We often hear and throw around terms of speed of growth of plants.  Obviously, the same plants in different climates will perform differently.  Since I was checking on some newly planted palms growth, I thought I would at least share some comparisons in my garden that might be interesting in relative terms here in Southern California.

Two mornings ago, I marked the growth point on some items in my garden (4/6/2016) in blue.  Previously on 3/23/2016 I had marked growth in red, with a black mark about a week later (I forgot to write down the date).  I planted a Dypsis prestoniana late this winter, which I wanted to monitor and I have another in the ground which was the benchmark.  The new one is still adapting, but seems to be speeding up.

I was pleasantly surprised with growth on a small D saintelucei I had planted, but not surprised by the D decaryi x leptocheilos hybrid growth in 2 days.

Dypsis pembana is a speedster, that is a 2x4 on top of the fence behind it for perspective.

This Kentiopsis oliviformis has had an opportunity to get well established after about 5 years in the ground and is right in the middle of the pack, while its fellow New Caledonia native Burretiokentia hapala lags a little behind it.  The hapala was transplanted a little less than 2 years ago, due to a construction project, but its pretty well established in its spot. Just had to plant a banana west of it to give it more shade as the new spot wasn't as shaded as the old spot in the garden.

Dypsis heteromorpha which I planted is at least growing, but not as fast as the D ???.  I thought D ??? was labeled pembana, but Josh previously questioned whether it was lanceolata when I posted a picture of it flowering.  So I'll plead ignorance.  It has some characteristics of something I know is lanceolata, yet still differs a little. 

Great topic. 

I will try the same thing starting this weekend. Like you, I will choose just a few plants.

Where all these palms planted this year?

The D heteromorpha, D saintelucei, and one of the Dypsis prestoniana were planted this winter.  The R sambiranensis was planted last summer.  The larger/faster growing D prestoniana is about a 1.5 years in my ground, and everything else pictured, I planted in late 2010 or early 2011.

Marking the spear shows the palm is alive and pushing new growth, true enough.  Some people will measure growth in the number of new leaves per year which can tell you a lot -- 3 leaves per year is on the slow side, for sure, and some palms produce fewer than that in challenging conditions.  Some will look at the amount of time from planting to beginning to trunk, showing the first growth rings at the base, and that will be with faster palms. 

Some palms start out dead slow, one leaf per year, then when they get to a certain size, will suddenly speed up dramatically -- this is true with many of the large Dypsis.   Interestingly, my D. prestoniana was very fast at first, but now the D. canaliculata is speeding up and surpassing the prestoniana in height.  It's all very interesting and part of the fascination of palms.

My hybrid Coccothrinax was a tiny thing for a number of years.  About two years ago, it suddenly started sending up big, beefy leaves and now it's maybe 7 feet tall.  Amazing.  

For vertical growth, I've been amazed at a Carpentaria that I perhaps foolishly plopped out in the back yard, at the edge of an oak canopy.  Its trunk is slender, but it grew at an almost unbelievable rate.  The canopy is pretty much up, out of sight and into the sun by now.  

I have done this trick for many years now. This is a proven technique for monitoring palms of all sizes.  I now only mark spears of palms I think may have some funk going on to see if I need to play doctor....

cool thread Tracy 

14 hours ago, Josh-O said:

I have done this trick for many years now. This is a proven technique for monitoring palms of all sizes.  I now only mark spears of palms I think may have some funk going on to see if I need to play doctor....

cool thread Tracy 

Part of the fun is that I have planted a lot of new things recently, some being duplicates of more established items in the garden.  I can benchmark using the established plants and get an idea of how the newly planted are adapting.  Its also fun just seeing in very short snippets of time, which species appear to be growing the fastest in one's own garden.  As Kim points out, for some things we wait months in between a new leaf spear, so at least seeing that a spear is pushing can be rewarding.