Care of Masoala kona

[SubTropicRay]

I acquired a nice one gallon M. kona today.  What are its requirements?  Is it the water hog like Marojeyja?

Thanks,

Ray

[RainForestt Robert]

Don't know a thing about the requirements, but I love the way the name rolls off my tongue!

[Jeff Searle]

Ray,

    This is a palm, that I think we all are still learning about. I have been growing them for 3 years now, but only in pots. They are grown in my shadehouse, under 73% shade. They get watered every 2-3 days as needed. This is certainly a very rare palm.

   I might want to add, for Father's Day,this past June, my wife Andrea and the kids surprised me with a great present for Fathers Day. A new puppy. A Bullmastiff, a dog that I'v always wanted. He was 7weeks old at that time and weighed 10 pounds. Now he's about 40 pounds and growing so fast. He will finish growing at about 2 years and weigh somewhere around 145 lbs.

Well, I thought about a really kool name for a week or so,something palm related of course. And I came up with....KONA.

[Tyrone]

I have a few kona and madagascariensis which I started from seed. Took up to 18 months to germinate. Certainly not a speed demon in the growth department. However they are all growing fine in my cold frame which has been low as 4C this winter, and has been topping out at 24-25C on occasion. With these temps they keep on pushing spears and looking fine. I water them every 4 or 5 days with these temps and they are in free draining mix. M kona grows in a small spot about half way up the east coast of Madagascar at about 450m - 550m asl in the Ifanadiana area on sandy quartzy soils in low canopy rainforest on steep to slight midslopes, or near ridge crests.  Whereas madagascariensis comes from the Marojejya, Masoala, and Mananara at 200-420m asl from dry hillside, to swampy valley bottoms. That info came from the POM.

I personally think these plants, tho slow growing are probably quite tough for the partly shaded frost free environment that gets some warm humidity for a good part of the year.

Hope this helps. That's all I know. Quite rare and very new to most.

regards

Tyrone

[cfkingfish]

Growing it from seed, I will tell you it is a tough effing palm. I have a handful of two leaf seedlings and even though they were submerged in swampy water for a week, they look more sunburned from 4 hours of sun they were getting every day.

[Breadfruit Bill]

Any updates on growing this palm? Anyone have a photograph of their specimen or any in habitat?

[Eric in Orlando]

We have a small M. kona and M. madagascariensis in the ground here. They are under tree canopy in moist acidic soil. I assumed they were similar to Marojejya for growing conditions. They aren't overly cold sensitive either as they survived low/mid 30sF last winter. They are very slow growing so far but M. madagascariensis seems to be a bit quicker.

[Eric in Orlando]

Masoala madagascariensis

[bgl]

Bought a number of Masoalas years ago, M. kona as well as M. madagascariensis, and planted them all (from 1G size or smaller). They have ALL been very slow. A couple of years ago I was informed that, in all likelihood, the palms I had purchased as M. kona were probably M. madagascariensis, so now I have no idea if I have both species or just MM. They all look pretty much the same, so I guess that should tell me something! In any case, I'm happy to have them and they seem to be happy, but like I said, SLOW! The ones that are more exposed to sun are definitely the faster growing ones. Here's one of the largest ones, currently about 8 ft tall, overall height. It was planted in 1999 from a 4 inch pot. Probably about 5-6 inches tall at the time.

[Gtlevine]

I saw several Masoala Kona in habitat on Mt Vatovavy near the town of Ifanadiana. They were 6 to 12 feet and had undivided leaves in deep cool rainforest.

[LJG]

Gary, why do you think these are so touchy here if they grow on Mt Vatovavy? It seems like all palms we have from Mt Vatovavy do great in SoCal but this one.

[Moose]

Any updates on growing this palm? Anyone have a photograph of their specimen or any in habitat?

[BS Man about Palms]

I actually found a big 5 gal of this palm several years ago.. Its of course still in the pot, but I have never pulled in for cold weather (probably hit 32F several times or more where it at and it looks pretty good, if anything its in more danger from drying out..

admittedly, not sure whether Kona or mad.

[BS Man about Palms]

Pics as promised..

My foot for scale..

Close up

[BS Man about Palms]

Sure... it has some brown on it, but I thought it was pretty nice!

[Tyrone]

By the divided leaves I'd say it's M madagascariensis.

[Eric in Orlando]

The M. kona we had died after the cold winter of 2009-10. The M. madagascariensis survived with only minor burn.

[Mandrew968]

_{Any updates?}

[Sabal Steve]

Ray,

This is a palm, that I think we all are still learning about. I have been growing them for 3 years now, but only in pots. They are grown in my shadehouse, under 73% shade. They get watered every 2-3 days as needed. This is certainly a very rare palm.

I might want to add, for Father's Day,this past June, my wife Andrea and the kids surprised me with a great present for Fathers Day. A new puppy. A Bullmastiff, a dog that I'v always wanted. He was 7weeks old at that time and weighed 10 pounds. Now he's about 40 pounds and growing so fast. He will finish growing at about 2 years and weigh somewhere around 145 lbs.

Well, I thought about a really kool name for a week or so,something palm related of course. And I came up with....KONA.

I have an English Mastiff, which is closely related to the Bullmastiff. Great dogs, so mellow. Yours will probably act like a puppy for a few years, and will really wreak havoc on your house - but it's worth it. They're great with small children as well, and could be counted on if the time ever arose.

Here's mine, and a picture of me with Zeus.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Sabal Steve

[BS Man about Palms]

Sadly, the death of mine via Vole was probably the saddest loss I suffered at their "mouth"..

[Moose]

Sadly, the death of mine via Vole was probably the saddest loss I suffered at their "mouth"..

Oh the horror

[akamu]

Zeus looks excited to be in the photo

[Sabal Steve]

Haha, yes, it sure looks like it!

[BS Man about Palms]

Stumbled across this today looking for something else... and regretting the Vole death mine had..

Anyone with updates with Masoalas doing OK?

[tinman10101]

6 minutes ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Stumbled across this today looking for something else... and regretting the Vole death mine had..

Anyone with updates with Masoalas doing OK?

hey bill

i saw bill austin list seeds for sale of MM recently.   I asked him if he could post picks of the seed bearing parent but did not get a reply yet.  i would be so excited to see a seed  bearing one.  

tin

[Fusca]

Hey Tin,

Bill posted a pic in 2020 - not exactly recent but as slow as they are it probably doesn't look too different today.  It's in photo #17 in the following thread and it's the upright palm on the left.  Bill threw in a couple dozen other awesome pics as well!

Enjoy!

Jon

[bgl]

Bill,

Kim and I were invited for a mini-tour of my old garden (by the new owners), specifically to attempt to re-identify many of the palms and it so happened that we concentrated on some of the areas where most of the Madagascar palms have been planted.  Many of them are now VERY tall and VERY impressive! We also spent a bit of time taking a close look at the Masoalas. I didn't take any photos, Kim MAY have some. There are a handful of them, and if I remember correctly maybe up to about 10 ft in overall height, give or take a bit. They all look great and are clearly very healthy. But have been slow, indeed!

[Justin31703]

On 2/5/2013 at 2:42 PM, Eric in Orlando said:

The M. kona we had died after the cold winter of 2009-10. The M. madagascariensis survived with only minor burn.

Any update on the madagascariensis? 

[mike in kurtistown]

This topic inspired me to take a pic of my two nicest MM's. These were planted out of 2-gal pots in May 2015. Growth was slow for 3 to 4 years, but then they started to take off. Lawn chair for scale.

 

[BS Man about Palms]

Thanks very much for the updates!! Yet it makes me more sad I had a 5 gal ... Oh well time marches on and happy there are others to appreciate!

[Moose]

1 hour ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Thanks very much for the updates!! Yet it makes me more sad I had a 5 gal ... Oh well time marches on and happy there are others to appreciate!

The folly of trying to grow stuff not made for our growing conditions. I killed a lot of stuff

[Eric in Orlando]

On 1/20/2022 at 3:47 PM, Justin31703 said:

Any update on the madagascariensis? 

That one died after being crushed by falling debris a few years ago from a hurricane. But here is another that was planted in June 2016.

[Justin31703]

5 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

That one died after being crushed by falling debris a few years ago from a hurricane. But here is another that was planted in June 2016.

Looking good! These are really nice palms. Are they tough to grow in South Florida or have people had success with them?