Another New Palm Garden in East Hawaii

[Rick Kelley]

Some of you may have seen recent headlines about the severe storm that hit Hawaii. There was no flooding at my place. I only got about 5” of rain over several days, which is nothing unusual and in fact welcome after a dry period. The problem was a very brief, but intense wind event Sunday afternoon. I was away from the house, so I missed the action. When I returned, I had ten large ohi`a trees down, one on the power line to my house. None of the palms were blown over.

The native ohi`a trees are pioneers on fresh lava flows. They can grow on solid lava with their roots spreading out over the surface to hold the tree upright. Individual trees are often scrawny with few leaves since they get almost no nutrients from the ground. They normally grow in dense forests so each tree helps brace all its neighbors from wind. When I started working on my property nine years ago, I did not appreciate this fact. The first thing I did was thin out the vegetation to make room for ornamental plants, mostly palms. I cut down about 80% of the ohi`a and only left the largest ones. This was a terrible mistake. Without all the other trees to shield them, the few remaining tall ohi`a trees have been taking a beating every time we have a storm. To compound the problem, once freed of their competing neighbors and stealing some fertilizer tossed to nearby palms, the remaining ohi`a started growing better and developed thicker crowns of leaves. This made them dramatically more susceptible to wind.

So, Sunday the ohi`a came down like nails balancing on their heads. But because I am such a wonderful person, the palm gods directed each ohi`a to fall harmlessly clear of the nearby palms so only minor damage occurred.

The first exhibit is a Phoenicophorium borsigianum growing next to a tall ohi`a that conveniently fell in the opposite direction. Only the bottom half of the ohi`a is shown. The top half is out of frame to the right. 

[Rick Kelley]

Here are some of my favorite Marojejya darianii that narrowly escaped TWO falling ohi`a. One fell over and took its neighbor down with it.

A baby Verschaffeltia splendida escaped by only one foot. 

The Grammatophyllum orchids blooming on the fallen ohi`a were not bothered by the wind.

I'm especially thankful the Marojejya were not damaged because they are blooming their heads off right now. Unfortunately, it looks like almost all male flowers. A future post will cover my attempts to identify female flowers and pollinate them.

Not directly related to storm damage, but while going through the garden after the storm, I noticed that my male Kerridoxa is blooming out of season. I’m trying to collect and store pollen to use when the females bloom in the spring. This past year I got several hundred viable seeds and was hoping to do even better in 2022, but I only have one male. 

This ohi`a fell right next to my baby Corypha umbraculifera. I really value this palm because I planted it five years ago as a very small one-gallon seedling. Now it is 7-8 feet tall and opening a new frond every six weeks. It is not nearly as slow as I was warned. I have very high hopes for this palm.

[Rick Kelley]

Here is an ohi`a that narrowly missed a small Borassodendron machadonis. Off to the right is a baby Iriartea deltoidea that also escaped. If you look on the exposed lava bedrock where the ohi`a roots peeled up, the large thick roots remaining point back to a Beccarophoenix out of frame ten feet away. The palms survived the wind because they have mch better roots.

This fallen ohi`a threaded the needle between a number of nearby trees. It missed a Dypsis carlsithii on the right.

It just missed a recently planted 4” Ravenea sambiranensis.

And looking from the other end, you can see it dodged a Dypsis ampasindavae on the right. The bare lava bedrock exposed by the torn away roots illustrates what gardeners in Puna have to work with. Essentially, asphalt.

This is the saddest case. The ohi`a (hard to make out due to being covered in vines) just missed the stem of what had been my best Licuala peltata sumawongii. Unfortunately, it clobbered the fronds on one side. I’m hoping that once I get my chainsaw out to remove the fallen tree, the palm will bounce back without too much trauma.

 

And for those skeptics who are shaking their heads saying these near misses are just simple cases of trees falling in the direction of the wind, they actually fell in a wide variety of directions spanning about 120 degrees. Nope, this is definitely a case of supernatural intervention to shield the palms.

The palm gods were also working overtime on Saturday when the local palm society held a long-scheduled tour of the 5 acre palm estate planted by Bo Lundkvist 25+ years ago. The property narrowly survived the massive 2018 lava eruption just a mile away and has recently changed hands.  Bo (center, in all blue) generously provided an oral history of the garden and lead one of the small groups exploring the many geographically organized sections. The weather forecast leading up to the tour had been terrible with close to 100% chance of heavy rain all day. However, we only had a few sprinkles. Otherwise the weather was perfect to visit this world-famous garden. The new owners are wonderful stewards of this botanical treasure.

 

[Brad52]

Amazing!  And such a testament to the merits of clean living!

[Cindy Adair]

Wonderful news all around!

I loved the survivor photos although it is humbling to see your beauties compared to my much younger palms. 

Perhaps some new planting opportunities (at least of accent plants) once all the chainsaw cleanup is complete?

It was also interesting to hear about the roles that the Ohi`a trees play in HI.

Thanks!

[palmfriend]

A great and very interesting documentation (as always)! The images taken were very

helpful to understand the described situation - luckily your palms got away almost 

undamaged!

Are you planning to reestablish some of the fallen ohi`a trees or will you leave it as

it is?

Finally thank you for posting the image of the palm tour with Bo in the center!

 

Lars

 

 

 

 

[Brad52]

Hopefully your Blue Marble trees will hang on to the lava better than the Ohi'a, they need to get those buttress roots going!

[Kim]

I am shocked to see healthy ohi'a trees falling!  While I have had many, many ohi'a trees fall, but for one exception, they were always dead for a long time before falling. I was unaware of the concept of the trees protecting each other as a community, as you described. Really interesting! About 98% of my ohi'a trees were lost to Rapid Ohi'a Death, the fungus that causes a very quick decline, seemingly irreversible. They stand for years, completely defoliated, like skeleton trees. Then a heavy rain and a wind, and ... c-rr-aaa-cckkk! Down they come.

Just as you have seen, it is rare for a palm to get a direct knockout from a falling tree. With all the falling trees I've experienced (too many to count) I have lost 2 palms as a result. Fairly good odds when you consider the number of palms just standing there, no way to run!  Speaking of which, your lovely Licuala will be just fine. It requires a direct hit to the palm heart to wipe them out; your palm had just a flesh wound.  Good job appeasing the palm gods, Rick!

[Rick Kelley]

Today is another tale about patience. In the fall of 2014, the local palm society held a member plant sale.  These are great places to pick up deals on uncommon palms grown from seeds by our members.  I was looking through the wide selection of babies Mike Merritt had brought, but I didn’t know what most of them were or what they would look like.  He had a dozen one-gallon pots of Pinanga speciosa, but they weren’t selling.  Most likely they were $5-10 each.  I had no idea what it was, so I asked.  ‘Oh, it’s a nice palm. Doesn’t get too big.’  Wow!  A silver-tongued salesman like that is sure to get rich on sales commissions.  With a sales pitch like that, I was baffled why the palms weren’t flying out of his booth.  Luckily Tim Brian was standing by and helpfully volunteered that this palm had an incredibly beautiful purple crownshift.  Tim gave it a strong recommendation.  Seven+ years later I’m a very happy customer.  As an aside, Tim donated a one-gallon Pinanga speciosa to our fundraiser auction a few years ago.  It went for $115, one of the top prices of the event.  Guess I really did get an incredible deal from Mike a couple of years earlier.  Although the fantastic colors are what most people on PT emphasize about this palm, I have learned that there is so much more to love.  Why hasn’t anyone even mentioned the EXPLODING FLOWERS?

After it went into the ground, this palm quickly morphed into the ugliest palm in the garden.  It was a mess. It always looked like a tornado survivor.  I frequently thought it needed to come out to make way for something more attractive.  Luckily, removing it was way down my to-do list. After several years it developed a trunk and began showing some nice crownshaft.  Once it began blooming, it was SPEC-TAC-U-LAR. Don’t give up on this species. 

This rest of this post is strictly for adults only. Very sensitive readers should instead click on a post about coconut palms. To catch the action, first you have to be a careful observer noting how the crownshaft swells as the future inflorescence develops underneath. The clock start ticking the day the old leaf falls away exposing the new bloom spathe set off by the incredible purple crownshaft.

On day two the spathe falls away exposing the pendant white dreadlocks of the unopened flower buds.  The buds are arranged in an almost crystalline array. Now is the time to set your alarm for the next morning.  You snooze, you lose.

 

And a closeup of that amazing color.

On the third morning, the flowers all open at once presenting an irresistible target for bees.  They swoop in to check out the scene, but as soon as they touch a flower, it explodes in a cloud of pale-yellow pollen. Nothing subtle going on here.  After detonation, the flower falls to the ground. The shell-shocked, pollen-coated bees collect around the growing pile of fallen flowers.

 

[Rick Kelley]

There is only one possible conclusion. Pinanga speciosa likes it rough.  After only a couple of hours, it’s all over.  Or is it?  The inflorescence seems bare after all the flowers have fallen.

 

A week later another frond falls away revealing another fat inflorescence tucked inside a sheath.  Over the next few days, the pollen orgy repeats.

 

Another week goes by and another dark purple crownshaft falls away releasing a third inflorescence.  Right on schedule, its flowers call the bees back for more high impact pollination.

 

After another six months, the green seeds turn a purple-black and the rachis turns an amazing red typical of the genus. Presumably this color combination is irresistible to some bird in its native habitat that helps disperse the seeds.

The ripe seeds get coated in pollen when a new inflorescence opens a little higher up the trunk.

I’ve germinated some of these to give away to garden visitors.  Of course, the seedlings look like crap.  There is no hint what they will grow into.  Bottom line- if your climate allows it to reach to blooming size, definitely give this species a try.

[KDubU]

Very cool! Tks for posting this as it’s amazing what Mother Nature can do.

[realarch]

Rick, thanks for the photos and the short vid of P. speciosa. I agree, such a spectacular palm and quite robust as well. I did take a short vid of the flowers falling off, but yours had more action in it. Such palm geeks that it takes so little to be entertained. 

Tim

[Rick Kelley]

This morning the local news had a story about Hawaii being in extreme drought. It’s all relative. In the first three months of 2022 I had 17” of rain compared to 72” for the same period in 2021. So yeah, it’s been dry, but not California dry. The rains have made a big comeback so far in April. Here is what extreme drought looks like at my place.

 

The palms are from L to R, Mauritiellia armata (8 ft), Attalea cohune (15 ft), Mauritia flexuosa (9 ft), Corypha umbraculifera (9 ft), and a runted Tahina spectabilis (3 ft) on the far right. 

 

The deep, muddy ruts in my driveway are from two giant cinder trucks that delivered loads 71 and 72 on Thursday, fortuitously the one dry day we have had in April. There are two Phytelephas aequatoralis in the upper left corner. I’m getting close to the end of the construction phase of the garden and may soon be able to transition into full time pig slayer.

[Rick Kelley]

This morning I went out to survey the damage from last night’s pig attack. A single pig has managed to rototill much of my property in the past few weeks. I thought maybe I should record one tiny section of my garden that the pig has not gotten to, yet. This area was planted in February 2018 on the side of a slope going down to the lowest depression on my property about seven feet below the driveway. The white string is my property boundary. I later built steps along the bottom of the area.

 

Pm=Phytelephas macrocarpa

Dp=Dypsis prestoniana

Bn=Bentinckia nicobarica

Dl=Dypsis leptocheilos

 

This view is taken slightly to the right compared to the 'before' photo above. The palms all went in the ground from one-gallon pots. After four years, it is starting to fill in. The steps have been added in the past two years to make it easier for me (and the pigs) to get around.

 

And the same area looking up from the bottom. The tall, slender palm in the center is Bentinckia nicobarica. The palm at lower left is Phytelephas macrocarpa. I knew nothing about this genus when I got it, but the friend I got it from said it never forms a trunk (acaulescent) and would resemble a cycad when bigger. He was spot on. However, I did not appreciate that it is dioecious. Mine is a female. 

 

Here is the flower that is currently open. If anyone in Puna has a male blooming right now, I would greatly appreciate some pollen. I’m also in the market for several more of these.

 

Even without a male around, last year’s flower produced a seed pod. I presume it is empty.

[Rick Kelley]

 

 

Just behind the Phytelephas I recently planted a Licuala ferruginea from Floribunda. This particular variety differs significantly from the description given on Palmpedia. Instead of a dozen segments, the fronds are divided into only a few segments with the central one being much larger than the others. It has only been in the ground a few months and already put out two new fronds, so great expectations. Hope I didn't mix up name tags!

Behind these two is a Dypsis prestoniana started from a small Floribunda one-gallon (see 'before' photo) This is easily the fastest large Dypsis I have rocketing in just four years from a start of eight inches up to ten feet tall. With plumose fronds and plenty of color, it is easy to see why this is such a popular species. From posts on PT it seems like several palms sold under different names are probably slight variants of prestoniana. This one might turn out to be another overcrowding mistake in a couple more years.

 

A few steps away is Dypsis leptocheilos which in addition to the fuzzy red crownshaft, is starting to show a bit of color in the trunk.

[Rick Kelley]

Here is a tall, slender palm with widely spaced fronds who’s name tag was lost. It didn’t look very promising back when it was in a pot, but now that it’s had a few years in the ground and is doing so much better, I’d like to add a few more. Any guesses what it is?

 

Since I mentioned the somewhat bland Bentinckia nicobarica, I’ll close with its much more flamboyant cousin, Bentinckia condapana. Everyone should be growing this if your climate allows. The purple-grey crownshaft is great, but it gets even better after they start blooming. This emerging inflorescence looks like a flame shooting out the side of the trunk. Open flowers are slightly lower with ripe fruit on the lowest branches. I’ve gotten a few seedlings from this tree but will double my efforts to raise more. Always need some nice giveaways for garden visitors.

I hope you enjoyed the minitour. By the time you read this, the pigs will probably have plowed it all up. The palms can withstand the pigs once their roots get established, but the coleus I use for ground cover get uprooted and tossed to the side in the endless search for fat worms. Some of you may be wondering, “Why doesn’t he just put a fence around his property?” A new neighbor recently purchased a property two lots down the road from me. She’s a pandemic refugee relocating from a large west coast city hoping to telecommute while fulfilling her dream to become a farmer in Hawaii. Think Green Acres. After arriving, she was disheartened to learn crops will not grow on solid lava. She also learned that a fence around her three acres would be needed if she wanted to keep the pigs out. She hired two guys to clear the trash vegetation from the perimeter of her land so a fence could be built. Just clearing around the property line took two weeks and cost thousands of dollars. Then she started contacting fence companies. She was shocked that lower estimates were coming in around $30-40K. Drilling hundreds of holes for fence posts in solid lava is very expensive. She changed her plans about becoming a Hawaiian farmer and has put the property back up for sale. The moral of the story is that anyone thinking about moving to the Big Island to do anything related to agriculture or horticulture should do their homework first. Like, oh, I don’t know, maybe read palm blogs.

[Barry]

Rick,

Gorgeous gardens, and amazing growth! You hard work and dedication shows thru the pictures. Even living in Florida, the growth rates in Hawaii are amazing. I just planted a double P. speciosa last week. And you are right, looks like a disaster. Hopefully it will take and grow to a specimen like yours! It was a 7 gal from Searle during there close out sales.  Have a number of other palms I need to get in the ground now. It never ends

[Kim]

Hey Rick, a tip for the pigs. It sounds crazy, but I tried it, and no more pig problems. Get some basic ordinary lawn fertilizer and put it all over where the pigs are digging. The theory is pigs are smart and don't like chemicals. It's a cheap solution, give it a shot. Worked for me. Your garden is looking amazing!

[WaianaeCrider]

Wow!  What a jungle. 

"This morning the local news had a story about Hawaii being in extreme drought. It’s all relative. In the first three months of 2022 I had 17” of rain compared to 72” for the same period in 2021. So yeah, it’s been dry, but not California dry. The rains have made a big comeback so far in April. Here is what extreme drought looks like at my place."

and then on the West side of O`ahu it's been :
Jan-9.35"  (5.4 on New Years Day)

Feb-0.43"

Mar-0.79"

Apr-0.05"

[mike in kurtistown]

Rick, I had my 8.3 acre lot fenced for about $1K in 2012. Of course, I spent almost ten times as much before that for general land clearing, including the boundary area. But the pigs have never tried to get in since then. Why should they when they have so many unfenced properties to root for worms in?

[Rick Kelley]

" It sounds crazy, but I tried it, and no more pig problems. Get some basic ordinary lawn fertilizer and put it all over where the pigs are digging. The theory is pigs are smart and don't like chemicals. It's a cheap solution, give it a shot. Worked for me. "

Kim,

How much cyanide does your brand of fertilizer contain?  Turns out I unintentionally tested your hypothesis recently.  About three weeks ago I spread 300 lbs. of fertilizer around my three acres of palms.  It has not deterred pigs in the slightest. 

Exhibit 1.

May not be all that obvious, but yesterday coleus were tightly packed around the base of this baby palm.  It got fertilizer two or three weeks ago, but the pigs rototilled around it anyway.

Exhibit 2

Again, may not be obvious in the photo, but this entire area has been plowed up several times in the past week.  The upper palm has so far managed to remain upright, but the lower one is a goner.  My neighbors are not attacked nearly as frequently as I am.  I have brought this on myself by hauling in mountains of mulch in my attempt to manufacture some soil.  I add a deep layer of fresh mulch at least once a year.  By then the previous year's mulch has turned to rich humus and is full of worms. The pigs cannot resist. They return night after night to some especially choice spots, like the one above.  My property has a five star rating in all the porcine travel guides.  Maybe fertilizer laying on the surface might inhibit pigs during dry weather, but with the rain I've been getting the past couple of weeks, I bet most of it has soaked deep into the cinder.  Adding fertilizer more often would be prohibitively expensive and environmentally damaging.

The only thing I have found to be effective is murder.  Late last night I was engaged in some hand-to-hoof combat in the rain and dark. Desperate times demand desperate measures.

The mom and siblings escaped into the undergrowth, but they'll be back.  And I'll be waiting... 

 

[WaianaeCrider]

19 minutes ago, Rick Kelley said:

" It sounds crazy, but I tried it, and no more pig problems. Get some basic ordinary lawn fertilizer and put it all over where the pigs are digging. The theory is pigs are smart and don't like chemicals. It's a cheap solution, give it a shot. Worked for me. "

Kim,

How much cyanide does your brand of fertilizer contain?  Turns out I unintentionally tested your hypothesis recently.  About three weeks ago I spread 300 lbs. of fertilizer around my three acres of palms.  It has not deterred pigs in the slightest. 

Exhibit 1.

May not be all that obvious, but yesterday coleus were tightly packed around the base of this baby palm.  It got fertilizer two or three weeks ago, but the pigs rototilled around it anyway.

Exhibit 2

Again, may not be obvious in the photo, but this entire area has been plowed up several times in the past week.  The upper palm has so far managed to remain upright, but the lower one is a goner.  My neighbors are not attacked nearly as frequently as I am.  I have brought this on myself by hauling in mountains of mulch in my attempt to manufacture some soil.  I add a deep layer of fresh mulch at least once a year.  By then the previous year's mulch has turned to rich humus and is full of worms. The pigs cannot resist. They return night after night to some especially choice spots, like the one above.  My property has a five star rating in all the porcine travel guides.  Maybe fertilizer laying on the surface might inhibit pigs during dry weather, but with the rain I've been getting the past couple of weeks, I bet most of it has soaked deep into the cinder.  Adding fertilizer more often would be prohibitively expensive and environmentally damaging.

The only thing I have found to be effective is murder.  Late last night I was engaged in some hand-to-hoof combat in the rain and dark. Desperate times demand desperate measures.

The mom and siblings escaped into the undergrowth, but they'll be back.  And I'll be waiting... 

 

NOthing wrong w/that supply of Pork.

[Kim]

Fire up the imu! 
 

I have no explanation for the failure of the fertilizer as a deterrent. Unless you went 100% organic so the pigs didn’t turn up their noses?  Your garden is obviously irresistibly delicious. 

[mike in kurtistown]

I would just fence the property. 3 acres doesn't sound like much, especially since I fenced 8.3 acres in January 2012 for just under $10K. And I needed to remove huge trees, clear the fence line, fill in a quarry, etc. No pigs at all since then. My neighbor, the fruit farmer, was sure if I or he fenced, they would just burrow under the fence. Never happened. My theory is that the pigs just don't want to go to the effort, when they can just go onto one of my neighbor's property. (Life is easy on the Big Island!) My neighbor eventually did fence his 25 acre fruit farm and it was successful. I can provide the name of the company that did my fence - would recommend them highly.

[realarch]

Gee Rick, this tread just went from ‘G’ to ‘M’ for mature……gore and violence.  Not a great feeling knowing that swine have found a new restaurant, and it’s yours. They will eventually move on, but in the meantime….

After first moving here we planted purple sweet potato en masse as a ground cover. It looked spectacular for about a year. Then the pigs found it and they came back every night for about two weeks until every single tuber was gone. Obliterated. We live in the city on a fairly busy street, no matter, they are everywhere. You see people leaving left over food by the side of the road specifically for the four legged buggers. 

On another note, your garden, irrespective of the ongoing destruction, is looking mighty fine. The growth of the plant material is astounding. The mulch makes such a difference, but on the other hand you have to keep adding more. We’ve lost our mulching mojo and now just spot apply.

Thanks for the garden update, entertaining to say the least. 

Tim 

[mike in kurtistown]

The pigs that roamed my property before fencing had a thing for the plastic tags that I use for ID'ing my palms over time. I still have things planted in the wrong places because the plastic tags were removed (eaten?). Also, the animals were especially fond of palms with longish columnar trunks when small - I recall Socratea seedlings, for example. The first three Socrateas I planted out were quickly chewed up. My theory is that they mistook them for sugar cane (my property was once part of Puna Sugar).

[Hilo Jason]

1 hour ago, realarch said:

Gee Rick, this tread just went from ‘G’ to ‘M’ for mature……gore and violence.  Not a great feeling knowing that swine have found a new restaurant, and it’s yours. They will eventually move on, but in the meantime….

After first moving here we planted purple sweet potato en masse as a ground cover. It looked spectacular for about a year. Then the pigs found it and they came back every night for about two weeks until every single tuber was gone. Obliterated. We live in the city on a fairly busy street, no matter, they are everywhere. You see people leaving left over food by the side of the road specifically for the four legged buggers. 

On another note, your garden, irrespective of the ongoing destruction, is looking mighty fine. The growth of the plant material is astounding. The mulch makes such a difference, but on the other hand you have to keep adding more. We’ve lost our mulching mojo and now just spot apply.

Thanks for the garden update, entertaining to say the least. 

Tim 

Tim - I was just about to ask if you've ever had pig issues in town.  Reason being is that pigs found my garden last night!  Every planter in my front yard has been turned upside down!  My grass was not touched (which is nice) because they seemed very content in my planters which have had almost 5 years of mulch and compost added to them.  The bugs are thick in those planters.  But I can't believe the damage throughout the yard.  Rocks thrown around and almost every square inch of planter space looks like it has been rototilled.  

This is all in my front yard, which fronts a very busy road here in town.  Thankfully my backyard is fenced and they cannot get in there.  We did recently adopt a shelter dog who was most likely used for pig hunting, so maybe we'll have to put her back to her previous life's career to help take care of the problem?  In all seriousness I just hope they move on and don't come back. 

[Cindy Adair]

And I whine about rhinoceros beetles…

So sorry about all the pig attacks in Hawaii.

One of the many things I have learned on PT is that there are palm challenges in every growing area from type of dirt to cost of land and water to weather/natural disasters to lack of easy palm availability to pests natural or introduced. 

Yet the gorgeous photos show we push through and at least get sympathy when our prized trees don’t make it.

Just all those truck loads of cinder make me respect your efforts Rick!  Your garden is stunning.

 

[Big Eye]

6 hours ago, realarch said:

Gee Rick, this tread just went from ‘G’ to ‘M’ for mature……gore and violence.  Not a great feeling knowing that swine have found a new restaurant, and it’s yours. They will eventually move on, but in the meantime….

After first moving here we planted purple sweet potato en masse as a ground cover. It looked spectacular for about a year. Then the pigs found it and they came back every night for about two weeks until every single tuber was gone. Obliterated. We live in the city on a fairly busy street, no matter, they are everywhere. You see people leaving left over food by the side of the road specifically for the four legged buggers. 

On another note, your garden, irrespective of the ongoing destruction, is looking mighty fine. The growth of the plant material is astounding. The mulch makes such a difference, but on the other hand you have to keep adding more. We’ve lost our mulching mojo and now just spot apply.

Thanks for the garden update, entertaining to say the least. 

Tim 

Hi Tim,

They must have come from that LARGE 200+ acres behind your house or from across the street behind the school. In my younger days, we used to ride bike behind the school and there would be tons of pigs back there. Not to mention the new subdivision at the end of that side street... Who knows? Are they still foraging at your place still?

Keenan

[Big Eye]

4 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

Tim - I was just about to ask if you've ever had pig issues in town.  Reason being is that pigs found my garden last night!  Every planter in my front yard has been turned upside down!  My grass was not touched (which is nice) because they seemed very content in my planters which have had almost 5 years of mulch and compost added to them.  The bugs are thick in those planters.  But I can't believe the damage throughout the yard.  Rocks thrown around and almost every square inch of planter space looks like it has been rototilled.  

This is all in my front yard, which fronts a very busy road here in town.  Thankfully my backyard is fenced and they cannot get in there.  We did recently adopt a shelter dog who was most likely used for pig hunting, so maybe we'll have to put her back to her previous life's career to help take care of the problem?  In all seriousness I just hope they move on and don't come back. 

Hi Jason,

So ironic that you bring up your pig encounter. My friend, who lives behind you in another subdivision had her vegetables plowed. Wonder if all this rain is making them venture outside of their territory to go exploring. Either way, the main road is scary if you see a pig just to the side on a rainy night, on a windy road... GAny way, good luck with those "buggahs" and hopefully they don't tear up much more of your garden!

[realarch]

Aloha Jason, Keenan, The problem we had with the pigs, at least in our situation, can be directly correlated with development near where we live. It seems every time there is a lot being cleared, it disturbs the resident swine who in turn look for new places to forage. 

This usually occurs across the street near the school as the open space behind the house remains intact. We do see pigs all the time roaming that open space, but luckily we have a low block wall for most of the back property line and an attempt at a pig fence for the remainder. We do have pigs in the back garden every now and then, but not for a few years now. Pigs are a problem for gardeners island wide, from Puna to Hamakua, and Hawi to Naalehu. 

Tim

[Rick Kelley]

Hawaii is in the middle of an epic drought, so today’s theme is ‘brown’.  Most gardeners associate brown with dead tissue, but with palms it is sometimes an interesting accent color.  I’ll start with a pair of Japanese Satakentia liukiuensis (#1 & 2) that were some of the first palms that went into the ground nearly ten years . They have been pretty darn slow for me.  They only really started doing something after five or six years in the ground.  The photos I’ve seen on the Internet look much more impressive compared to the almost-too-faint-to-see brown rings at the top of the trunks in my garden.  The crownshafts of my trees show none of the rich dark violet I’ve seen in photos.  I’m hoping the color intensifies as they get older.  In the 2023 photo, I have added a small terrace on the left with a Dypsis sp. Mayotte Island (#3).  Not sure if that name has been updated with all the reclassification.

Today’s second brown palm is Neoveitchia storckii from Fiji.  This is one of those palms that I think looks better as a teen.  The chocolate brown base of the petioles is very appealing, but is obscured once the tree begins to bloom.  This started out as a FB one gallon in 2017 (#1). To help orient you with the different photos, I have marked an ohi`a tree with a Coelogyne pandurata orchid mounted on it (Cp).

I’ve used the same numbers in all photos so it is easier to compare.

1 Neoveitchia storckii 1 gallon planted in 2017, now about 15 ft tall

2 Corypha umbraculifera one gallon seedling planted in 2017, now 8 ft tall

3 Metroxylon amicarum tiny seedling planted 2020, now 7 ft tall

4 Neoveitchia storckii 6” seedling planted in 2018, now 6 ft tall, but not trunk

5 Phoenix roebelenii 3 gallon planted 2020

6 Areca macrocalyx Marie, 1 gallon planted 2022

8 Caryota mystery sp 1 gallon planted in 2017, now ~25 ft tall

9 Dictyocaryum lamarckianum 4” planted 2022

10 Pinanga bicolana 4” planted 2020

11 Pinanga maculata 1 gallon planted 2018

12 Hydriastele splendida pair of 4” pots planted 2021

I talked about building rock walls in previous updates, so here I just show a couple of before & after photos. My property is solid lava without any soil, so everything is growing in raised beds of black volcanic cinder mixed with mulch.

This grouping gives me all the motivation I need to not drop dead.  In ten years the Caryota, Corypha, and Metroxylon should all be huge.

I’m a bit concerned that the Corypha will crush the Neoveitchia down the road.  I swear it looked like appropriate spacing back when I planted the tiny seedlings.  I have a fair number of monocarpic palms in the garden, all species that will eventually become huge.  I try to plant them near the long driveway that goes down the center of my property hoping that will make removing the dead trunks easier after they bloom.

I’m trying to inject some color in this group with the Dictyocaryum and Areca macrocalyx Marie.  I tried Dictyocaryum before, but they died soon after going in the ground.  I thought I was just too low (700 ft elevation) and warm.  Other folks with similar conditions have had some success and encouraged me to try again.  The blue crownshafts in photos are very tempting. I’ve been warned that the A. macrocalyx Marie is something of a hit or miss proposition.  Apparently not every plant has the brilliant red crownshaft.  I’ve planted three in different locations around the garden hoping at least one hits the jackpot.

I am really warming up to the various Hydriastele species I’ve acquired.  So far, I don’t really see much difference between H. splendida and H. flabellata.  Maybe the difference will become obvious as they get larger.  And of course, I am addicted to Metroxylons.  I have four different species in the garden.  I’m very proud of this particular one because it is the first M. amicarum seed I successfully germinated three years ago.  Just as a reminder, I began this thread two years ago with another Metroxylon amicarum that I planted in late 2013 when it was a bit smaller than the baby in the photos above.  Here is what the older one looks like now.  I think it has put on about four feet of trunk in the two years since I used this palm as my first post on PT.  My neighbors bring over visitors from the mainland to have their pictures taken with this guy.  Sure hope it never falls over onto the power lines.

I’ll close this post with a question.  I snapped this lovely photo of Mauna Kea (13,600 ft) when I drove into Hilo last week.  Before you scroll down, what is terribly wrong with the photo?

Answer: ‘You can see Mauna Kea’.  No one should see the mountain like this.  East Hawaii usually has heavy cloud cover so that the summits of the volcanos are hidden.  But recently Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa have been looking postcard perfect most days.  This has got to stop! Normally super wet East Hawaii is currently suffering extreme drought.  You can’t have a rainforest without the rain.  Even worse, later that afternoon Mauna Kea was almost lost in vog (SO2) coming out of Kilauea.  It’s like living in L.A.  One reason for all this dry weather is that the trade winds have collapsed which should be blowing all the vog out to sea on the western side of the island while bringing abundant rain to East Hawaii. 

Everyone has been fixated on the series of atmospheric rivers dumping huge amounts of rain on the US west coast.  I can report, with great confidence, that California has been stealing ALL of Hawaii’s rain.  2022 was, by a very wide margin, the driest of the ten years I’ve been in Hawaii.  The past month has been freakishly dry.  We have had nothing but cloudless blue skies week after week.  My place is toast.  The earth just passed its closest point to the sun in its orbit.  We are over three million miles closer to the sun now than in July, and I can definitely feel the added heat.  Most people outside Hilo collect their household water off their roofs.  No rain, no water.

[mike in kurtistown]

I am hooking up the watering hoses to my shadehouses for the first time in many years. I believe that climate change is responsible for the series of monster cold fronts that have come farther down south than ever before, giving us the "Kona Storm" of several weeks ago, then sucking all of the moisture out of the atmosphere in the vicinity of Hawaii and hurling it all onto California, where my Bay Area relatives tell stories about eating dinner out of cans in the darkness without electrical power.

[CLINODAVE]

Rick, from the photos, you would never know your place was dry!  I don't know if you were here in '98, but that was a humdinger of a winter drought year.  Some seriously brown lawns everywhere.  Altho most palms came through it.  Jan 98, Hilo airport only recorded .13" rain!   And the rain didn't really pick up till April.  The periodic HIPS newsletter was all about everyone's experiences with the drought.

I guess the takeaway is that it has happened before even in this rainiest of places.  Even when the IPS Biennial was in green, humid Singapore back in 2016, the head of the Botanic Gardens there reported that they had just recovered from some unbelievable amount of days with no rain.  And yet all I saw was a city drenched in greenery!

I am pretty positive that we will recover our rain, but I guess nothing is for sure climatically these days!

 

Dave

[Rick Kelley]

This is more of a weather update rather than a palm update.  After a terrible dry spell lasting six weeks, rains returned to East Hawaii in February with a vengeance.  I have gotten 30” so far this month, 12” in the past day.  My rain gauge overflowed, but I also put out a five-gallon Home Depot bucket last night.  It was full this morning.  The ten-day forecast is for nearly constant rain, so this is going to be a record-breaking wet month. 

 

The palms are loving it.  Here is a baby Pigafetta elata that had been dropping fronds left and right during the drought.  It takes a few weeks for the newly exposed section of trunk to green up, so you see a nice gradient of colors reaching up to the black bristles covering the petioles.  The exposed section of trunk probably represents only about six months of growth.  These guys are rockets.

[Hilo Jason]

It's great to have the rains back!  Although I'm not sure I'll be saying that a week from now (looks like it will still be raining then!) 

 

[realarch]

Ha Rick, I must be on the dry side, the rain gauge has 26.5 inches (673mm) for the month most of which has come in the last 48 hours. Yeah, the palms are lovin it and all the stress and frond drop, for now, are a thing of the past. From parched to soggy with a snap of a finger.

I used to have five Pigafettas, three blew over from a tropical storm, so I cut the other two down to limit future damage. I had heard they were susceptible to moderate winds and am now a believer.

Tim

[Rick Kelley]

Thought I would post an update on some giant wannabes. I posted photos of these about 2.5 years ago, so you can go back if you are interested in seeing growth rates. These might not be widely grown because they prefer tropical conditions and most residential lots could not accommodate such large palms. 

First up is Raphia farinifera. Doesn’t make much of a trunk, but the huge feather duster of massive fronds is a show stopper.  Talk on the street is that this genus has some of the largest leaves (20 m?) in the entire plant kingdom.  Sadly, this one is monocarpic.  I recently germinated some seeds, so I will be ready to replace it when it croaks. This went in the ground ten years ago from a 3-gallon pot.  I think it will get about twice this size before flowering.

Next up is Attalea cohune from tropical Mexico. Overall feather duster appearance is similar to Raphia at this point, but in another few years it will start to trunk.  The growth rate has been pretty good so far, but is supposed to get even faster after it trunks.  This has been in the ground eight years starting from a 5-gallon pot that was about waist high.  I really like the very stiff leaflets that stick straight out at 90 degrees. The wind makes them vibrate and clatter.

[Rick Kelley]

I’ll finish up this segment on future giants with a few more species.  Here is a Corypha after five years in the ground from a 1-gallon seedling that was about six inches high.  I think it is umbraculifera, but I can’t rule out utan.  Quickly becoming a favorite.  A mature tree might overwhelm a residential city lot, but I hope it will provide a focal point in the middle of my 3 acres.

 

I was warned that this species was super slow and would take decades to get any size, but I would place it in the vigorous category.  I put tags on each petiole when the frond cracks open so I can record growth rate.  A new frond opens about every five weeks, sometimes just four weeks.  In this photo I marked the just opened frond #1 with three more spears shooting up that will open before the end of the year.  All the fronds on the tree have opened in the past two years.  Older ones were pruned off in the spring.

 

I really love this species and look forward to it reaching monster size, but it is a pain to keep the base clear of weeds.  Hundreds of very sharp crocodile teeth are ready to attack the careless.  This is one big difference with the otherwise similar Tahina which has unarmed petioles.

 

Next is Mauritia flexuosa.  This went in the ground six years ago from a FB 4” pot that I had badly neglected.  It struggled with only one tiny green leaf but now is doing fine.  It is just entering my favorite phase with large fronds resembling a fountain of green fireworks shooting directly out of the ground.  This species can't decide if it wants to be a fan palm or pinnate palm.  I think it should look its best the next three years or so.  The big ones with massive trunks are impressive from a size standpoint, but they get a demerit for holding onto their old dead fronds.  I’m not a fan of this messy look, and because they are so huge, it is impossible to miss.

 

Maybe some of these species are a challenge in temperate climates, but lots of people grow royals.  Nothing very special about the ones in my garden except their rapid growth.  The first three went in the ground seven years ago with two more added the following year.  Fast growth=lots of falling fronds.

Starting size when planted in 2016.

 

And now a sad update.  In my post from September 14, I showed a photo of a 10-year old Raphia farinifera and said it was about half grown.  A few days ago, I walked past it and noticed a half dozen huge inflorescences sprouting out of the crown.  They are hard to see because they are concealed under the dense fronds, but there they are.  In the photo one is hiding just to the left of the yellow line.  Good thing I started some new seedlings.  Looks like I’ll need them sooner than I expected.  Major bummer.

 

Since I found one monocarpic species blooming, I checked a few others around the garden.  More bad news from Metroxylon warburgii.  I knew these were about mature size, and sure enough, I discovered terminal inflorescences erupting out the tops.  These guys were rockets who apparently go by the motto, ‘Live fast, die young’.  These were started from seed just eleven years ago. I will miss them.

[Brad52]

Sorry about the impending losses but everything looks great Rick.