Rooting C. tuerkheimii

[edbrown_III]

I have a real tall C. tuerkheimmii that is getting leggy and the crown is diminsihing it. I want to root it mide way up the trunk to bring back some vitality. Any tricks or do you jus tput a pot with perlite mid trunk and wait.

I woul be much obliged for any advice or commentary

Best regards

Ed

[DoomsDave]

Sigh

I wish I had a turck that was alive, let alone leggy.

I say leave alone, and give us a picture of your beautiful baby.

That said, I can also laud the idea of having TWO instead of one . . . .

Sigh.

[PalmatierMeg]

Ed, are you thinking of air-layering it? Can that even be done to palms. I have 2 Cham. tuercks that haven't grown leggy yet but I'd be terrified to tamper with them. Guess I'll use bamboo stakes & hair clips to keep them upright.

[XYZ]

Ed:

Yes, these palms can be layered and a bag of damp sphagnum wrapped around the stem will do the trick. Wait a couple mos until you are quite certain that there is a well-developed root system before cutting the stem and transplanting into suitable growing media in HIGH RH environment.

I have done >100 bare root transplants of cloud forest chamaedoreas over the past 18 mos (incl 6 flowering sized tuercks) using clonex to stimulate re-rooying and warn you this is tricky undertaking even under greenhouse conditions. Tuercks can often be found "laid down" by falling branches in nature and they readily root along their entire length and turn canopy upright within 18 mos.

You may want to take Dave's comments to heart...I have plenty of 3' tall tuercks thst have nice canopies so height is not really the reason for a sparse look. If you cut, basal portion of stem will not produce a new canopy but should stay green and may take well over a year to pass away. I am experimenting with benzyladenine on lower nodes on a couple rare, solitary chams and, while still no sprouts, am surprised at how well stems hold up.

[tjwalters]

Many Chamaedorea species can be air-layered successfully. Is it showing any adventitious roots (little root nodules along the trunk)? If so, you might try packing some damp sphagnum moss around them and wrapping with plastic wrap to keep moist until full roots develop. If not, you might have to cut into the trunk a bit and apply a rooting hormone, then apply the wrapping. Not sure I'd chance that, though, with such a valuable palm. At any rate, you wouldn't end up with two palms because the bottom half would likely die.

[edbrown_III]

Thanks for all the commentary this has really informed me and got me thinking about options. The soil is ancient maybe 15 years or so I may just repot in something new and hope for the best may be put some spagnum around the mid point as additional insurance

best wishes

Ed

[Dypsisdean]

I hope the experts are still reading this. What about just planting the entire palm about 1 foot deeper in very rich open soil?

[edbrown_III]

Interesting --- perhaps a citrus can with Florida peat and some coarse perlite

Best wishes

Ed

[John Case]

I hope the experts are still reading this. What about just planting the entire palm about 1 foot deeper in very rich open soil?

I would fea rthat the stem would rot and you would be left with nothing...

[XYZ]

Ed:

Strictly speaking, I would definitely not try what Dean proposed due to almost guaranteed loss to stem rot, but as an interesting alternative that would exactly mimic how this sp. and its very close relatives adventitiously reroot in nature you might layer as follows. Try using any of the plastic flex meshes like those used for supermarket citrus (e.g. green lime nets, disinfected with 10% bleach solution), slide over the canopy and cinch to lower stem, fill with steam sterilized, well-rotted leaf litter to more or less the level where you plan on replanting and cinch again above this. Keep this media damp, not soaking wet, for several months and you should be good to go. When using closed tall clear poly bags to re-establish previously bare-rooted potted examples of this type of Cham in the 'States, I find that active roots begin elongating from dormant nodes on upper stem about 60-80 days after transplant. Sadly, they do not ever survive removal of the bag, even in a humidity-controlled cool tropical greenhouse. The advantage here is that you have plenty of time for new roots to develop and do not have any drainage conflicts between sphagnum ball and traditional growing media in the pot. The final risk is always in the aftermath of severing the stem...try touching up the wound with Captan or similar broad-spectrum contact fungicide prior to inserting into new growing media.

I do not recommend nicking Cham stems to induce roots due to risk of pink and/or bacterial rot; use any good gel-type rooting hormone on dormant root nodes coupled with high RH and you'll be good to go.

J

[edbrown_III]

I am a bi late in doing this but here are the C. tuerkheimmii 's see how leggy that it I bought it from Harry Henderson Miami like in 1995 but it is so depauperate thats why I am worring the companions are youngsters from Dale this is why I lost a few over the years when they got leggy like that.

Best wishes and good to hear fhe commentary and interest in helping me

Best regards

Ed

[Jose Maria]

I have observed the same spontaneous rooting mentioned by stone jaguar.

In Costa Rica, in the wild ,(forest with a lot of them growing ) I saw a Chamadorea (?) that had fallen down from a branch that fell on it , it rooted right there and "turned " up ...

I think you could air layer them.

[edbrown_III]

Here are close ups of them

Here are close ups of them

[edbrown_III]

spindly one that I will air layer

[Mark Heath]

Hello Ed,

Keep us informed w/ your progress. This is interesting!