Planting Aiphanes minima

[Kumar]

Earlier this month I had acquired an Aiphanes minima. Due to lack of time I let it remain all trussed up and in a planters bag when I returned to Bombay, as it seemed to be a very vigorous specimen that could do by itself for a while. Today, on returning briefly, I decided to plant the thing. Digging a hole was easy enough but maneuvering the minima proved tricky. Due to plenty of other growth around it, I had to be extra careful and between fending off some killer mosquitos, getting slapped by a juvenile araucaria (those hurt a but too) and the minima's own spines, more so as I do not have gardening gloves or a helmet. I ended up with many cuts, scratches, bites, embedded spines and not just a little relief once it was all over. Fortunately these spines do not have a tendency to break off or it would have been much worse. I wonder if anyone has a photo of one of these trunking, I want to know how fast a grower it is. Hopefully that deadly crown will soon be safely in the air.

I could not take step by step photos but this is one photo of the plant before planting.

And here it is after the ordeal

[Kumar]

The spear looks like it wants to be used as a prob in 'Gladiator'

Looking into the crown from above. Those leaves are green but mean.

[AggiePalms]

Kumar -

You are so right about Aiphanes being "mean and green"! I can't plant mine in the ground due to winter cold, so my Aiphanes is a real problem to carry in and out every year. There is no place safe to grab it. This summer its pot is in an area of dense understory palms I am growing under a native Bald Cypress tree (Taxodium distichum). The problem is...the Cypress has "knees", rootlike growths that grow up from the ground 20-40 cm. More and bigger ones every year. Every time I try to carefully walk around them to carry my waterhose to the palms, the 1.5 m Aiphanes grabs me...leaf underside, petiole, trunk, it doesn't matter. All parts. It seems like it reaches out to grab me when I half stumble over the Cypress knees!

But it is certainly worth the pain...Aiphanes is one of my favorite genera because of its spininess and strangeness.

[Walter John]

That's a beauty Kumar.

[Jason in Orlando]

Kumar,

I have one in a 15 gallon pot that I have grown from seed. It is a very fast grower for me as long as it is kept moist and fed. During the warm months here in Central Florida it opens a new leaf about once every three to four weeks. It's also a tough palm. At one point when it was a one gallon plant, a squirrel had dug it up and it lost all of its roots except one nub of a root a couple of inches long. I stuck the thing down into the dirt and staked it up. It sulked for a few months, but never died, slammed down some new roots, and is doing great today. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to translate to total drought tolerance, and the foliage quickly burns up in the sun if I don't keep it well watered.

My two cents...

Jason

[EJ;)]

Any tips on germination of seed? I have around 50 seeds of this beautiful spikey palm. I'd like atleast 2 to make it! I have no luck with seeds. Here's hoping.

[Fusca]

35 minutes ago, EJ;) said:

Any tips on germination of seed? I have around 50 seeds of this beautiful spikey palm. I'd like atleast 2 to make it! I have no luck with seeds. Here's hoping.

Hope you get good results too!  I managed to germinate a few in moist sphagnum moss (baggie method) on a heat mat set to 95°F.  I didn't have excellent rate but, like you, only wanted a couple.  

[D. Morrowii]

20 hours ago, EJ;) said:

Any tips on germination of seed? I have around 50 seeds of this beautiful spikey palm. I'd like atleast 2 to make it! I have no luck with seeds. Here's hoping.

I had great germination rate on seeds I got from @NatureGirl I did most of them outside though. I put each seed into an individual plant tube (cone 1"x4") with my regular potting soil and kept  a moistened shop towel over the whole batch of 35 which fit into a 3 gal pot. The rest, about 20, went into a peat/perlite mix in a baggie. It was between the middle of June and late August so it was pretty much constantly 80 deg outside. The ones in the baggie germinated well too but the ones outside germinated first. Took 6 weeks for most to pop.