Growing Sabal birmingham in a pot

[NC_Palms]

Decided to plant my one birmingham as a patio palm. Thought a slow growing, cold hardy palm will be perfect for this project. A little worried the pot is too big but I don’t think it will be harmful. 

[NC_Palms]

and for scale. 

[5am]

Sabals like moisture.  On this forum I'm the odd man out because my experience with oversized pots is that it works beautifully. You will hear the opposite from other folks here, experienced folks, who worry that a large pot will hold too much moisture. That's just not my experience at all. Climate might be a factor. I'm in a very hot place, averaging roughly 200 days above 86F (AHS heat zone map). Here, I have multiple examples of fitting little baby Sabals into oversized containers with great results. Ultimately, do what works for you.

Here are a few examples of Sabal roots after just 1-3 years from small 1-3gal pots, a link to the 3 gal baby picture, and the overgrown 1 gallon size some of these started as.


 

[JohnAndSancho]

16 minutes ago, 5am said:

Sabals like moisture.  On this forum I'm the odd man out because my experience with oversized pots is that it works beautifully. You will hear the opposite from other folks here, experienced folks, who worry that a large pot will hold too much moisture. That's just not my experience at all. Climate might be a factor. I'm in a very hot place, averaging roughly 200 days above 86F (AHS heat zone map). Here, I have multiple examples of fitting little baby Sabals into oversized containers with great results. Ultimately, do what works for you.

Here are a few examples of Sabal roots after just 1-3 years from small 1-3gal pots, a link to the 3 gal baby picture, and the overgrown 1 gallon size some of these started as.


 

I ❤️ root porn

 

I can't wait until I get to fish my Butia hybrid out of that stupid bottom watering pot. And I know my spindle is rootbound in the same type of pot. 

[5am]

And I forgot to say that your birmingham looks great! If you keep it on the patio when it gets wider the fronds will get bumped into but they can take a beating. I once caught my kids whacking a patio Sabal with butterfly nets trying to catch the lizards. No harm came of it. 

[5am]

14 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

fish my Butia hybrid out of that stupid bottom watering pot

Is this the same butia hybrid that survived the 9F? The Butia x Lyto? Do you remember if it had water in its reservoir during the freeze or was it dry?

[JohnAndSancho]

3 minutes ago, 5am said:

Is this the same butia hybrid that survived the 9F? The Butia x Lyto? Do you remember if it had water in its reservoir during the freeze or was it dry?

That's the one. The legend. 

 

I made sure it was dry when I knew it was gonna get cold. We knew it was gonna get cold, but every hour when I refreshed the forecast it got a little colder and a little colder and a little colder and it was WAY colder than it was supposed to get.