 yr old beach sand, and is about 60ft deep. Best regards Tyrone

I've just ordered another 3 cubic meters of river washed sand here to add with the potting mix for the new seedlings and I thought the same...but I'm always afraid of using the local material. Our property is located on a sandbox near the sea but the only palms that seem to enjoy the medium are actually the coconuts. A local friend and Biologist said that Cocos nucifera has the unique and incredible ability to synthesize (mispelled?) food from quartz because of the highly specialized micorhyza (?) working in their roots. A grown up coconut tree increases enormously the fruit production when properly fertilized with NPK balanced mixes but they'll thrive perfectly on their own provided water and sunshine when planted by the sea, in pure white beach sand. I've been testing many other palm species in the ground here but I usually add a lot of organic stuff and different soil mixes as a substrate for the new plantings. I doubt any other palms, except maybe Medemia, Thrinax, a few Phoenix, Bismarckia and Allagoptera, could stand the harsh conditions of a salty sand as the Coconut does...

Great idea, Bill! We could stand "you" up in the lobby and after touring each day everyone could decorate the cutout with momentos from the day -- you know, palm leaves, hat, seeds, t-shirt, beads, shells, speedo... I can't guarantee it would make it back to you in the same condition it left -- might be some autographs and lipstick smears on it...

It's cheaper to butcher the palm & it isn't limited to individuals either. The local Coptic church cut out the best fronds of their CIDP each Palm Sunday [giving the trees a flat-top look]. I've complained to the priest since their palms line the street but he ignores me!

BTW - I tried this on a cactus that had scale. No effect on the scale and but it did kill the cactus.

The soil here is sand, and I give my coconut rock salt every now and again. Coconuts need some salt. Coconut growers in the Phillipines discovered this. Best regards Tyrone

Can't say what might be wrong. I have one in the ground for 11 years. Here is a pic from last summer.

I could send along a small cardboard cutout of me....

Tis fine to use the moldy coffee grounds I think. I ran into that problem on a number of applications and my Chambey didnt suffer one bit. Use at your discretion though!

I've actually been doing this for sometime and it works very well using my local Starbucks stuff. That being said. Sometimes I don't use the whole bag. When I get to it later (weeks) it often has some mold/fungus on the grounds. I've never put that ON my plants, I either put it into my green waste, or in the mulch somewhere. Any thoughts on the mold issue folks?

This has been the topic of discussion a few times here. Coffee grounds are an excellent organic source of micronutrients that adds acid to our alkaline soils, where appropriate. Starbucks has a program that is called "Grounds for the Gardener" and routinely packages grounds in foil bags that hold up to 5 pounds. Not all Starbucks participate, as it is up to the individual manager of that store. I literally throw the grounds all over the palms and cycads, some of which land right into the apex of the cycad. It also helps repel snails, slugs, mites, aphids, and scale. In addition, it adds a nice coffee scent in the garden...if you like coffee! Try it!

I have 2 articles on cycad seed germination and 1 on cleaning the seeds. They are all in my article section. I will put in the address to my main page in my site, but for cultivation information, look in the articles. http://cycadjungle.8m.com/

By the way Bren, not sure if you noted the thread is TWO years old.

Dear Tom Even i have the same problem with our Date palm,i will try this soon and give you feedback as to how its working here.And in one of my threads i had asked this question.I hope to take this information there.. Thanks & Love, Kris Kris, What I have done is to cut and immediately paint the stem with a brush, somewhat liberally. Im not sure it works if you cut, let it sit for awhile and then paint. The green stem that remains shrivels up and turns brown. Tom, I have a question about this method of killing suckers. Have you done this kerosene method of killing suckers that develop on the trunk of the main stem? ie: not suckers that come up near,or at the base of existing trunks, but have their own root system. It seems alot of the suckers on my reclinata hybrid develop on the actual trunks,rather than at the base of the plant. I would think that if you did this on trunk suckers ,without their own root system,you would run the risk of killing the main stems? yup, I do it for both the ones on the main trunks and the ones that seem to come out of the ground. Rod Anderson suggested it, he has alot of experience growing palms, much greater than I. It sure has reduced the suckering on my 5 trunk reclinata hybrid. Used to be I'd cut the sucker off and it would just regrow rapidly from the same stem. Now, that stem turns brown and dies, and my trimming has been greatly reduced even though the palm is growing faster in the heat than before. What I do still get is a slow growth of new stems, drastically reducing the trimming. I will paint the new ones just after cutting them as well, but the rate of stem production is slow enough that I am not compelled to trim at this time. the prolific nature of unwanted stem growth was so fast, I was considering just removing the palm. Now, it appears that the maintenance nightmare is substantially reduced.