Patio Squad

[JohnAndSancho]

12 minutes ago, D. Morrowii said:

I noticed the same thing about the A. tuckeri very rooty, Queens too, Others like Royals and Hurricane (Dictyosperma album) not nearly as much. Maybe we should start a rootyness scale thread in the container forum? :-) I guess its easy enough to slip it out of the liner for a look. 

 

Oh Lord I dread repotting my queen 

 

Most of my palms are in "bottom watering" pots, and my Queen's water reservoir is literally solid, fat root. I was shocked at how rootbound my d. Lutescens is, and my big C. Cataractarum is worse. 

[PalmsandLiszt]

B. afredii is also very rooty. I repotted mine a few weeks ago and it had grown a thick tap root at the bottom of the pot that was literally pushing the whole root-ball up.The bottom inch and a half of the pot was just air. Wondering now if I didn't go up in size enough.

Re: perlite, I have taken to only using it in the bottom 2/3rds of the medium, and using pumice instead in the top third. Pumice is heavy and stays put. I've also often found that on the very first watering of what ought to be a very free-draining mix it doesn't drain anywhere near as well as it ought to. However, once everything in it has been properly hydrated, on subsequent waterings it drains fine. This might be what's happening with your A. tuckeri mix. It's probably something to do with the organic parts of it expanding as they absorb water.

[JohnAndSancho]

I'm dealing with the giant tap root issue in most of my pots. I guess it's possible I didn't plant anything at all deep enough. 

 

As far as the repotted Tuckerii soil and the slow drainage, in the past I've either used high dollar soil (fox farm ocean forest, good dirt) or used cheap garden soil and added lots of bark and clay. This time I got cheap and lazy, and the sand in cheaper soils clogs the drainage holes in my pots. I poked at the holes with a chop stick to open them up but I'm still not happy. The first heavy rain it sees is gonna drown it. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Welp 

 

Maintenance came into my apartment while I was at work. This guy and my Majesty were on their sides, and this guy popped out of the soil a little so guess he's getting re re-potted this weekend, in better soil. 

[piping plovers]

On 4/18/2022 at 7:40 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

Maintenance came into my apartment while I was at work. This guy and my Majesty were on their sides, and this guy popped out of the soil a little so guess he's getting re re-potted this weekend, in better soil. 

Have you ever tried leca clay pellets in your mix?  I found they really help with drainage.  Over several years though I noticed they will settle to the bottom of the pot and the peat remains on top; perlite and bark stay better intermixed.

[JohnAndSancho]

45 minutes ago, piping plovers said:

Have you ever tried leca clay pellets in your mix?  I found they really help with drainage.  Over several years though I noticed they will settle to the bottom of the pot and the peat remains on top; perlite and bark stay better intermixed.

I have some, but i was too lazy to dig them out this time 

[JohnAndSancho]

My Majesty and my Butia x Lyto got repotted into 5 gallon $8 cheapie Target pots. Both were pretty rootbound, and I wish I had bought taller pots but I couldn't find anything else I liked, and these cost the same as nursery pots. I'm using these for other palms and they seem to be a lot flimsier and less rigid than the ones I bought 2 years ago but they'll hold up for a year or so. 

 

Groot Jr is still crooked in his new pot but that's how he gets down. He leans through the railings on my balcony reaching for the sun anyway. 

 

Soil is some cheapie supermarket organic cactus soil with LECA and perlite and ReptiBark mixed in. 

 

And as a Dirty Sanchez update, his 2nd to newest frond has perked up. I'll do another YouTube update sometime this week. I still need to pot up all the A. Tuckerii, my D. Lutescens, and my C. Benezeii outside and my C. Cataractarum and Spindly Bob inside. I hate Amazon but I like the Bloem planters so much better. 

 

Time to give all these jerks some Stink Water, rinse out my shower, and take a shower myself. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I lied. 

 

Here's your update. Organized a little, fertilized everything, freed up space for B. Alfreidii seedlings. Tons of empty 2g pots to fill holes. 

 

The L. Chinesis surviving being snipped at the soil level really surprised me though. I cut them down to cull the herd and let the bigger, fatter plants keep pushing and there they are, refusing to die. 

 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

I should have a full privacy wall by the end of this summer. 

 

I know I've said this before but I laugh every time I see a Doordash driver count on their fingers the number of doors down/across from "the apartment with all the palms"

[JohnAndSancho]

I guess my soil actually drains really well. Also got 3 b. Alfreidii (sp?) seedlings today from @Hferrell87, potted up A. Tuckerii, and brought more Tuckerii back to the patio from indoors. Video is currently uploading to YouTube. Wild that I add 5 pots plus a container for soil amendments out here yet it feels like I've got more space. 

 

Now I need to add a metric crap ton to Indoor Squad but que sera sera. 

[JohnAndSancho]

 

Somehow I added 5 pots and freed up space. 

 

Indoor Squad is now depleted and really needs a lot more, and I'll totally regret all of this when winter comes. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Stabbatha Christie. Aloe Dorothea. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Queen Elizabeth is now in a 7g pot. Root porn! And ironically no more exposed roots at the top. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Spindly Bob is in the Queen's old pot, GBOP is in Spindly Bob's old pot, and my new Aloe has room to grow. She also has 3 pups in there. 

 

Fortunately my neighbor is cool about all the dirt on the patio. 

Topped off the soil levels on everybody else while I was here. Watered everybody just in time for my weather app to tell me it's gonna rain. 

[Zeni]

Do potted palms tolerate tap water? Or do you guys use filtered water or rain water?

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, Zeni said:

Do potted palms tolerate tap water? Or do you guys use filtered water or rain water?

I use a filter on my kitchen sink. All of my palms are in/outside of a small studio apartment in Texas. Tap water is terrible for potted plants as the minerals and chemicals can't rinse away. 

 

I used to buy distilled water for them, but after the 4th or 5th plant that got really expensive. I found a ~$35 water filter on Amazon and as you can see, my plants are happy. Some of my outside palms aren't sheltered, some are under a roof. But I def let them get rainwater when it rains. 

For the stuff in my office, (I manage a hotel) we have a Brita water dispenser in the gym. 

 

Tap water is awful and leads to brown tipping. The salts and chemicals build up in the ends of leaves and the plant can't naturally flush them out @Zeni

[Zeni]

1 minute ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I use a filter on my kitchen sink. All of my palms are in/outside of a small studio apartment in Texas. Tap water is terrible for potted plants as the minerals and chemicals can't rinse away. 

 

I used to buy distilled water for them, but after the 4th or 5th plant that got really expensive. I found a ~$35 water filter on Amazon and as you can see, my plants are happy. Some of my outside palms aren't sheltered, some are under a roof. But I def let them get rainwater when it rains. 

Thanks. It depends on your area though. Some places have hard water, others soft, and local water filtering companies use different methods. I am thinking of buying a water distiller for potted palms. Is that wise? I am starting off with a few Weddells.

[JohnAndSancho]

1 minute ago, Zeni said:

Thanks. It depends on your area though. Some places have hard water, others soft, and local water filtering companies use different methods. I am thinking of buying a water distiller for potted palms. Is that wise? I am starting off with a few Weddells.

Where I live, we have very hard water. My cheapie filter could probably be better but it works. My wedds are in clay pots and growing happily but slowly. @Pal Meir is the Lytocaryum expert on here. They're rare and expensive in the US

 

My 2 seedlings were $50 each plus shipping

[JohnAndSancho]

My old phone literally melted from a charger port short, so - less talky more palmy, here's a Mother's Day update. Added 3 seedlings and a GBOP but both of you that watch my videos should recognize everything else as well as last week's repottings. 

 

 

[Collectorpalms]

On 5/1/2022 at 8:49 PM, Zeni said:

Thanks. It depends on your area though. Some places have hard water, others soft, and local water filtering companies use different methods. I am thinking of buying a water distiller for potted palms. Is that wise? I am starting off with a few Weddells.

A water distiller is better if you have a lot of sodium in your water that only a RO can get out.  

[JohnAndSancho]

Sunset in Tiny Jungle/Patio Squad. Literally everything is pushing at least one new leaf. 

[Little Tex]

a little off topic but

Congrats on that many views!

+new subscriber

 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, Little Tex said:

a little off topic but

Congrats on that many views!

+new subscriber

 

 

Thanks man. Why THAT video though? Everything else is single digit views. I guess i'll put the word "monsoon" in all my titles now, or trending celebrity names 

[Little Tex]

10 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Thanks man. Why THAT video though? Everything else is single digit views. I guess i'll put the word "monsoon" in all my titles now, or trending celebrity names 

Ik, my videos usually stay around 500 views but some hit 4k+ for no reason, just what people think is interesting to them I guess. :/

[JohnAndSancho]

On 5/10/2022 at 8:55 AM, Little Tex said:

Ik, my videos usually stay around 500 views but some hit 4k+ for no reason, just what people think is interesting to them I guess. :/

It's still easier to upload a YouTube vid than take dozens of pics and resize them for this forum. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

I got new growth 

 

[Little Tex]

54 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I got new growth 

 

Good thing I turn notifications on, already saw it

[JohnAndSancho]

21 minutes ago, Little Tex said:

Good thing I turn notifications on, already saw it

I appreciate that. Thank you and the other 2 people that watch my updates 

 

Anyway the big palms all got spoonfuls of stinky ass palm food tonight.  I look forward to pulling on Sancho's leash in the morning telling him "that's not food. It used to be, but that's not food"

[JohnAndSancho]

Ordinarily I'd snap some pics and text them to myself to resize them to fit this forum's requirements. My new phone won't let me do that, so I guess I'll make another video on Sunday. 

 

Anyway - in true dude fashion, I never read the directions on my fish fertilizer and today I learned I wasn't just diluting it but I was horribly diluting it. So my Stink Water is now like, extra stinky to where flies love it and I'm shocked that my patio isn't mobbed by feral cats. Looking forward to violently explosive growth since SE TX just totally skipped spring and went full summer, with baking sun for the next 2 weeks. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Anyway here's a pic of Sancho for @teddytn

[teddytn]

On 5/20/2022 at 9:11 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

Anyway here's a pic of Sancho for @teddytn

I don’t buy it, faking all innocent 

[JohnAndSancho]

It's hot in SETX. 

[teddytn]

19 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

It's hot in SETX. 

Damn Texas jungle! Have to get a machete and old school safari hat to come to your house. Glad to see old dirty sanchez made a come back

[JohnAndSancho]

2 hours ago, teddytn said:

Damn Texas jungle! Have to get a machete and old school safari hat to come to your house. Glad to see old dirty sanchez made a come back

Who else would stab me and shred my arms when I feed and water him?

[teddytn]

28 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Who else would stab me and shred my arms when I feed and water him?

If he bit the dust you might have to get in the cactus game….

[JohnAndSancho]

5 minutes ago, teddytn said:

If he bit the dust you might have to get in the cactus game….

I've thought about one or 2 for the office window. Already got some aloes. I did give that cat palm to one of my employees - it wasn't getting enough light in there and wasn't happy. 

[teddytn]

3 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I've thought about one or 2 for the office window. Already got some aloes. I did give that cat palm to one of my employees - it wasn't getting enough light in there and wasn't happy. 

Damn dude I’ve read your post about your office plants but didn’t make a mental picture lol, you’ve got some plants for sure my dude  I’ve just got a boring old aloe vera at work. I’ll take a pic tomorrow 

[JohnAndSancho]

13 minutes ago, teddytn said:

Damn dude I’ve read your post about your office plants but didn’t make a mental picture lol, you’ve got some plants for sure my dude  I’ve just got a boring old aloe vera at work. I’ll take a pic tomorrow 

I've got one of them too lol. There's a money tree on my desk too. It ain't helping me, but it's making my boss a ton of money. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I would also like to reiterate how much I'm going to hate myself when winter comes, especially given the new revelation that even Ol Dirty Sanchez isn't as hardy as I thought. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Should I bother making another YouTube video given that I have literally 11 followers? It's hot as balls, everything is growing, my seedlings are blowing up, pretty sure my L. Chinesis sprouts dried out, my C. Radicalis sprouts haven't moved in a year but aren't dead, Dirty Sanchez is recovering and looks the same as he did last year, Queen Elizabeth will likely clear the roof of my apartment by the end of the growing season, C. Plumosa is a beast, my patio C. cataractarum is a bush vs my indoor Cat being 6 feet tall, C. Benezeii apparently only holds 2-3 fronds at a time here, Spindly Bob can't make up it's mind if it wants to be inside or outside, the Cubs suck, Groot Junior drinks up everything I throw at him, etc etc