Jubaea Chilensis in Coastal North Carolina

[NCPalm]

Last year I decided to plant a jubaea chilensis here in North Carolina. It survived last winter with protection and is grownig well here in coastal North Carolina. the trunk is approximately 4 inches in diameter right now. So it is still quite young. I am trying to learn about expirences that other members have had growing the Jubaea Chilensis west of the Mississippi.

[empireo22]

Nice. I guess the problem here is the humidity in the summer not as much the cold...what other palms do you grow?

[NCPalm]

Several Trachycarpus Fortunei and one California Fan Palm (survived 2nd winter). I have not had much luck with Pindos or Mexican Fan Palms. I also grow pink bananas and blood bananas.

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

I live on the N.C.mainland only about a half mile from the beach. I have killed at least 50 small Jubaea from seed I planted in pots. They seem to die after the summer gets hot and we get some regular rains. I have killed one with a 3 inch diameter trunk but that was when I knew nothing at all about a Jubaea's needs. I ordered another 3 inch diameter trunk one about 3 years ago and planted it in a pot with a soil mix with no peat. The mix was sand, bark, pumice, perlite, and red clay. I have never let it touch the ground fearing nematodes (I am in a sandy area of the mainland coast). I watered it very little until it's roots filled the pot. When it rains a lot, in summer, I give it a very light copper spray. It has done very well under this treatment. After being in it's pot for 3 years I have stopped the copper and water it much more. It is growing very well. I can tell you the humidity and especially the heat do not seem to be a problem. They actually love the heat. I think nematodes, humidity, and rain may be problematic in younger plants but bigger ones seem to grow out of it.. By the way there's a large one, just starting to get a huge trunk, in Rock Hill S.C.( you might as well say Charlotte, N.C. it is so close, and someone in the Raleigh area has several larger ones in the ground and doing well. Glad to see others trying this palm here.

[DoomsDave]

NC!

You rock the house.

Keep us apprized, so we can swoon anew.

Dang!

[empireo22]

Several Trachycarpus Fortunei and one California Fan Palm (survived 2nd winter). I have not had much luck with Pindos or Mexican Fan Palms. I also grow pink bananas and blood bananas.

Butia capitata grows well in NC I have seen large trunking specimens in Charlotte area and just the other day I found 2 Washingtonia robusta's in Charlotte with about 5ft of trunk but overall probally Sabal or Trachy's do the best here

[NCpalmqueen]

I am in the Raleigh area and have about a dozen jubs or hybrids in the ground. Neither the heat nor humidity are problems here. They also tolerate red clay very well. The biggest challenge is keeping them dry during Dec, jan, and Feb.

One of my larger ones:

[NCPalm]

Really harsh winter here. The California Fan Palm didn't make it, but my Chilean Wine palm did! I lost one of my Sabal Palmetto's 3 others are Ok. Two of the Trachycarpus Fortuni are still questionable although four more are doing well. Two of the Trachycarpus are producing fruit.

[Sabal Steve]

Really harsh winter here. The California Fan Palm didn't make it, but my Chilean Wine palm did! I lost one of my Sabal Palmetto's 3 others are Ok. Two of the Trachycarpus Fortuni are still questionable although four more are doing well. Two of the Trachycarpus are producing fruit.

I'm sure that I sound like a broken record with my recommendations of Sabal "birmingham" here on the forum, but... Sabal "birmingham" may very be the most cold hardy Sabal out there (next to minor), and it trunks. It's a snail from the sounds of it, but looks incredible when it starts to get some size.

The site also has some some good data on the area (New Bern, NC), and lots of pictures showing progress over the years.

http://www.garysnursery.com/SabalBirmingham.html

Edited July 20, 2014 by Sabal Steve

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Sabal Birmingham is the slowest slug of a sabal I've ever seen.

[Explorer]

Well Jubaea should grow well in climates with hot humid summers. Well they do so in Italy for example. And where they grow wild in Chili it can get pretty hot as well! But they need drainage, when the watertable is to close to trhe surface then that could cause problems.

Alexander

[Dave-Vero]

I dunno. Florida dries out in winter and has plenty of well drained spots in the soggy summers. Gardens like Leu and Fairchild have nice gardens of dry-climate plants and we do well with tropical dry-season palms and bromeliads (Neoregelia cruenta as a tough example). Eastern North American cold is distinctive and nasty mostly because it's sudden and doesn't give much warning. Some plants actually prefer that to long cool spells--we had casualties several years ago with an extended episode of near-freezing wet weather. But for the most part, eastern North America's winters are hard on plants from other places.

Then again, recently it's turned out that some Mediterranean olive varieties do reasonably well here. In a few years, Florida might be producing olives instead of oranges. Maybe peaches and persimmons, too.

[howfam]

I'm surprised to hear that W. filifera and S. Palmetto didn't survive your winter. Both are usually super hardy. Exactly how cold did that winter get?

[NorthFlpalmguy]

That's cool that the Jubaea chilensis made it. I am surprised the trachys would produce fruit that far north!

Hey Dave, there's a growing amount of olive producers already in North Fl and S Ga. I looked into it but decided on pomegranates instead. My MIL is seriously considering the olives and has a small tree producing already.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Trachys fruit in Vancouver Canada, North Carolina is actually pretty far south.

Jubaea do NOT like humid tropical monsoon Summers. I have a super humid hot greenhouse and I had to pull my jubaea x queen out of it because it was declining in the greenhouse. But my guess is that if you play roulette with the genetics, you're bound to find a jubaea that will work reasonably well at least North of Central Florida where it rains a lot less during the Summer. I would think in North Carolina the biggest limiting factor wouldn't be the Summers, but cold spells during the Winter.

[SailorBold]

That's awesome... I don't think there is even 1 Jubaea in Albuquerque....

Looks awesome.

[Explorer]

That's cool that the Jubaea chilensis made it. I am surprised the trachys would produce fruit that far north!

Hey Dave, there's a growing amount of olive producers already in North Fl and S Ga. I looked into it but decided on pomegranates instead. My MIL is seriously considering the olives and has a small tree producing already.

Trachycarpus fortunei produces fruits and good seeds at 52 degrees latitude North in The Netherlands! My T. fortunei are reased from Dutch seeds! About olives, in Northern Italy they grow as far north as Merano! And it can get cold there in winter.

About Jubaea, in Tecino in Locarno there are big old ones near the lake. Its a wet climate with arround 1866 mm of rain a year! Trachycarpus fortunei is naturalising the local forest there. That palm likes a wet mild climate with warm summers of arround 25 to 30 C. Locarno is at 366 m above sealevel and an annulal temperature of 11.4 C.

www.klimadiagramme.de/Europa/Schweiz/locarno.html

Alexander

[GAgrown11]

Does anyone have picture of the Jubea growing in Rock hill? Also could it grow healthy in Savanah Ga area ? 

[kinzyjr]

On 7/21/2020 at 10:25 PM, GAgrown11 said:

Does anyone have picture of the Jubea growing in Rock hill? Also could it grow healthy in Savanah Ga area ? 

I'd be interested if anyone has photos of the Rock Hill, SC specimen as well, assuming it is still around.

[ESVA]

On 7/22/2012 at 3:29 PM, NCPalm said:

Last year I decided to plant a jubaea chilensis here in North Carolina. It survived last winter with protection and is grownig well here in coastal North Carolina. the trunk is approximately 4 inches in diameter right now. So it is still quite young. I am trying to learn about expirences that other members have had growing the Jubaea Chilensis west of the Mississippi.

Did your Jubaea make it in Currituck NC? How  big did it get?