The Chronicles of my ((BXJ)XS).

[Dartolution]

I received my ((BXJ)XS) today no worse for wear from shipping. 

The base is around 5-6 inches (~15cm) wide and it stands about 3.5ft (~1.07m) from the top of the soil to the tip of the tallest frond. 

I cannot see or feel any armament on the petiole. The backs of the leaves have a glaucous blue powder, while the tops of each leaf does not. 

The fronds do exhibit spotting as is typical with this hybrid from what I understand. 

There is some yellowing of the older fronds, which may be a result of a nutrient deficiency or age. It has been in a 5 gallon pot for several years and had roots trying to bust through the bottom. 

Some of the tips of the leaves have a tiny hook. 

Here are some images straight out of the box today:

 

 

 

Please pardon my back yard. Im still cleaning up and sorting through things. 

Also, pardon no grass, I reseeded it with zoysia and its just now coming up. 

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

[Allen]

Now you got a prize palm!  I think you'll like that one.   Give it lots of space.  My regular mule is wide.  Your rock work in the backyard is looking super nice!  I have to admit I have thought about passing my mule onto you as it's outgrowing everything I have and I'm not sure what to do with it, but I'm trying to leave it potted for another year.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Allen

[Dartolution]

@Allen Thanks Allen. 

It's always a work in progress, and too tiny of a back yard to do everything I want. 

I do have a regular mule (Butia odorata x Syagrus romanzoffiana var. 'litoralis') it however suffered spear damage this winter due to an insane amount of rain/flooding. 

Probably one of the wettest on record. It rained every day for a solid 2 months and the state had major flooding issues. My backyard is slopped and still had standing water in it. 

I treated the mule with H2O2 and copper based fungicide and have kept it dry for a couple weeks now. Only time will tell if it will push another new spear out.

 

[Swolte]

Wow, very nice! For record keeping and future comparisons *glances at the other mule thread*, can you indicate the source? I started doing that as well with my collection. 

Awesome rocks and water-feature you have there too!

~ S

[RJ]

3 hours ago, Swolte said:

Wow, very nice! For record keeping and future comparisons *glances at the other mule thread*, can you indicate the source? I started doing that as well with my collection. 

Awesome rocks and water-feature you have there too!

~ S

The BJxS looks to be from MPOM. 

Nice palm BTW

[Dartolution]

@Swolte good idea!

@RJ you guessed it! 

I contacted Michael about this hybrid and asked if he had any available.

This one was about to be put in the ground.

 

@RJ How'd ya guess? haha (Not that its a secret)

[RJ]

25 minutes ago, Dartolution said:

@Swolte good idea!

@RJ you guessed it! 

I contacted Michael about this hybrid and asked if he had any available.

This one was about to be put in the ground.

 

@RJ How'd ya guess? haha (Not that its a secret)

 

I've seen those palms before 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

11 minutes ago, RJ said:

 

I've seen those palms before 

Looks like the real deal and much larger then the one I'm expecting from Patric. We shall see i bet that size wasn't cheap to ship @Dartolution Are they doing this hybrid themself or is Patric selling some to them ? I notice they had JxS at one time and I don't believe anyone else is doing that hybrid besides Patric ? 

[Dartolution]

@OC2Texaspalmlvr The BXJXS came from Patric originally roughly 5 years or so ago as a strap leaf seedling. From what I've been able to gather, Michael must have gotten several from him and grew them out in MS. The one I got was about to be planted in the ground. I am not sure if Michael has any others of this hybrid specifically. 

I DO HOWEVER KNOW that he does have JxB and JxS as he sent me pictures of a few including 2 - 30gallon JxB which looked gorgeous. 

MPOM does have JxS listed on the website as out of stock. 

Michael is a 1 man operation so it may just not be updated. You can always shoot him an email and inquire (what I did).

 

 

[Tropicdoc]

Those spots are identical to mine and my palms are from Patrick as well. I wish we could figure out what caused them so we could correct it.

[Dartolution]

11 hours ago, Tropicdoc said:

Those spots are identical to mine and my palms are from Patrick as well. I wish we could figure out what caused them so we could correct it.

@Tropicdoc Ive read some posts about potassium. 

However, I don't mind the spots. I think it adds character to the crosses. 

I haven't read where it appears to hinder the growth of the plant. 
 

The newest emerging fronds do NOT appear to have spotting however. Ill watch them and report. 

Also, Ive noticed not all of the leaves have the little hooks on the ends. There are a fair amount, but not every leaf tip does. 

What has been your observation? 

[Tropicdoc]

No hooks. My b x pjc has demonstrated very bizarre hooks of which I posted. I was told it was a boron deficiency

[8B palms]

I also get these J hooks in my hybrids but usually in those with Jubaea in the cross, it wouldn't surprise me if this trait also can come from parajubaea cocoides, maybe others with more experience than me can comment, I'd like to learn why/how this comes about. 

[Dartolution]

Its been my understanding that the hooks come from the Jubaea parent. 

 

[Turtlesteve]

I'll just say that I really like this particular hybrid - I think it's the stiff leaflets.  Most of these hybrids with 50% queen palm DNA end up with leaflets that droop at the tips.

Steve

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

@Dartolution So this badboy in the ground yet. Should be a center piece palm for your backyard. I truly wonder how much faster growing this palm will be over a JxB or BxJ 

[Dartolution]

@OC2Texaspalmlvr Nope, not planting this one in this location. It got a good up-pot into a much larger container where it will reside on my patio in full sun on drip irrigation. 

There are a couple of palms I won't put in the ground here, mostly because I do not intend to live here indefinitely. (hence why I decided to make the thread "Chronicles")
 

 

It got potted up in a homemade soil mixture containing the following:

4 parts Coco coir

4 parts Jungle Growth potting mix (what I had on hand)

1 part Perlite

1 part soil conditioner (ground pine fines)

2 parts mushroom compost

1 part orchid bark mix (fir bark, charcoal and pumice)

roughly a cup of gypsum 

roughly a cup of Espoma plant tone

roughly a cup of Dr. Earth All Purpose soil amendment 

roughly a cup of Osmocote plus slow release. 

 

Thats about it with the soil mix. 

I was unable to find any real information on what this hybrid likes as far as soil. So I tried to make an organically rich, well draining mix. 

 

 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

31 minutes ago, Dartolution said:

There are a couple of palms I won't put in the ground here, mostly because I do not intend to live here indefinitely. (hence why I decided to make the thread "Chronicles")

I'm in the same exact boat , as I'm not living in my forever home either. So my container ranch grows =/ 

I keep my potting soil very simple 1 part turface 1 part MG palm and cactus garden soil. So far so good haha 

[Dartolution]

@OC2Texaspalmlvr I do have 7 palms in the yard now that obviously are there to stay, unless something happens. 

But this hybrid, my mule palm, roebelenii, 2 sago cycads, a majesty, and a litoralis queen palm still stay potted for now. 

 

I think there are a large number of soil recipes scattered about the forum. There is a thread somewhere on here where people have posted theirs. 

This just happened to be what I had on hand and threw together. So hopefully it will like it.

[Dartolution]

So I repotted it the day I got it, and over the last 10 days or so I’m noticing continued yellowing. 
I’m not sure what to make of it, and could use some suggestions/info. 

It is in full sun (8+hrs). 
All of the yellowing appears to be on the oldest fronds. It just got put on drip irrigation and has only ran twice. 
Ive dug around the outsides to feel the soil, it’s not overly moist or mucky. Evenly moist, far from wet. 
 

here are some images taken today:

 

 

 

What do you guys think? Am I being overly paranoid? 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

I'm thinking sunburn honestly , who knows where they kept the palm before you got it. Hopefully not fertilizer burn , either way most likely its gonna pull thru just fine =) 

[Dartolution]

59 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

I'm thinking sunburn honestly , who knows where they kept the palm before you got it. Hopefully not fertilizer burn , either way most likely its gonna pull thru just fine =) 

@OC2Texaspalmlvr I am truly hoping it is just sunburn. The soil mix didn't really contain anything other than organic amendments. I've never burned a plant with organic dry amendments before. 

Ive also noticed, that the new spear has grown about an inch in the last 10 days.

 

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[Swolte]

I wouldn't worry, especially since your spear is growing. It just arrived at your home a few days ago after a winter season (the oldest leaves probably were like that before) and an undoubtedly long and vibration-filled ride. My hunch is that roots are temporary compromised so its 'shedding' some of these already less efficient leaves to balance this out. In doing so, it's taking remaining nutrients from these older leaves to put into new growth and re-establishing roots. I'd recommend to keep it moist but not soak the palm (it'll drown) nor cut these leaves off as long as there's some color in them. Since the spear is already pushing, you'll have a bunch of nice new leaves in a couple of months. 

~ S

Edited May 19, 2020 by Swolte

[Dartolution]

So this thing is a rocket ship... 

It has thrown out 2 full leafs, has one opening, and 2 more spears in the center. 

Fastest growing palm I have, even faster than the Majesty so far... 

 

[Allen]

Nice!

[Dartolution]

Update:

I ended up trimming all the old fronds off at one point. They began to brown and die off. 

In doing so I immediately noticed a sudden stop in growth, which I can only attribute to perhaps stopping the reabsorption of sugars and minerals left in the dying leafs. In hindsight I shouldn't have cut the old leafs off as soon as I did, but instead I should have allowed them to completely brown first. 

 

Anyway, This was it taken today. Growth has slowly returned, but the leafs appear pale to me, heathy, not necrotic, but slightly pale (bright green instead of dark green). 

 

Opinions?

 

[JLM]

Same issue with one of my queens. New growth is pale, not sure why either. Its been like ths for a while, Sally didnt help as it shredded all the strap leaves down to just a stem :/

[Allen]

It's definitely not doing too well.  My mule I watered a ton in the pot and I found it was root bound fast.  I watered 3-4 times week or more when hot.  Pull out and check roots and just slip it back in pot.

[Swolte]

Just some thoughts (more experienced growers, please correct me!). 

I am inclined to say, even if you cut some of the lower leafs that were already browning, that you probably left enough for it to look good! Were cutting lower leafs the issue, I assume you'd get a more stacked yellowing (the next oldest leafs would turn yellowish) but that's not what you got, right? It looks more like the entire palm became a bit lighter, new spear and all. I'd be a bit concerned about that too. 

In any event, the overall yellowing does suggest that the palm nutrient uptake was/is quite delicate. The lower leaf cutting may have just pushed it over the top. Is it possible you under or over-fertilized? (I am guessing that's easy to do in a pot). I assume you watered regularly during summer?

[PlantDad]

On 5/8/2020 at 6:32 PM, 8B palms said:

I also get these J hooks in my hybrids but usually in those with Jubaea in the cross, it wouldn't surprise me if this trait also can come from parajubaea cocoides, maybe others with more experience than me can comment, I'd like to learn why/how this comes about. 

It has happened to my butia odorata and through the research I've done I'm pretty sure it's a boron deficiency. I've also seen it on my grandmother's sabal minor 

[PlantDad]

On 5/8/2020 at 6:13 PM, Tropicdoc said:

No hooks. My b x pjc has demonstrated very bizarre hooks of which I posted. I was told it was a boron deficiency

Actually I think it was my that said that and I need to apologize because it may be a molybdenum deficiency and not boron. I had made a mistake. Molybdenum is not present in many fertilizers but some fertilizers I've found are osmocote, and some lily miller fertilizers. There are probably more but those are the ones I have found that have it

[Dartolution]

21 hours ago, Swolte said:

Just some thoughts (more experienced growers, please correct me!). 

I am inclined to say, even if you cut some of the lower leafs that were already browning, that you probably left enough for it to look good! Were cutting lower leafs the issue, I assume you'd get a more stacked yellowing (the next oldest leafs would turn yellowish) but that's not what you got, right? It looks more like the entire palm became a bit lighter, new spear and all. I'd be a bit concerned about that too. 

In any event, the overall yellowing does suggest that the palm nutrient uptake was/is quite delicate. The lower leaf cutting may have just pushed it over the top. Is it possible you under or over-fertilized? (I am guessing that's easy to do in a pot). I assume you watered regularly during summer?

You are correct, its just an overall lightening of color and a rapid halt in growth after cutting. 

I believe it to be the potting mix I made. It was 50% coco and I haven't really fertilized like I think I should have. Also, we've had a LOTTTTTT of rain this summer, and I think that all that rain, plus it being on drip irrigation could have just leached all the nutrients out of the soil. 

I top dressed with some Black Kow manure and compost, and fertilized at regular strength with a granular, and watered it all in with a couple of gallons of seaweed extract in water.

At this point it is just sitting still, but I noticed the overall lightening in color when I took that picture.