I seem to be struggling with my soil mixes on growing palms. I live in Tampa Bay, zone 9b. I grow lots of exotics, begonias, bromeliads, orchids, etc so I am experienced, but getting the palm soil mix right seems to be a chore...seedling 3gal or larger. If I was to mix my own, what would you include? I do have pine bark mulch fines available, which I use, plus charcoal (fine and med), perlite, vermiculite, no sand, and of course various peats/potting mixes heavy on peats....Greg

I seem to be struggling with my soil mixes on growing palms. I live in Tampa Bay, zone 9b. I grow lots of exotics, begonias, bromeliads, orchids, etc so I am experienced, but getting the palm soil mix right seems to be a chore...seedling 3gal or larger. If I was to mix my own, what would you include? I do have pine bark mulch fines available, which I use, plus charcoal (fine and med), perlite, vermiculite, no sand, and of course various peats/potting mixes heavy on peats....Greg

Hi, I am not knowledgable on soils but from my experience I can tell you this - palms flourish on our gangetic (alluvial) loam soils the best. This contains a reasonable amount of sand and clay but no charcoal and is very fine grained. This sort of soil becomes muddy very easily and drains in a flash. I have also observed gardeners adding sand when they pot plants as it seems to favour spred of roots.

Having said that, it is also my experience that the humidity, sun and rainfall are more important than soil type for palms as compared to non-palms. Palms grow equally well in the south indian coast where the soil is more laterite and in bombay where the soild is the thick black clayey variety because all these places have uniformly high temperatures with little variation (18-38 deg), good rainfall and very high humidity. Conversely, I find palms faring very poorly (plenty of deformed spears, stunted growth, thin trunks) in New Delhi which also has some of the best alluvial loam soils in the country but has a larger range of temperature (5-45 deg) and very, very low humidity. Hope this helps

I use coco peat coir fiber, with a little Perlite tossed in, you can by it at this place,

http://groworganic.com/item_PSO114_Coco_Peat_45_Cu_Ft_Brick.html

Ed

Are you talking in pots or the ground. There are A LOT of variables to consider. INCLUDING what type of palms!

Raising them in pots. Generally, I like to purchase palms when I see them but do not often have a place to plant. I pot them, and when I have a place to pot them, in they go. Sometimes, I just see one that I know I may not see again. But, in pots, they perform not so well. Perhaps I give them too much sun? My yard gets a LOT of sun in summer, and it is terribly hot. Today was 96F, dewpoint 78F, has not rained here in 12 days and what rain has fallen in June has not been heavy. Total 1 1/2" despite thunder all the time. It just misses me along the coast. Nights mostly 75-80F, dew nightly. Humid. Hot. Younger palms may need less sun? Greg

Well, most of the heeled Dypsis don't like over potting, stay on the small side. Those black pots heat up a lot, so I would go with a loose mix and water often. But you may have good luck with the sandy mix and ---> Also, unless you are somewhere that stays cooler like I do, most pots will need some shade. I have bought a "picnic tent" in the past and put them under it with shadecloth, etc. Your biggest problem is it is hard to regulate the temp and moisture level in those pots. When the sun gets on the pots, it even harder. I would wager a 50F soil temp difference between day and night. (At least on the south side)...

Also, do yourself a favor, get screen or something that is not too shady. The big box stores stuff is about 78%. Makes the plants look great, but will then need acclimation again before planting. I have used "pool screen" material recently and it looks to be about 40+% good for me!

Good Luck