So I’ve been growing some palmetto seedlings for a few years now and they’re starting to get more palmate fronds. I bought a big thing of Sabal Palmetto seeds a few years ago and they germinated and gave me these. I believe I also bought Sabal minor seeds to scatter around in the woods. My memory is the worst and I’m not sure if I actually germinated a Sabal minor or not. I was looking at some of the seedlings and I was struck by how blue some of them were. Do I have some Sabal minors mixed in or do Palmettos also have this bluish hue when they’re young. Thanks and I apologize for my forgetfulness! 

Leave them out on a 5* night and you will find out! Blue does happen on minors. But most of the ones you have do look like Palmettos. They need much taller pots for their roots. 
Thet look ready to be planted as well, if that is your intention. 
 

Palmetto is not a long term palm in Baltimore, so protect them any night forecast below 10 in combination with 25 for a high as well, or several bitter days in a row.

Edited May 2, 20215 yr by Collectorpalms

6 minutes ago, Collectorpalms said:

Leave them out on a 5* night and you will find out! Blue does happen on minors. But most of the ones you have do look like Palmettos. They need much taller pots for their roots. 
Thet look ready to be planted as well, if that is your intention. 
 

Palmetto is not a long term palm in Baltimore, so protect them any night forecast below 10 in combination with 25 for a high as well, or several bitter days in a row.

I wasn’t planning on planting these actually. I may be moving down south to southern Alabama in a year or two and I was planning on planting them there. But now I may plant one or two here, just for the fun of it haha

The McCurtain minors I started from seed are pretty blue as well as an unknown minor I have in my yard. I’m not sure you can tell the two apart when small. 

Do any of them have "knees?" (Someone please reply with the scientific term for this.) Gary Hollar pointed-out to me that Sabal Minor is the only Sabal that does not get a "knee" - that funny looking above-ground root thingy where the seed was once attached.  If any of them have "knees" then they are not Sabal minor. Here is the "knee" on a Sabal Birmingham that I got off eBay.

I got decent sized Sabal minor from @TexasColdHardyPalms that both had the heel.  The heel seems to be more a function of being grown in a pots for sabals as they like to send deep roots down that hit the bottom of the pot and push up.  So it seems we have a conflict from what the growers say.  My other minors all went in the ground early on so do not have a heel.

14 hours ago, Chester B said:

I got decent sized Sabal minor from @TexasColdHardyPalms that both had the heel.  The heel seems to be more a function of being grown in a pots for sabals as they like to send deep roots down that hit the bottom of the pot and push up.  So it seems we have a conflict from what the growers say.  My other minors all went in the ground early on so do not have a heel.

That makes sense.  S. minors grow so much more slowly that they may not get the heel by the time most people plant them.