Soil too slowly draining for Sabal texana?

kspalmguy · Post by **kspalmguy** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 4:00 pm

I have a 15 gallon Sabal texana that I am wanting to plant on the NE corner of my house. I dug a large hole (2 feet wide by 2 feet deep) and filled it with water where I intend to plant. The water took well over 4 hours to completely drain from the hole (lots of clay). Will this drown my Sabal if I plant it here? I can't really mound dirt here, as it's so close to the house...any tips? Or is this drainage alright?

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:21 pm

My advice is to put a Sabal minor there.

kspalmguy · Post by **kspalmguy** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:27 pm

TerdalFarm wrote:My advice is to put a Sabal minor there.

Good idea, I'll do just that...now to fill in the massive hole I made:P My palmetto would probably look and do better as a specimen palm in the yard anyway, instead of close to the house.
Edit: Whoops, in the original post, I meant to put NW side of the house, which puts it in direct afternoon sun...would a minor do fine with that?

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:18 pm

Sabal minor will be fine. Would be happier with afternoon shade, so maybe shade it some if leaves seem to burn in June.

Can the palmetto be up close to the house? Easier to protect, like Lucky1's Trachy.

kspalmguy · Post by **kspalmguy** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:29 pm

TerdalFarm wrote:Sabal minor will be fine. Would be happier with afternoon shade, so maybe shade it some if leaves seem to burn in June.

Can the palmetto be up close to the house? Easier to protect, like Lucky1's Trachy.

Perhaps, however, the builder who built our house backfilled everything with clay, instead of good topsoil like in the yard, so I'm pretty sure everywhere near the house will have drainage issues...I filled that hole with water at 6:30 P.M. Central time...it's 10:30 now and there is still 11 inches of water in there...only 7" has drained:( I do have a plan for protecting my palms out in the open, I plan to use 2" thick foam insulation built into boxes, sealed, and heated with C9 lights...I have a couple 50' extension cords that will work well for this...and in the event of a power outage, we have three generators...

The sabal minors will be planted next to the house, though. Hopefully, they won't need any protection once established. Fingers crossed;)

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:37 pm

Sounds to me like a sound plan.

kspalmguy · Post by **kspalmguy** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 9:55 pm

Hey, don't give me all the credit for that plan, it comes from you guys here at PalmsNorth and folks over at PT

I'd be lost in the palm world without y'all...thanks!!

Zabola · Post by **Zabola** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:22 am

Mate all the Sabals will find their own way to the water (whatever the soil) even through clay, its not their favorite soil but dont worry much. Does Texana means Brazoriensis? Make a few photos of it, especially if its a bigger one, please..

Put some small stones on the bottom of that hole and mix some sand when planting for a better drainage.

teebee · Post by **teebee** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 4:24 am

kspalmguy wrote:The sabal minors will be planted next to the house, though. Hopefully, they won't need any protection once established. Fingers crossed;)

6B yeah you'll need a bit of protection still but not much I have 3 sabal minors and I had them in a simple rose cone and a TC3 thermocube with 5 C9 lichts in the box and mine sailed through the winter like that.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 8:53 am

[quote="Zabola"] Does Texana means Brazoriensis? .[/quote]

Sabal texana usually means Sabal mexicana but purchased in the Republic of Texas. They're touchy down there.

kspalmguy · Post by **kspalmguy** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:53 am

Zabola wrote:Mate all the Sabals will find their own way to the water (whatever the soil) even through clay, its not their favorite soil but dont worry much. Does Texana means Brazoriensis? Make a few photos of it, especially if its a bigger one, please..

Put some small stones on the bottom of that hole and mix some sand when planting for a better drainage.

I'll post some photos once I get it in the ground;) No trunk yet, but the fronds are at least as tall as me (5.5 feet)

kspalmguy · Post by **kspalmguy** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:55 am

TerdalFarm wrote:
Zabola wrote: Does Texana means Brazoriensis? .
Sabal texana usually means Sabal mexicana but purchased in the Republic of Texas. They're touchy down there.

Haha it's funny that you bring that up because when I bought it, after learning they didn't sell Washingtonias at this particular nursery, I asked if they sell Sabal mexicana. The manager there had no idea what I was talking about. She said "we have Texas sabals", and I replied,"Oh, so you do!"

Zabola · Post by **Zabola** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 2:35 am

Mystery solved.