Satakentia trunking in SoCal

[MattyB]

My Satakentia has about 3’ of clear trunk now. Doesn’t seem to muster up much purple color but it’s still a very pretty palm. 

[Dypsisdean]

19 minutes ago, MattyB said:

My Satakentia has about 3’ of clear trunk now. Doesn’t seem to muster up much purple color but it’s still a very pretty palm. 

Matty - all three of mine have over 10 ft of trunk now and have never had any purple/black. I'm bummed because that is why I planted them. So, it is clearly a variation, and I gave up long ago expecting it to show with age.

Yours looks great. And after Dr. Darian killed several trying to grow it in Vista, you should be a proud Pop.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

This palm has always been my germination archenemy.  Never had great luck hunting down fresh seed...  

Matt, your palm (and the whole garden from what I can see) looks fantastic.  I still recall your purchasing Manambe Lavaka and seeing the paths walls and irrigation being installed in that California dryland.  It really is miraculous what you’ve done.

[Matt in OC]

Mazel tov, Matty! What an impressive feat. 

[MattyB]

Thanks guys. I guess it’s time for a garden update thread. 

[Chris Chance]

Absolutely beautiful Matt! Yes you definitely need to update us on your garden also. I know you must have some gems to show off. Especially if you can grow a Satakentia looking that good in California! I wish I could.

[LJG]

55 minutes ago, MattyB said:

Thanks guys. I guess it’s time for a garden update thread. 

Indeed. I appreciated being able to tour your garden the other week, so I know others would love to see it here. You have some palms people won’t find growing in any other SoCal garden. 

[Meangreen94z]

Yes, definitely a full tour would be great.

[Darold Petty]

Yah Matt,.. What everyone else said !!    

[Palm Tree Jim]

I will jump in on this as well Matty.

Do it!

[TomJ]

That thing is beefy..... 

 

[akamu]

This picture has been photoshopped satakentia don't grow here.lol

16 hours ago, Dypsisdean said:

Matty - all three of mine have over 10 ft of trunk now and have never had any purple/black. I'm bummed because that is why I planted them. So, it is clearly a variation, and I gave up long ago expecting it to show with age.

Yours looks great. And after Dr. Darian killed several trying to grow it in Vista, you should be a proud Pop.

 Matty that thing is looking great. I wonder if there's something to the possibility of the variation being a stronger palm,  maybe where the  mother plant came from was a little less tropical ? I have tried 2x with this one and would like to know what your 2 cents are on growing this here thanks for sharing 

 

 

 

 

[Peter]

I would also love to see a garden thread Matty.  And please feel free to include the other wonderful non-palms you're growing as well :-)

 

[MattyB]

On 6/29/2020 at 10:02 AM, akamu said:

This picture has been photoshopped satakentia don't grow here.lol

 Matty that thing is looking great. I wonder if there's something to the possibility of the variation being a stronger palm,  maybe where the  mother plant came from was a little less tropical ? I have tried 2x with this one and would like to know what your 2 cents are on growing this here thanks for sharing 

 

 

 

 

Hey Adam, what's up brother?  So, I wrote a little bit about this in last year's PSSC article.  I don't have any broad range of experience growing this palm; I just know what I did with this particular one.  It was planted out as a 2 gallon palm.  I originally had a Jacaranda tree canopy above this palm for the first couple years.  The Satakentia didn't grow much in that time but looked healthy.  Then, after cutting down the Jacaranda, I put up 30% shade cloth for another two years, as this spot now saw full all-day inland sun.  The Satakentia continued to grow slowly for those two additional years.  Then I removed the shade cloth and the Satakentia, having 4 years of root establishment, went nuts!  The leaves yellowed and sunburned, but it grew at a really nice pace and clearly loved the full sun, although it suffered from some minor cosmetic sun damage even after it got acclimated.  Now that the purple king palm trio has grown above the Satakentia it offers partial shade and that seems to be the perfect recipe to keep it looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  Oh, I add a lot of Dolomite Lime a few times a year.  They grow on solid limestone covered up in leaf litter so I figured they must like it.  They look great at Ken's solid limestone farm so I have no reservations adding as much Dolomite Lime as I can remember to. 

[sonoranfans]

I have two from Ken I got last august.  This palm loves water, biggest water lover in my yard, hands down.  It wants TLC even here in florida. It also doesnt like too much sun as everyone knows and florida sun is not nearly as dessicating as inland CA sun.  The fact you grew it in the ground from a 2 gallon in inland CA speaks to a very green thumb.   I run the hose on mine all the time and they are in shade 3/4 ths of the day including the afternoon sun.  The color on the crownshaft is best right after shedding a leaf, but mine are similar to yours, purple near the new ring only.  Congrats on your amazing success!     

[akamu]

Thanks bro for the info that was  very well put. This kind of information is why i love this forum I did give mine shade and plenty  of water but I didn't take Dolomite lime into consideration that's probably why mine languished for a couple years and finally bit the Dust. Your palm is looking killer great  job on a hard to grow palm for California.  I need to give this palm another try.  Say hi to Jen talk to you soon 

[Gileno Machado]

Awesome Satakentia Matt. So they seem to perform well in a wide variety of climates. Is that Allagoptera arenaria growing at its foot? No sandy soil there?  

[Tracy]

On 6/28/2020 at 4:59 PM, MattyB said:

My Satakentia has about 3’ of clear trunk now.

Matty, when can I get seed from this thing?  Clearly it is one of the rare survivors of its species in our climate, so I'm rooting for it to pass along its genes.

On a slightly, but only slightly, more serious note you appear to be a magician, a very persistent gardener, someone who made the right micro-climate selection or some combination of these.  As a couple of others have pointed out, this is just one success among many you have in your garden with otherwise difficult to grow specimens.  I'm looking forward to the update posting on the rest of the garden and taking either a masked or post Covid-19 tour, eventually.  I'm also looking forward to the updated posts here instead of having to look at Facebook posts on San Diego Garden from some guy named Matt that my wife is showing me (isn't Matt one of your friends Tracy?).  Beautiful work getting that Satakentia to look so good here in San Diego and thanks for sharing some of the work that went into the success!  Hopefully some others will be able to now mirror that success.

[Kim]

I agree with Tracy; you are a palm wizard with magical powers! That’s a very handsome Satakentia. 

Your post and Dean’s follow up made me check out my 4 Satakentia. A frond had dropped that morning and there is a smudge of purple. (Photos not enhanced.)
 

[BS Man about Palms]

I always love seeing an update on this palm and how well it's doing! (Because I have known of Matt's superior microclimate and growing skills!) Seriously, waaayyy back when Matt had pulled off a few years of growing a Carpoxylon, I told him "dude, if you can grow that, you can grow a Satakentia!".. Matt has proved me oh so very right.. 

 

But just to add to your magic skills.. correct me if I'm wrong Matt, but wasn't that the first one you tried??

(I have one in a 5 gal pot growing from Dave.. awaiting the day I have half the skills and location of Matty.... wait.. maybe I have just about half...but is it enough?  )