Florikan 8-2-12 Palm

[Cayman1]

I just ordered some Florikan 8-2-12 Palm formula from Big Earth Supply. I am purchasing this for my 3 Sylvesters and my 6 Queen Palms.

Can someone provide a recommendation on how much, and how often, should I apply this? I am in North Florida with sandy soil, if that helps.

Thank you in advance.

[PJP]

I use this in South Florida and apply every 90 days.  As far as how much depends on size of palms.

[Cayman1]

Thank you. How would I know how much based on a particular size palm? The sylvesters are 4' and about 6' and the queens are all about 3-4ft.

 

[PJP]

its usually 1/2 - 1lb per inch of truck diameter.  Palm with 6 inch diameter would require between 3 and 6 lbs.  Should be outlined on bag also

[PalmatierMeg]

If the fertilizer comes bagged, it should have instructions somewhere on the bag. 

[Merlyn]

I think PalmGain's recommendation was 1.5lb of 8-2-12 for every 100sqft of canopy.  So if your Sylvester is 12' frond diameter then it is 6*6*3.1415 = 113sqft.  So 1.5*113/100 = 1.7lb of 8-2-12 per palm, sprinkled evenly under the entire canopy area.  Don't chuck it at the trunk, sprinkle like chicken feed! 

[Cayman1]

Thank you all for your help.

 

[sonoranfans]

7 hours ago, Cayman1 said:

I just ordered some Florikan 8-2-12 Palm formula from Big Earth Supply. I am purchasing this for my 3 Sylvesters and my 6 Queen Palms.

Can someone provide a recommendation on how much, and how often, should I apply this? I am in North Florida with sandy soil, if that helps.

Thank you in advance.

I think it depends on the palm and whether it is deficient in micros.  For a serious micro deficiency in K and Mg, I use langbeinite also called Kmag or sulpomag.   This will help save on the florikan which is about 2x as expensive per 50 lbs.  Florikan is great for maintenance of proper micro and macro nutrients.  As far as how much florikan, depends on the species, bismarckia doesnt need hardly any fertilizer here as it is evolved to grow in very low nutrient soil.  Queen palms are fertilizer pigs, over the top and they hate soil with an alkaline pH as this causes Mn deficiency and frizzletop.  With fertilizers getting more expensive, queen palms are going to be expensive to maintain.  One good think about florikan vs slow release is that its membrane pores shrink when ambient temps drop so there is less fertilizer waste in winter at a time when fertilizer uptake by plants is slow.  I would cover the ground within ~10' of palm trunks radially with most of it outside the inner 1-2' of each trunk.  Fertilization near the trunk is not an efficient use of fertilizer for trunking palms in high drainage soil.

[Cayman1]

I just received the bag and no instructions. When I purchased other fertilizers, it stated use this much based on the trunk size and temperature. The only thing the label gives is 4# per 1,000. Not sure how to convert that to my trees. 

I live in North Florida and sandy soil. My Sylvesters are about 5-6' tall and the Queens are maybe 3-4' tall (they are fairly small). We are currently in the high 80's and low 90's.

Hopefully someone can assist to make this easier for me to understand. I just don't want to put too much on them and hurt them.

Thank you.

 

[Merlyn]

If they are fairly young then an average handful per palm is good.  Just spinkle evenly in about a 6-8 foot diameter circle centered on the trunk.

[sonoranfans]

17 hours ago, Cayman1 said:

I just received the bag and no instructions. When I purchased other fertilizers, it stated use this much based on the trunk size and temperature. The only thing the label gives is 4# per 1,000. Not sure how to convert that to my trees. 

I live in North Florida and sandy soil. My Sylvesters are about 5-6' tall and the Queens are maybe 3-4' tall (they are fairly small). We are currently in the high 80's and low 90's.

Hopefully someone can assist to make this easier for me to understand. I just don't want to put too much on them and hurt them.

Thank you.

 

Yes a couple large handfuls and if they are newly planted spread a little closer to the trunk compared to established palms which have much larger root zones.  I would spread around the edge of the planting hole with new plantings.    If you are using Florikan you cannot burn the plants as the nutrients are released based on osmotic forces.  In other words as nitrogen builds up in the soil near the prill, the prill slows its release rate accordingly.  Florikan is also great for container palms for this reason, but its efficient for all palms because nutrient delivery of the prill adapts to temperature, moisture, and soil nutrient concentration.   In the florida climate/soils that ability to adapt to a high drainage soil with low cation exchange and high drainage is critical, its a "controlled release" of nutrients.  In california soils have high cation exchange, more clay than sand and little rain to rinse away nutrients so I doubt florikan is remarkably different in application than say "palm gain" a "slow release" fertilizer that has no osmotic membrane function.   If you have queen palms in sandy soil, you should investigate using turface MVP to improve water retention and cation exchange permanently unlike organic mulch which is just dissolved in the summer and needs to be replaced every year.  Its hard to keep up with mulch as a cation exchange medium since it is eaten up by microbes so quickly.  The turface will change the soil (apply in the top 3-4") in a way that will reduce water and fertilizer needs while maintaining good drainage.  Big queens need lots of water and fertilizer so if you get ahead of it now your palms will look better and require less water and fertilizer.  In the coming years a bag of fertilizer is going to cost $100-130 and each of those adult queens may need 30lbs a year in sandy soil to stay nice and green.  With the turface they will look better, be less deficient susceptible and save you money.  Growing queens in rainy florida with sandy soil often leads to some ugly deficient palms.  Good luck.

[southernperidot]

I live in florida on the water 1 hour North of Tampa bay. We do freeze in the winter although some winters are milder than others. Before we bought our queen palms we read online that they were a hardy palm. Well come to find out they aren't.  After doing some reading on this informative site they are high maintenance. We have lost 5 queen palms over a six year period. Our neighbor she has lost the same. We have used Epsom salt for fertilizer, dominion liquid insecticide twice a year, lesco Palm fertilizer and miracle gro 8-2-12, hummer liquid fertilizer 12-4-12, and then I spray the trunks of palms with liquid copper fungicide (I'm afraid to spray the fronds). So now I read about florikan fertilizer and langbeinite. Do you use langbeinite on the trees that show light green fronds and use florikan on the trees that have dark green fronds? Or do you do both? Here are some pictures of the palms that  have real dark green fronds. Most of the queens have a trunk diameter of 8-10" . Perhaps I'm not using enough fertilizer.

[sonoranfans]

I use the langbeinite for more micronutrient sensitive species coming out of winter or after the rainy season ends.  I use florikan 8-2-12 on all my palms, with more pout down near the needy ones like queens.  Bismarckia for example gets very little since it doesnt need much fertilizer, maybe 10x less than a queen or cuban copernicia.  Langbeinite is cheaper, so I save the florikan for a full spectrum approach.  In florida with our rain and high drainage soils, the K and Mg are the fastest to be depleted, particularly during the rainy season.   Langbeinite is a cheaper way to keep those two nutrients up.  Queens are tough to keep happy, florikan will do that, might need an extra kick with langbeinite 1-2x a year too.  Good luck the price of florikan, it is now is $102 for a 50lb bag, up from $66 this time last year in this inflationary economy.   If this keeps up your queens will be even more expensive to maintain.  I have learned that its not the price of the palm you buy that really determines its cost, fertilizer is beginning to dominates that price.  A queen is a much more expensive palm than bismarckia for example, 10x the fertilizer and all palms need more as they grow large.   So after a few years it becomes apparent what the most expensive palms are.