Anyone fertilizing in California yet?

[James B]

I’ve planted a few palms over the past week. Seems we have an early spring this year. Is it too early to fertilize? Or are we free to unleash? Aside from Sunday where my forecasted low is tittering between 39-40 degrees every nighttime low was has been 44-55 degrees lately and the next two week forcast is projecting a similar trend.

[DoomsDave]

Gonna wait

just a bit longer 

[James B]

14 minutes ago, DoomsDave said:

Gonna wait

just a bit longer 

So Dave maybe by second week of March?

[DoomsDave]

11 minutes ago, James B said:

So Dave maybe by second week of March?

Maybe 

[GottmitAlex]

I began yesterday. I was going to wait until DD's "The ides of March",  however, since yesterday's temps raised to 30C and our humidity plummeted, I opted to fertilize every palm (planted and potted) and the dragon fruit cacti. Today we hit 32C/4%RH. I watered them today and hey, I believe they're going to get a great head start this year along with a good recovery for my potted 2-year old A. merrillii which has been unprotected for two winters. 

Edited February 27, 2020 by GottmitAlex

[enigma99]

I am wondering as well. I guess once night lows are in the 50s we are good to go? Or maybe risk of a cold snap is over?

Highs in the 70s daily but still hitting upper 40s at night 

Edited February 27, 2020 by enigma99

[The Gerg]

I haven’t but I would. I just haven’t had time yet. Managing my sons little league baseball team is quite time consuming. I hope to fertilize soon. What I personally should do prior to fertilizing is remove all my mulch and ground cloth, check all my drip line connections and make some modifications that I know needs done, THEN fertilize. It makes fertilizing so much easier without mulch and ground cloth in the way. Then of course replace the cloth and mulch with new stuff. But I will probably procrastinate doing that this time and do it next time.

[Jubaea]

I would like to fertilize again but have not done so due to the lack of rain.  I fertilized in December but we have not had any significant rain since then and daytime temps have been hitting the high 70's and lower 80's recently.  It has been getting down to the lower 40's at night but I don't have any ultra cold sensitive palms.  As the Gerg has mentioned checking and updating irrigation systems would be a good idea now so that fertilizer will be watered in properly if we do not receive adequate rain soon.

[GottmitAlex]

2 hours ago, enigma99 said:

I am wondering as well. I guess once night lows are in the 50s we are good to go? Or maybe risk of a cold snap is over?

Highs in the 70s daily but still hitting upper 40s at night 

Carpe diem!

[Palm Tree Jim]

11 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

Gonna wait

just a bit longer 

Agree.....I usually turn it on late March, assuming the temps are in range.

[DoomsDave]

11 hours ago, James B said:

So Dave maybe by second week of March?

WHOA, big horse!

As dad used to say.

I'd hold off a bit. Trust me, you'll have a nice long season of warm weather. You already know!

A couple weeks or a month won't make that much difference in my experience.

[Josue Diaz]

i did yesterday actually. i was going to stick to DD's recommendation of March also, but i couldn't stop myself  My palms are pushing new growth already so i figured I'd give them a little push

[NorCalKing]

After this yesterday, and several upper 70's as far as the forecast goes, I fertilized over the weekend.

 

[James B]

Right now my Archontophoenix are pushing their spears the fastest. Nothing crazy maybe 0.5” a day on a good day. Followed by the bigger of my two Royals which is pushing 1/3 to 1/4” a day depending on temps. It’s in a full sun location year round. The smaller of the two is in mostly shade in winter with a little afternoon sun. But the sun is rising in the horizon fast. It’s pretty dormant right now compared to the other palm. By end of March it will have 4-6 hrs of full sun. The Chambeyronias I planted last year are growing pretty good as well. Maybe an 1/8” of an inch as well or a little more daily. I planted a 5 gallon Macrocarpa last week and it’s now opening a new leaf which is always exciting. I will hold off for now and play cautious until after daylight savings.

[NorCalKing]

2 minutes ago, James B said:

Right now my Archontophoenix are pushing their spears the fastest. Nothing crazy maybe 0.5” a day on a good day. Followed by the bigger of my two Royals which is pushing 1/3 to 1/4” a day depending on temps. It’s in a full sun location year round. The smaller of the two is in mostly shade in winter with a little afternoon sun. But the sun is rising in the horizon fast. It’s pretty dormant right now compared to the other palm. By end of March it will have 4-6 hrs of full sun. The Chambeyronias I planted last year are growing pretty good as well. Maybe an 1/8” of an inch as well or a little more daily. I planted a 5 gallon Macrocarpa last week and it’s now opening a new leaf which is always exciting. I will hold off for now and play cautious until after daylight savings.

That's funny. It's also my Archies that are pushing the fastest. In fact, they never really went dormant all winter, just slowed to a crawl.

Edited February 27, 2020 by NorCalKing

[James B]

4 minutes ago, NorCalKing said:

That's funny. It's also my Archies that are pushing the fastest. In fact, they never really went dormant all winter, just slowed to a crawl.

That’s how mine are also. They keep going all winter. Slowly but they still grow. Most of mine opened a new leaf in December or January even.

[DoomsDave]

Yeah, spring is comin' o'er the lea, dance through the meadows in your undies and play a lute, or whatever. . . .

Problem is that sometimes spring can be fickle like [fill in the blanks of anything that disappointed you badly in your life].

Sometimes we can still get a late cold spell, which, paradoxically we might have global warming to thank for, at least that's one narrative. That can sometimes result in serious damage or worse if plants are goaded into growing soft tender growth that gets hammered. This is especially worrisome in inland areas.

I started in April or May with the fert last year, and it was great. The plants didn't mind waiting a bit.

 

[Fusca]

22 minutes ago, DoomsDave said:

Sometimes we can still get a late cold spell, which, paradoxically we might have global warming to thank for, at least that's one narrative. That can sometimes result in serious damage or worse if plants are goaded into growing soft tender growth that gets hammered. This is especially worrisome in inland areas.

This is exactly what happened here last year.  The only freezes we had in Dec-Feb were around 30° F and then we had an unusually late mid-March freeze of 27° F after being above 80° F just days earlier.  Saw leaf damage to a sunquat (first time) that had sailed through 18° F without a scratch several years back and minimal damage to a mule that had also not experienced cold damage before.

[Gonzer]

Soil's still too cool for optimum uptake. Wait another month at least.

[Tracy]

On 2/27/2020 at 2:31 PM, Gonzer said:

Soil's still too cool for optimum uptake. Wait another month at least.

Good call despite many places in Southern California hitting record temps the last few days.  I've been burned before by fertilizing at the end of February only to see a cold snap hit in the first week of March.  Models still undecided on the next system coming in on Sunday/Monday but temps guaranteed to drop from their current balmy level.  March and the official end of winter later in the month will be here soon enough.  Patience young grasshopper.