I'm liming the lawns where I work for the perennial winter rye and was wondering what the preferred pH for some of the palms would be:  Sabals (particularly palmetto, causiarum, rosei and uresana), Butia (odorata, purpurescens, yatay, eriospatha), and Brahea (armata in particular).  My palms are in deep sand with a natural acid pH of about 6.0.  Camellias, azaleas and dogwoods do really well, so I know that the soil is consistently acidic.  I thought of getting a soil test, but nobody really knows the preferences for palm pH.  They want to know what kind of grass you're growing when you send in the sample.   Thanks in advance for any suggestions.  Incidentally, I am in Augusta, Georgia.

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 201510 yr by JLeVert
Spelling error.

The more you know about this matter the more complicate the answer. But as a very simplified “rule of thumb”, almost all Brazilian or S-American palms as Syagrus, Butia, etc. like acidic, non-calcareous soils.
On the other hand there are also many palm species or even genera which thrive on rocks of limestone as most Mexican or Caribbean palms like Chamaedorea, Brahea, etc. Non-American palms like Chamaerops, most Caryota, many Rhapis, also Livistona, etc. grow also directly on limestone (i.e. alkaline soil).
Last not least the coconut too grows on atolls consisting of coral reefs (i.e. limestone). – But for many palm genera it is more important whether the soil has an excellent drainage or not.

The norm referring to  SAmerican palms is imo generally correct but there are exceptions like Trithrinax and Allagoptera.

The norm referring to  SAmerican palms is imo generally correct but there are exceptions like Trithrinax and Allagoptera.

It is a VERY SIMPLIFIED THUMB RULE. One could make a long, long list of species specific requirements, also touching the problem if they like standing or only O2 rich moving water, etc.

I had been waiting for someone to compile a spreadsheet of palms and their ph preferences.   Would be an invaluable resource, I think.

I copied a chart from here a long time ago that shows how Ph effects absorbtion of nutrients, not sure of where it came from.

 

I had been waiting for someone to compile a spreadsheet of palms and their ph preferences.   Would be an invaluable resource, I think.

That would be fantastic and certainly out of my realm of expertise. 

Ok.  Thanks for the comments everybody.  I'm going to lime the Sabals, Braheas and Guihaia and leave everybody else alone for the time being.  Hopefully this will help out the ones that prefer a higher pH.

My back yard: