Encephalartos lehmannii in arizona

[Coasta]

Hello all!!! I am in Mesa, AZ and I  just picked up a Encephalartos lehmannii this past weekend at jungle music. 

I would love to hear any helpful information on this beautiful cycad if you could please share.

How often do these flush?

Is there a time frame when it flushes? 

Does more heat make them more blue?

How much sun can they take here in arizona? 

I am debating moving it into a different pot and raising it up a little. Are they sensitive when moving? 

Is EB palm and citrus a good soil for this cycad, and how often should I water? 

 

Thanks so much if you have any knowledge, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[Tracy]

While you have cohorts in the greater Phoenix area who can advise you on heat/sun tolerance when you hit the high teens, I will share a little on my experience with this species.  The color will be blue as long as you give it some sunlight and avoid overhead spray.  The blue color is due to a glaucus material that essentially acts like a sunscreen.  You can rub it off, or spray it off with excessive direct spray from a sprinkler or hose.  Older retained flushes often show this color differential, whether from rain, rubbing against nearby plants or sprinklers.  How many flushes?  At that size you will likely get multiple small flushes of 1 to 3 leaves or maybe it will start throwing ever increasing numbers of leaves but less frequently.  Normally they start to flush in the spring as things heat up and can flush into the fall if they have built up enough energy for an additional flush (s).  Here with a coning size specimen, I typically see one good flush per year on the main caudex and a couple on pups about the size of yours.  Occasionally I might see a second flush on the main caudex, but that would be in the case of an early start to Spring for the first flush.  I don't know what the excessively high temps you experienced for a prolonged period might do to slow or speed flushes, but again, there are a number of people in your area that can share that.  I use a time release fertilizer on all my palms and cycads ( Palm Plus™ 13-5-8 with GAL-XeONE® ) in the ground these days.  Some have attributed deformed flushes ( GeneAZ ) to their use of a time released fertilizer and prefer periodic dosing with a liquid fertilizer.  As with almost all Encephalartos, well drained soil is their friend.

[Coasta]

@Tracy THANK YOU Tracy!!!! I appreciate all of this information. The more I learn about it, the better chance I have at keeping it alive and nice looking. Wow you have one that has coned. Do you have any photos of your speciman? I would love to see! 

In regards to the soil, is there a specific brand you use? 

 

I thought about eb citrus and palms but not sure if it is okay for it to stay moist. 

[Tracy]

14 hours ago, Coasta said:

I thought about eb citrus and palms but not sure if it is okay for it to stay moist. 

Whether to amend your soil and how to amend it for an Encephalartos depends on what you are starting with and how much rainfall you get.  Rainfall in Mesa isn't a real issue except if you have a low spot and you are in monsoon season.  When I was planting cycads in my Carlsbad garden I had clay soil so did a lot of mounding, or planting on slopes or raised planters where I amended the soil significantly.  I used something similar to a cactus mix and pumice with a heavy emphasis on pumice there.  Here in Leucadia, I have very sandy soil.  I still mound plant for maximum drainage, and mix a very coarse decomposed granite dg with a cactus mix.  The sandy soil would tend to wash away and not stay in the mound without the dg.

[Coasta]

@Tracy  wow what a pretty girl!!!  I plan to keep mine in a pot for at least another year. 

Do you think a cactus soil mix would be sufficient if i kept it in a pot and how often does lehmannii need water when it is in a pot? 

Also can they handle something that holds some moisture like a palm mix so that the pot doesn't need to be constantly watered. 

[Tracy]

Since I know that GeneAZ is growing some beautiful Encephalartos in pots in your climate, I will defer to his advice on how frequently you should water it.  I didn't plant mine until around 5 years ago and grew it in a pot during the prior years.  It was oozing some excess starch when I had it in a citrus pot after a winter of heavy rains, so I transplanted it up into a mix that was almost exclusively pumice for speedy draining.  It did fine with weekly watering here, but it was also in only about 5 hours of mid-day sun in my Carlsbad garden at that time.  I don't get the heat and we have some humidity although not bad, but definitely noticeable compared to the low desert outside of your monsoon season.  I would lean to the faster draining mix unless Gene or someone else in your area advises otherwise.