Chambeyronia

[chris.oz]

Both my Chambeyronias [ one is hookeri] started pushing spears 6-8 weeks ago.   I just gave them a boost with some extra water and liquid fert.   I am hoping that like before,  these leaves will be bigger than the last,  and drive the palm a bit faster.  Both these palms are in sheltered shady positions,  with virtually no direct sun.

The question is,  where do you live,  whats your zone, are they in sun for any part of the day and how many leaves per year do you get from your chambeyronia.   Does the number of spears per year increase as the palm grows bigger ?

[Palm Guy]

Hi Chris,

I don't have any large specimens but have about 10 regular macrocarpas and 8 hookerii outside. My house is about 200-300 feet from the ocean in Bermuda. Zone 11 but its a cooler zone 11 than you would get pretty much anywhere else. Temperatures rarely go above 85F and rarely go below 55 F. My macrocarpa seedlings are exactly one year old and each of them have put out at least 5 leaves and some are on their sixth.  I moved them into full sun after their fourth leaf and have been out in full sun (5 hours - 7 hours) for about 5 months. My hookerii seem to be alot faster as they are about 8 months and their already on their fourth leaves but i have them in more shade. Mine seem to like fertiliser. I think they are starting to slow down a bit though. The ones getting more sun seem to have fatter trunks...but I have to water and fertilise them more to keep em green.

In general, from what i've heard, if your on the coast they can take full day sun. If your more inland than have them in more shade.  The leaves tend to look much redder in shade. They actually slow down as they get older. I hear people in south florida get 4-5 leaves a year and places like california generally get 2-3 leaves a year. So I'm hoping for 3-4 leaves a year from mine.

How are your two chambeys?

Cheers,

Mike

[Palm Guy]

correction - How old are your chambeys?

[Tyrone]

Chris, I have a hookeri which is just starting to trunk in the ground in full shade. It's much slower than macrocarpa putting out 1.5-2 new leaves a year. It's happy, doesn't really slow down in winter and get heaps of water, manures, planted in heaps of humus. I wouldn't even dream of putting it in fullsun in Perth. My macrocarpa already has about 40cm of clear trunk and puts out maybe 3 to 4 leaves a year. This one is in mostly shade but gets fullsun late in the afternoon. Again it's happy, doesn't really slow down much in winter, and gets heaps of water and manures, humus etc.

A friend of mine in Perth has planted a trunking macrocarpa, not really in fullsun, but it gets a lot of northern sun in what is a hot area with bits of dappled shade from other plants, and it doesn't burn and grows rather quickly, maybe 5 leaves a year. The area is around a rockery next to a swimming pool. To give you an idea how warm the area is, his Cycas thouarsii's flushed 5 times last year. I should take some pics, I'm going there this arvo.

I have some hookeri seedlings in my shadehouse which put out a new leaf every 6 weeks it seems, and again barely slow down in winter. So I think when they're young and happy, they grow rather quickly, but slow down a bit when older. That's my experience anyway.

Best regards

Tyrone

[chris.oz]

Mine are doing 1 leaf per year.

Thats not enough.

I probably need to fertilise them.  So far I dont .  But also,  the professional palm growers trick is to put palms in the shade to hold them back,  and then bring them into higher light to get them to grow.

Our soil is sandy,  and I think nutrients leach out very quickly.

My thesis is that in shade the leaves should grow bigger,  and with some pruning overhead, I can give them more light which may help to power them along,  because they are very slow.

I will show some photos when the leaves open.   My hookeri has opened 2 new leaves since going in the ground 2 years ago,  aadn the macrocarpa has not opened a leaf for me yet.

[chris.oz]

(Tyrone @ Jan. 26 2008,18:54)

QUOTE

Chris, I have a hookeri which is just starting to trunk in the ground in full shade. It's much slower than macrocarpa putting out 1.5-2 new leaves a year. It's happy, doesn't really slow down in winter and get heaps of water, manures, planted in heaps of humus. I wouldn't even dream of putting it in fullsun in Perth. My macrocarpa already has about 40cm of clear trunk and puts out maybe 3 to 4 leaves a year. This one is in mostly shade but gets fullsun late in the afternoon. Again it's happy, doesn't really slow down much in winter, and gets heaps of water and manures, humus etc.

A friend of mine in Perth has planted a trunking macrocarpa, not really in fullsun, but it gets a lot of northern sun in what is a hot area with bits of dappled shade from other plants, and it doesn't burn and grows rather quickly, maybe 5 leaves a year. The area is around a rockery next to a swimming pool. To give you an idea how warm the area is, his Cycas thouarsii's flushed 5 times last year. I should take some pics, I'm going there this arvo.

I have some hookeri seedlings in my shadehouse which put out a new leaf every 6 weeks it seems, and again barely slow down in winter. So I think when they're young and happy, they grow rather quickly, but slow down a bit when older. That's my experience anyway.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone,

Thats surprising,  because I think the WA sun is as fierce as ours.   This summer a lot of my plants fried,  including palms like the  Butia capitata with 1 metre of trunk  I forgot to water for 2 weeks would you believe !

[Tyrone]

Frying a Butia. Now that's insane heat/sun strength.

Being further north than Melbourne, Perth's UV rating is going to be higher than Melbourne's, and our temps are consistently higher over a given period. On the other hand, the coastal areas of Perth, and to a lesser extent my area, may have higher humidity after a hot dry event than Melbourne. The coastal suburbs were getting 22-23C dewpoints and fog in the morning this week, which is more like Brisbane, so maybe Melbourne is harsher??? We tend to get hot dry events, then real humid/hot weather afterwards. I don't know if Melbourne is quite like that. Is it?

I'd try building up your Chambey's with lots of mulch manure etc in a donut shape and if you're permitted, flood the living daylights out of them. That tends to kick them into action. But you may be doing it anyway, just a suggestion. Your soil sounds just like my sandy stuff.

Best regards

Tyrone

[chris.oz]

Tyrone,

With a North-West airstream,  we can get super low humidity events.  This can be an RH of less than 10% at 40C,  and corresponds to a freezing dewpoint.... not that that means much,  but its super dry.

However,  right now the RH is high,  due to the effects of this La Ninya induced low pressure trough regime we have had for several weeks in the last 2 months.

[tim_brissy_13]

Chris, my only hookeri puts out about 1 leaf per year, and my two macrocarpas are slightly faster, 1.5 per year.  The larger macrocarpa and the hookeri have just been put into the ground, now receiving more sun, so I'm hoping they will speed up.

[The Palm Nut]

Hi Chris, I have acouple of macrocarpas, these are slow to start with but as they age they speed up considerably. They look best in dappled sunlight, only because you get the brilliant red new leaf under these conditions best. My largest one has atleast 10 feet of trunk but is in fullsun now and the redness of the leaf is not very spectacular, certainly not like is was when it had shade as a small seedling. My other one has a much higher canopy to break through resulting in a brilliant red leaf. Iam looking forward to getting some seed off these but doesnt look like this will happen any time soon.

Mike

[chris.oz]

(The Palm Nut @ Jan. 27 2008,01:24)

QUOTE

Hi Chris, I have acouple of macrocarpas, these are slow to start with but as they age they speed up considerably. They look best in dappled sunlight, only because you get the brilliant red new leaf under these conditions best. My largest one has atleast 10 feet of trunk but is in fullsun now and the redness of the leaf is not very spectacular, certainly not like is was when it had shade as a small seedling. My other one has a much higher canopy to break through resulting in a brilliant red leaf. Iam looking forward to getting some seed off these but doesnt look like this will happen any time soon.

Mike

Mike ,

Thats interesting theres a range of experience on these but you are the first I have heard of with palms with 10 ft of trunk !  I am glad they speed up .

[Don Little]

Chris,

My hookeri has about 3 rings of trunk now and the crown is in good amount of shade.  I put in in the ground 4 years ago as a small 15 gal and it has been averaging about 2 to 2.5 fronds a year. This last year it barely opened up 2 fronds most likely from being slowed down from the freeze that we had last year.  So far this winter the lowest I've seen is 37F or 2.8C.  and is slowly putting out growth still.  I'm hoping that this growing period it will speed up and put out at least 3 leaves this year especially now that it's starting to show trunk.  Like Tryone mentioned mine is mulched and watered heavily but my soil is also sandy and high in DG resulting in excellent drainage.

My lattitude is at 34.07N and if you were to draw a straight line, I am about 35 miles or 56.3 kilometers inland.

[DoomsDave]

Here, young plants put out about two leaves a year, while older ones do more.

Slow as Congress in a dither. . .

dave

[chris.oz]

Thanks Don and Dave,

I reckon About all I can aspire to is about 2 leaves a year tops

Whe  I first bought C. macrocarpa they said it would not grow outside here,  neither they said would Licuala ramsayi.  But Licuala ramsayi grows quite nicely in our garden.

Some interesting things have happened here in the last few years.

1.  Fruit bats,  which are in profusion in Queensland now live permanently in our area.

2.  Cockroaches have invaded our city.   Used to be they could not survive the winters here and were rare.

3.  Tropical birds from queensland and the hot interior of the continent have beome established in our area.

Augurs well for growing palms.   But I think its pretty much the bio evidence that global warming is a fact.   What causes global warming...... that belongs to  different forum.

[alan.oz]

Hi Chris

Here in Adelaide I have a 7' high macrocarpa in a 12" diam pot growing under 70% shadecloth. Just the one new leaf a year- nice red colour though.

Comparing notes with other local growers they seem to be susceptible to red spider mite- no doubt due to our frequent low humidity.

[Ntheastpalms]

G'Day Chris

I have six in the ground here, 2 hookeri & four macrocarpa's. The largest is one of the hookeri & it has four feet of trunk now & has been planted for five years & averages three new leaves per year but as Mike has said, their growth rate increases with age.

[spockvr6]

Mine puts out about 4 leaves per year.  Its on the north side of the yard in as much shade as I could get it.  These palms seem to be a darker green if they are protected from intense sun.

[Jason Baker Portugal]

Chris,

probably as your city grows it gets warmer there. Our climates are similar. I have experience with 2 Chabeys. that say the more water, the faster they grow (big diference). Mine grow 2 leaves that way but on regular water it grows only 1 leaf.

Jason

[Walter John]

The question is,  where do you live,  whats your zone, are they in sun for any part of the day and how many leaves per year do you get from your chambeyronia.   Does the number of spears per year increase as the palm grows bigger ?

I live in warmish sub tropical Brisbane, near the sea, I have a macro and a hooker, macro is in full sun most of the day, shaded in the arvo, 2 to 3 leaves per year, the hooker is in mostly shade, growing slower and 2 leaves per year, but it is a younger plant.

The macrocarpa (watermelon baby) is on the leaf producing increase with age.

[weldertom]

I would say I get 2.5 per year ..

.......... It can be an agonizing wait at times !

[Caryota_gigas]

Mine alternate, 1 leaf one year, 2 the next, then back to 1. In ground, in full sun, 5ft tall overall, Auckland NZ approx 9b -10a I suppose.

[Tyrone]

I was thinking about my earlier comments that they slow down when planted. I was comparing seedlings I have in a warm shadehouse to some much bigger planted specimens in the ground. My shadehouse seedlings seem to be quicker leaf producers than the bigger ones in the ground. After talking to others they say that they speed up once planted out. I would say then that my seedlings are getting a better mix of warmth and water year round and that accounts for there increased growth rate over a year than my planted out specimens. That actually makes more sense when I think about it, and seems to also be the case for most other palms anyway.

Tyrone

[PalmsZA]

Hi Chaps

The Chambeys must love our climate here.......My mate has 6 planted out in his garden in bright to pretty dark shade. They were grown from seed nine years ago and some have already flowered, but have yet to set seed, I need to pay him a visit just to see if they have by now. The slowest of the bunch is houilou (spelling), however I think that this species/variant is the most lovely and robust of all the Chambeys.

Cheers

Dennis

[PalmsZA]

And a little houilou with new leaf.