Dypsis Pembana

[Patrick Palms]

My Dypsis Pembana was over one year old when planted ..been in ground over 2 years and still very small.. is it normal for Pembana to grow slowly??

 

[Kiplin]

I don't think so. They are known to grow up to 6ft a year from that size.

[Cocoa Beach Jason]

These grow like rockets. Is that planted in full shade under a roof overhang? In other words if grown straight up will it hit the roof? Maybe try a different spot besides they get huge and tall and wide with a few years time in a clump at least in my location.  That one might be too congested anyway in that spot so close to the patio? Hard to tell the set up you have with that one pic. 

[quaman58]

I think it depends on the climate. Here in Southern California, they're not terribly fast as seedlings, although they pick up speed when about head high.  But getting them to that point takes 4-5 years in my experience.

[PalmatierMeg]

They are fast in hot, tropical conditions. They get tall and develop an enormous "footprint" as their trunk widens at the base. You need to move that seedling out of its cramped corner.

[Patrick Palms]

Planted just before fence to protect young seedlings from winds and full sun, until. Bigger and stronger....Should these now be in full sun ?

 

[Patrick Palms]

I had many more seedlings but others was in full sun and just fried 

[Matt in OC]

1 hour ago, quaman58 said:

I think it depends on the climate. Here in Southern California, they're not terribly fast as seedlings, although they pick up speed when about head high.  But getting them to that point takes 4-5 years in my experience.

This matches my experience as well. Those I’ve grown from seed about 5-6 years ago are finally exploding vertically, about as tall as me. 

[quaman58]

8 hours ago, Patrick Palms said:

My Dypsis Pembana was over one year old when planted ..been in ground over 2 years and still very small.. is it normal for Pembana to grow slowly??

 

Crazy talk here, but that looks exactly like a small Chambeyronia that I was given by a friend. Reddish petioles & all. It's been a long while since my pembanas were small, but I don't recall the red color. Are you pretty sure of the ID?

[PalmatierMeg]

3 hours ago, quaman58 said:

Crazy talk here, but that looks exactly like a small Chambeyronia that I was given by a friend. Reddish petioles & all. It's been a long while since my pembanas were small, but I don't recall the red color. Are you pretty sure of the ID?

You may be on to something. If memory serves me, Dypsis cabadae seedlings have rusty red petioles. D. pembana's are green. It's definitely in the cabadae/lanceolata/pembana group - note the prominent veins in the leaves. Cabadae is a slimmer palm but will still grow too large for that cramped corner. Also, I found cabadae to be wimpier and less robust than pembana in all ways. Lanceolata is a total wimp.

[Patrick Palms]

I bought my seedlings from Christian Faulkner in Florida. He sold them as Pembana and he normally knows his stuff?   Maybe he made mistake 

[Patrick Palms]

This was in 2019

I always plan to move them when they get more stronger . Maybe near the Coconut Palm

[lzorrito]

21 minutes ago, Patrick Palms said:

I bought my seedlings from Christian Faulkner in Florida. He sold them as Pembana and he normally knows his stuff?   Maybe he made mistake 

I'm sorry but I don't understand why are you buying palm seedlings form Florida, USA, when you got fine reputed growers at your side?!? Like Paul White from Palmania, on the nearby island of Tenerife, and many others on the Canarias Islands. And BTW, the palm looks like D. lanceolota...oh, and what happened to your post about A. alexandrae ID where I showed you all the web links from where you got the pictures? Hummm...there are reasons that reason itself does not know ...

Edited September 12, 2020 by lzorrito

[Patrick Palms]

When i bought seedlings i did not know about paul etc. Yes thanks for links in king palm thread. I was only trying to explain that i got these a few years ago.. Paul is getting me some Indica palms and some Carpoxylon Macrospermum palms, at moment he has no Pembana or i would have bought some.    I was only asking why these are growing so slowly?   Do you guys have regular problems with mealy bugs?  Here, its a nightmare ..

[lzorrito]

Here's D. pembana available on the Canarias Islands, and from Paul:

http://palmania.es/epages/b285fb8e-4c54-4a23-829b-a291d02e3b9b.sf/es_ES/?ObjectPath=/Shops/b285fb8e-4c54-4a23-829b-a291d02e3b9b/Products/2014

And from mainland Spain:

https://babypalms.eu/producto/dypsis-pembana/

https://www.ebay.es/sch/m.html?_ssn=palmerasycycas&LH_PrefLoc=&_from=R40&_trksid=p2499338.m570.l1313&_nkw=dypsis&_sacat=0

I don't have D. pembana, yet...they are germinating, so I cannot assess its growth rate...

Mealy bugs issues? Ufff...all year round! Just finished getting them out of my A. maxima. BTW do you got ants around?

 

[Merlyn]

My experience with Pembana is from a bit larger than your seedling, but they went from 2-3 feet overall up to around 10-12 feet overall in 1.5 years.  I have some small seedlings from Meg, but they have only been in pots here for a month or so. 

[WaianaeCrider]

Here on O`ahu's dry side planted back in 2005 from one gallon pots.  I think I put two potted plants in the ground.

[Patrick Palms]

In your opinion, is the Pembana palm much nicer than the Cabadae ?

[Patrick Palms]

I understand when bigger the trunk gets more whitish ?

[sonoranfans]

I have had two experiences, first one is a non clumper that added a second growpoint as a seedling after the bug go a fungal infection.  It was 3 gallon size, not 25' overall with 6 caliper (split) trunks ~8" above ground.  It was in a great spot soil wise.  The second one, a clumper was planted in fence support clay, I did ammend some but it was a huge construction clay support for the HOA fence.   the second one grew much more slowly.  Only recently has the growth rate increased as I used surfactant on the soil to break it up and increased watering coverage.  I think the growing environment will have a big impact.  My experience is the one that was properly ammended grew like gangbusters, faster than my archies for the first 6-7 years.

[PalmatierMeg]

7 hours ago, Patrick Palms said:

In your opinion, is the Pembana palm much nicer than the Cabadae ?

Yes. Pembana clusters less, gets larger and is much more robust and cold hardier than either cabadae or lanceolata.

[Merlyn]

Here's my seedlings from Meg earlier this summer, to be honest the first photos look more like a Chambeyronia Macrocarpa to me.  That's the bigger seedling on the left side, a "Hookeri" type.  But I'm no expert on figuring out IDs on any palms, much less small seedlings.

Here's my larger one, 1.5 years from a 3 gallon pot.  It does turn whitish on the trunk, with green petioles & rachis.  This plant from MB Palms had 3 plants in it, with one dominant.  It has 6 trunks now, still with the one dominant one just starting to thicken up at the base. 

[Patrick Palms]

Pembana is certainly very feathery and tropical looking.. your small seedlings looked like mine. Is it possible that some Pembana seedlings start off with redish stems then grow out of it, forming green??

[Eastendr]

I love the look of mature D pembana palms, and have picked up five or six of various sizes between 1g and 15g. I have to say, they grow like the clappers compared to the other palms I have in similar pots waiting to go in to the ground. Here's a picture of the smallest one I have, similar size to yours, and showing some red color, too. 

 

 

[Patrick Palms]

Your Pembana seedling like mine, has reddish Stems

[Palmaceae]

They grow fast here in Florida, here is one of mine (far left). This is a years growth, it would have been even faster but I moved all my palms, including this one from Cape Coral to St Pete last summer so they had some transplant shock.

[Patrick Palms]

Beautiful Pembana palms. What is that palm behind your Pembana with coconut looking leafs?

[Palmaceae]

41 minutes ago, Patrick Palms said:

Beautiful Pembana palms. What is that palm behind your Pembana with coconut looking leafs?

Thanks, the one right behind the pembana is a Maypan coconut, and right in back of that is a Dictyosperma album and behind that one is a green mayalan coconut.

[Cocoa Beach Jason]

On 9/12/2020 at 3:46 PM, PalmatierMeg said:

You may be on to something. If memory serves me, Dypsis cabadae seedlings have rusty red petioles. D. pembana's are green. It's definitely in the cabadae/lanceolata/pembana group - note the prominent veins in the leaves. Cabadae is a slimmer palm but will still grow too large for that cramped corner. Also, I found cabadae to be wimpier and less robust than pembana in all ways. Lanceolata is a total wimp.

Two pembana babies. One red one green. Same batch of seed from same mother. Ponder that. 

[Tracy]

Of the clumping Dypsis species I'm growing, Dypsis pembana has been both the fastest and largest in terms of trunk diameters and in overall height.  I have one D onilahensis which has been faster in gaining height, but don't think it will ultimately get as large as tall as the pembanas and definitely has a narrower gauge trunk than any of the pembanas.  The only thing that has been slow about the Dypsis pembanas I have grown is their size and age to flower.  I have had stunted inflorescence but this year one of my solitary is actually producing flowers after a decade in the ground from a 7 gallon size.

[lzorrito]

Dypsis pembana seedling goes outside...

[Frond-friend42]

On 9/14/2020 at 2:29 PM, Palmaceae said:

They grow fast here in Florida, here is one of mine (far left). This is a years growth, it would have been even faster but I moved all my palms, including this one from Cape Coral to St Pete last summer so they had some transplant shock.

Whoa! That is FAST. 

[Patrick Palms]

Pretty clear to me. Some Pembana seedlings have red stems and some have green. Wonder why that is ?

[lzorrito]

13 minutes ago, Patrick Palms said:

Pretty clear to me. Some Pembana seedlings have red stems and some have green. Wonder why that is ?

Variations within the specie itself, the multiple/different conditions of growth and probably many others that I ignore...

[Emarohl]

I just purchased this dypsis pembana recently and I’m wondering whether that’s what this really is. The petioles on some of them look green like d. pembana but some of them look yellow like d. lutescens. Is it maybe a combination of the two in the same pot? 

[Merlyn]

@EmarohlI think the leaves are too wide to be Lutescens.  It looks like my young Pembana, but could also be Lanceolata.  I really don't know how to tell them apart at this size.

[Emarohl]

Yeah I think you’re right. After a closer look in better light, the petioles are more of a reddish color. Definitely not d. lutescens. I repotted it in a bigger pot, I think it looks good! 

[Moose]

On 9/12/2020 at 4:06 PM, Patrick Palms said:

I bought my seedlings from Christian Faulkner in Florida. He sold them as Pembana and he normally knows his stuff?   Maybe he made mistake 

Pembana seed is almost twice the size of cabadae. Cabadae are smaller than a tic tac and got red petioles when youngins. 

Not To Be confused with the infamous Dypsis sp. 'Black stem'

 

[Matt in OC]

Moose back? 👀

Lanceolata, I think. Pembana trunks will have a flared base, even at a young age.

[Billeb]

On 1/7/2023 at 11:26 AM, Emarohl said:

Yeah I think you’re right. After a closer look in better light, the petioles are more of a reddish color. Definitely not d. lutescens. I repotted it in a bigger pot, I think it looks good! 

Like pretty much everybody else said, I believe it’s a community pot of Lanceolata. Definitely not Lutescens or Pembana. Both those look different as juveniles. Even at a very young age, Lutescens are heavily speckled. Here’s a 15G I planted out 3 months ago that I hacked back a lot to only hold 3 trunks so it’s more contained. They get super full and dense with offspring if they are let to run wild. 
 

It’s time to separate those things into singles by the way. In the next few months would be a good time. 
 

-dale 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Billeb
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