Palm Maintenance Work.Yr_2009

[Kris]

Dear Friends

This gives me immense pleasure to meet you all through this lovely thread,where i have tried to give step by step illustrations for those who are new to palm growing..And each time,i try to improvise new methods which are most apt for our hot tropical climate having high coastal humidity influence.So the medium is constantly kept as porous as possible for easy drainage of excess of water..

Today iam going to show you how to plant or repot a Syagrus romanzoffiana/Queen Palm in a large sized industrial barrel.And the seeds & the saplings of this palm were from brother M@ximus(M@x).And the specility of these queen palm are that,they were collected from heavy trunking mother palm.Since iam a die-hard fan of heavy trunking/fat trunking palm species,So brother M@x sent me those seeds & saplings,my spl thanks to you my dear brother !

In the following post there are visuals and are mostly self explinatory,so you wan't find much of a problem to understand the standard planting procedure..

Thanks & Love,

Kris

[Kris]

Let's move on with the visuals...

...

[Kris]

This is how it finally looked..

A Close-Up !

And the barrel is tagged with all details,using a ordinary white marker pencil

Hope you all enjoyed the visuals !

Thanks & Love,

Kris

[edric]

Very healthy Kris, Ed

[Kris]

Thanks Ed

Love,

Kris

[Exotic Life]

Nice, That's enough for a couple years! I'm like Syagrus species very much.

Robbin

[Kris]

Hi,Friends

here are some visuals to show how hot our climate is at the moment...And the high porous sandy soil mix is not helping this palm.the leaves have started to burn & the spear has started to drop to one side.So i tried to mulch heavily with dried leaves of neem & sapota trees..

In the following stills you can see how,mulch or top soil dressing has started paying dividents !

Here in this still,i have even moved this palm to a semishaded area for quick recovery and at the moment it is staying in that new area !

Here is a still taken hardly a week ago...and you can see a new spear emerging and the leaf burn has considerably subsided..

Love,

Kris

[BS Man about Palms]

Good hospitalization there Kris!

[Kris]

Good hospitalization there Kris!

[Howeadypsis]

From a water bottle to a huge drum. Palms roots grow fast huh! Another great thread Kris!

[Kris]

Dear Friends

Their are few information that i want to share with you all,about this queen palms behaviour.

First it hates full sunlight at this age.

secondly it does not want hot air/breeze hitting its leaves every noon.

thirdly it does not want its barrel base make direct contact with the terrace floor.

Fourth item is that they consume water like desert camels,since i used to water this baby every alternate days only,And the result the new spear just dried out and it drouped ?

Now i water this queen every day & if it appears dry,i water it gently even twice..early morning & late evenings with a shower can.And iam glad now to tell you that its condition has stablised well.And iam enclosing a still of its present condition !

And Dear Larry thanks for your encouragement !

Love,

Kris

[Kris]

Here is a still taken in the month of Nov'09 and iam sorry to inform you that it has fully dried up now,that photo iam yet to take..

And i have still more queens left,but i would like to know what went wrong..?

Thanks & Love,

kris

[Kris]

This is a resent still of the dead Queen palm(heavy trunking)variety !

I have still some queen from different varities to try but why do they die in the first place ? All the little palms are in open roof top gardens taking full sun.

Is this the reason for their slow death.

And in the following post i will post stills of remaining queens...

Kris

[Kris]

Here are few remaining queens !

Here is a close up of a dead queen sapling,and you can even clearly see the soil medium used and this soil medium is the same in all the pots & barrels in which the queens were planted,is free flowing porous type...

Thanks & Love,

kris

[BermudaPalm]

Kris, sory to see the loss of your "Queen". I have about 10 I started from seed 2 years ago.

I have never kept them in shade, but rather in direct sunlight. They have endured 2 summers now and are looking very healthy.

I watered them heavily twice a week, fertilized in April, July, and October with Slow release brand.

I also threw about 50g of Epsons Salt (Magnesium Sulphate) into the top soil and mixed it in.

The medium I used was regular potting mix. I think it may keep the soil somewhat more moist than your river sand.

They grow well here. I've seen some growing in redish clay near one of our golf courses.

I plan to plant them in spring next year.

[Kris]

Dear Rob

Thanks for the timely suggestion,I understand that my queens are drying & dieying due to highly porous loose soil,I will try to change to coco pete as soon as possible.

Lots of love,

kris