Best Fertilizers

[ahosey01]

Hey guys,

I have planted a bunch of palms at a new house I have. The soil is on the clay side, but the drainage is decent. A foot-deep hole can be filled, drained, re-filled and re-drained in about two hours.  With the palm species I have, I haven’t bothered to amend the soil the way I would for cacti or aloes or other desert succulents.  Most likely it’s alkaline, but I haven’t tested it yet.

I have one Bismarckia, two Brahea armata, two Chamaerops humilis, one Phoenix dactylifera, one Phoenix roebellini and one Phoenix species which was sold to me as a canariensis but which I believe is actually a dactylifera x canariensis hybrid.  One of the Brahea has some not-insignificant transplant shock, so I won’t fertilize that yet. All have been planted in the last two months.

What kind of fertilizer should I use for these, how often, and when? Do different palm species prefer different nutrient profiles in their fertilizers?

Thanks!

[DoomsDave]

This is a killer thread!

@ahosey01 welcome!

There's many fertilizers, and ways to use.

Welcome aboard.

[palmsOrl]

This is just my personal opinion and technique, but here in the Orlando area, I use the Dynamite brand of Nutricote, the one that is more balanced in the three macronutrients as opposed to the high-nitrogen formula.

I use Dynamite on all of my palms twice per year, as it is a 6-month time-release fertilizer with all of the macro- and micro-nutrients required.  Thus, my palms get fertilized year-round (twice per year application covers it) and I have had excellent results with the above practice. 

My understanding is that Nutricote fertilizer does release less fertilizer during cooler temperatures and it also stops releasing fertilizer altogether under a certain threshold temperature.

[sonoranfans]

15 hours ago, ahosey01 said:

Hey guys,

I have planted a bunch of palms at a new house I have. The soil is on the clay side, but the drainage is decent. A foot-deep hole can be filled, drained, re-filled and re-drained in about two hours.  With the palm species I have, I haven’t bothered to amend the soil the way I would for cacti or aloes or other desert succulents.  Most likely it’s alkaline, but I haven’t tested it yet.

I have one Bismarckia, two Brahea armata, two Chamaerops humilis, one Phoenix dactylifera, one Phoenix roebellini and one Phoenix species which was sold to me as a canariensis but which I believe is actually a dactylifera x canariensis hybrid.  One of the Brahea has some not-insignificant transplant shock, so I won’t fertilize that yet. All have been planted in the last two months.

What kind of fertilizer should I use for these, how often, and when? Do different palm species prefer different nutrient profiles in their fertilizers?

Thanks!

I have grown a few of those palms in gilbert AZ for about ten years.  I had 6 armatas, 4 bismarckia, phoenix sylvestris, roebelinii, various livistona, 3 species of sabals.  I had some pretty heavy clay in some places, lighter in others.  None of these palms like continually wet roots so I did ammend within 2 1/2 to 3' of the palm.  Better drainage means bigger root systems which means better heat tolerance and an easier time getting the dry cycle right.  My soil was orange/brown clay, no obvious sand.  I ammended soil and my palms made others in the neighborhood look sickly.  The armatas were spectacular hues of powder blue.  Clay has a big ion exchange capacity so fertilizer release(controlled release not needed) type doesnt matter.  But drainage to 3-4' deep matters for a big palm like bismarckia or a palm that hates wet roots in winter like brahea armata.  Your choice but here is what I grew.  Just basic big box store fertilizer for palms, no controlled release or slow release.  Put it down every 2 months in the growing season.  But ammending the soil, yeah it matters if its that desert clay.  Deeper roots need a better deep dry cycle and deeper roots help with handling heat and stress in 105-110F arizona.