Adonidia merrillii or Archontophoenix alexandrae grown since it was a sprout. How fast is it growing?

[qwertz]

For some time now I have been thinking about planting the seeds of one of these palm trees in a pot. 

I am interested in how fast these palm trees grow and how long it took for your palm trees to reach a height for example of 1 meter.

I  hope that there are so many people on this forum who have such palms since these ones were sprouts that I will get at least one answer per species.

[PalmatierMeg]

Both can be fairly fast growing if conditions are good. Where you live that is not true. What you need to consider:

1. Adonidia merrillii is very cold sensitive and tropical. It needs high heat (25-30C+), high humidity (above 70%), sun/strong light. It is also sensitive to cool temperatures (under 15C) and will die if not kept really warm. You will have to provide supplemental heat, light and humidity if your house is less than a greenhouse. Homes outside the tropics are nearly always too cold, too dry and too dark for tropical palms to grow. Tropical palms do not photosynthesize below 10C so will starve to death.

2. Archo Alex is somewhat cold hardier but requires similar growing conditions. You will have to supplement it also. It is also very root sensitive so you will have to take care when you repot it.

3. Here in SWFL both palms may reach 1 m high in 1-2 years. In your country probably much longer if they survive to do so.

4. I suggest you search the forum for topics by members who grow potted palms in colder climates for ideas to provide the specialized care these palms require.

[meridannight]

It's not dependent on the country if palms are grown indoors. Even people in Poland keep their homes above 20ºC during the winter, which is just fine. It's not ideal for tropical species, but it's not detrimental either. So it's a bit preposterous to say that homes in that area must be ''too cold''. 

For growing these palms in containers successfully in that climate there are just a couple of ''tricks'' one must do, in order for the palms to thrive. 
One -- you need to supplement them with artificial light during the winter time. There is absolutely no light during the winter months on that latitude, and there's even less of it indoors. This is not something you can skimp on. And by artificial light, I do not mean regular indoor lights. You need full spectrum grow lights. 
Two -- palms should go outside during the warm months. It will boost their growth and keep them healthy. 

All the other stuff -- watering, humidity, fertilizing you need to do research on your particular species. I assume you want to grow them from seed yourself, and not buy seedlings? Germinating palms is a whole different animal with its own set of care and conditions. You should research germination topics on this forum in particular, there's plenty of info.

I have no experience with A. merrillii. A. alexandrae I just germinated at the end of the summer this year, and mine are still tiny sprouts so I can't tell you how fast they will grow. Depends on the conditions, but I hear they're fast growers. 

I have grown Hyophorbe verschaffeltii from seed to 1+ m in height in less than 3 years, and they are not among the fastest growing species. Also too tropical for my area, so they spend the winter indoors under lights. People tend to overestimate the amount of light that reaches the indoor space from the outside. Human eye corrects for lower light levels -- plants have no such luxury. There is almost no light inside a house that has solid walls and a roof even if that house is in the tropics. You can get away with no artificial lights for the summer months if you have a southern exposure (in the N hemisphere), but outside that you need supplemental lighting. It's one of the simplest and most important things if you're growing palms indoors. 

[Philly J]

My indoor archontophoenix Cunninghamiana here in zone 2 Saskatchewan 

[qwertz]

What I liked about the Christmas Palm and the King Palm is the trunk with rings at the bottom and a green top. What I liked about the bottle palm (Hyophorbe lagenicaulus) is the bottle-shaped trunk and also the green upper part of the trunk. From what I saw while browsing the topics on this forum, bottle palms that are several dozen centimeters long do not have a bottle-shaped trunk and have a trunk like regular palm trees. If, two years after germination, my hyophorbe was the size of the one from the post https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/53539-any-one-growing-bottle-palm-in-pots-please-show-yours /?do=findComment&comment=845300 how many years would it take before I could see a palm tree like the one in the post https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/53539-any-one-growing-bottle-palm-in-pots-please- show-yours/?do=findComment&comment=810423 ?

In the post https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/56139-anyone-growing-archontophoenix-alexandrae-in-pots-please-tell-yoyr-tips/?do=findComment&comment=905923 I noticed that the king palm in at the age of 2.5 years it already has a small green trunk, and from what I've seen in the post with a photo https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/56139-anyone-growing-archontophoenix-alexandrae-in-pots-please-tell-yoyr- tips/?do=findComment&comment=841266 I noticed that the twelve-year-old king palm was about 1.5 meters high.
Assuming that the bottle palm grows as fast as the king palm, could I expect to see a green trunk with a bulb at the bottom within 7-10 years? Does anyone know if the bottle palm grows faster or slower than the king palm?

Edited October 13, 2023 by qwertz