Who do you call when your cycads don't flush?

[NorCalWill]

...or rather, what do you do?

These are my cycads, and how they perform for me. They are all on drip irrigation and I fertilize them regularly with Maxsea 16-16-16.

Cycas revoluta- not every year, sometimes not for 3 years. - one in ground, one in a pot, both perform the same.

Cycas panzhihuaensis - not every year - in container

Dioon edula - flushes every year. - in container

Ceratozamia kuesteriana - not every year - in container

Ceratozamia hildae - not every year, but when it does, it flushes in the fall, right when the temps drop and often gets hit by frost before the leaves mature. - in container

Encephalartos senticosus - flushes every year. - in ground

Encephalartos longifolius - flushes every year - in container

Encephalartos trispinosus - flushes every year - in container

[turfpro01]

Are your cycas in heavy shade? How often do they get water? My guess would be to much shade, to much water or both. I have hundreds of sagos and very few times do I have plants that don't flush every year. The ones that don't is because of root issues, either a dug plant that isn't rooted good or one that's been over watered at some point.

On the cycas you could probally force a flush by removing the leaves. I have some bonsai sagos that I remove the leaves several times a year to reduce there size. I have one that flushed twice already this year and im thinking of removing them again. If I don't remove the leaves most sagos just flush once for me.

[Dypsisdean]

Have you tried using a plunger?

[Gonzer]

Irresponsible.

[NorCalWill]

Turfpro,

Thanks for your advice.

Cycas revolutas - one is in full sun in the ground (amended adobe), and on drip. Gets watered 3 days a week for 30 minutes. One of the pups flushes every year, but not the main plant. The other specimen I have is in a large pot in half sun/shade, on drip 4 days a week for 5 minutes.

Cycas panzhihuaensis - In full shade and on drip. I will move it into the sun.

Ceratozamias - in bright shade, with some sun.

Dypsisdean, I haven't brought out the plunger yet, and hopefully I won't need to...

[Phoenikakias]

Has anyone of these already coned? Female cycads consume for coning much of their energy with the result they do not flush before coning is over.

[Palm crazy]

I am no cycad expert, but what little I do know about cycads is they are heavy feeders and need a very high nitrogen level’s 18-25. Palm fertilizer is not good for cycad, since most are to low in nitrogen.

In spring use a fast release, summer slow release. And make sure the product you use has minors.

I’ve also read that using a copper fungicide in fall-winter helps harden them off faster. But don’t recommend using during flushing.

[rprimbs]

Cycads are weird. I've heard about people burning certain Encephalartos to get them to flush. My Cycas panzhihuaensis seems slow to flush too. And my Cycas petraea doesn't seem to want to flush at all....

[cycadjungle]

I don't know who palm crazy is, but he is exactly right. My cycad fertilizer article explains this in better detail:

http://cycadjungle.8m.com/cycadjungle/fertilizer.html

When I was selling my Cycad Special fertilizer to people in California, I had many responces from people telling me they were getting multiple flushes each year for the very first time. One guy said he had been growing cycads for more than 30 years and never had more than 1 flush on any cycad and during the first year he used my fertilizer, he got 3 flushes that year on more than one species. I am no longer able to sell my fertilizer to anyone outside of Florida, but you can read the article and figure a fertilizer that would work well for you that can be found locally. Even a liquid feed with a higher number won't work. At least once a year, maybe in the spring, hit them with something hot and you will see them perform better the rest of the year. Tom