Bulgarian seedlings after the winter

Wakeman · Post by **Wakeman** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:32 pm

As an experiment I decided to sow a few thusands Trachycarpus Fortunei Bulgaria seeds into the ground in two different patches. One were left completly unprotected while the other got a blanket thrown over it. The unprotected patch was however partly sheltered from winds from the west and that seems to have made a huge difference when you look at the results as half of the seedlings got severely burnt.
The winter were mild to begin with, but as you know it got really cold in febuary with a minimum temperature of -18c and about 20 days of constant freeze. Another thing to note is that during the -18c there were no snow to protect them.

My bigger trachy which were protected with a minigreenhouse suffered no damage from the cold. I think the the sun might have helped a lot since it was sunny during the coldest days.

Here is an album of the unprotected seedlings and the bigger trachy. Notice how different the damage is. This seedling patch is about 1 square meter.
http://imgur.com/a/k3Z7Q#0

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:55 am

Pretty tough......one thing I want to try is,just planting Trachy seeds in the ground
and seeing if they really are hardier than plants moved from pots............

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:09 am

Tough indeed. Presume the seeds were scattered in spring last year?
Are you going to pot them up?

one thing I want to try is,just planting Trachy seeds in the ground
and seeing if they really are hardier than plants moved from pots.

We'd all be interested in those results, Jim.
Whether it's a myth to wait until plants are 4 years old before planting out.

Barb

Wakeman · Post by **Wakeman** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 4:45 pm

lucky1 wrote:Tough indeed. Presume the seeds were scattered in spring last year?
Are you going to pot them up?

Barb

Yeah I just spread the seeds in an area directly into the ground last spring. Im not going to pot them up, but I might move some seedlings as they are too close together. I didnt really expect that many to survive.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 5:41 pm

not going to pot them up, but I might move some seedlings as they are too close together. I didnt really expect that many to survive.

A nice problem to have.

Maybe talk some of your neighbors into accepting thinned out seedlings.
Just think what that would look like in a few years...a whole neighborhood of Trachies.

Barb

Wakeman · Post by **Wakeman** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:06 pm

lucky1 wrote:
not going to pot them up, but I might move some seedlings as they are too close together. I didnt really expect that many to survive.
A nice problem to have.

Maybe talk some of your neighbors into accepting thinned out seedlings.
Just think what that would look like in a few years...a whole neighborhood of Trachies.

Barb

Thats a nice idea, but the winters generally gets cold enough to put trachys in decline or even kill them, thats why I want to find the most hardy of the hardiest palms to try to grow. If you look at the pictures on my first post you can see that there are actually some seedlings which came through the winter completly unharmed. That just shows the big variation whitin the speices.

I think I will let the experiment continue for at least another winter, probably more, until I end up with a managable number of palms. Maybe some day I can have a complety hardy palm in my garden!

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:19 pm

keep the updates coming on the Bulgarian Trachys.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:52 pm

experiment continue for at least another winter, probably more, until I end up with a managable number of palms.

Yes, with that number in the experiment, certainly at least a few will be standouts.