PalmsNorth.com

Wes,
Will look forward to your photos! another Sago starting







Steve

These have been a little touchy, nice to see new growth!

Cycas maconochiei,






Steve

Cycas taitungensis X revoluta still moving along,





Zamia vazquezii just waking up,





Steve

Great collection, Steve.
Did you wake them up with a fairly high dose of Nitrogen?
or is the new growth from your recent heat?

Barb

Barb,

Ever since the Zamia caudex split, been using fertilizer rather sparingly
Applied some Ironite this year to keep the micro levels up, but only after things were showing new growth.

The warmer days have really moved things along, still waiting for the soil to warm up enough for the in ground stuff.


Steve

A closer look at the Zamia vazquezii,





Was trying to get this end of the GH cleaned up today,







Steve

Nice vasquezii close-up shot!

Cleaned up? full of plants looks perfect to me
Barb

Thanks! Had to do some weeding & trim the Sago's.
(Think I may have over planted a bit


Steve

Here's a time lapse of a Zamia floridana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcyAfYx0fDA



Steve

Cycas bifida X taitungensis,





Sagos still moving along






Steve

Took some pics of whats going on in the greenhouse. BTW, all these cycads are thanks to Mr. Robert Chumley....

Rumphii (Tennis Ball size)



Tait X Guiz (Seedling)



Tait X Guiz (Seedling)



Wilailik (Cantalope size, my very best Willy.)



Ceratozamia (Tennis ball size)

Looking good! Is that a Ceratozamia latifolia?
Seems like it is going to have a nice emergent red color



Steve

Honestly Steve, I don't remember what kind of Ceratozamia it is

You will be able to tell for sure once the leafs are up, if so, it will look like this one

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/cycads/Ceratoz ... folia.html



Steve

A bit of warm weather and things are moving along,














Steve

Wow, everyone's cycads are so far ahead of mine.

Loved that time lapse YouTube on the Zamia, Steve.
Great footage.

Barb

Thanks Barb, just experimenting with some of this video stuff

Here's the list so far...............

Ceratozamia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ3s8szMxPg


Zamia floridana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcyAfYx0fDA


Cycas revoluta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UczV7KmEeOc


Cycas taitungensis X revoluta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwXqkVXM9IQ




And a couple more Zamia photos,










Another Lepidozamia is finally breaking the surface





Steve

Great close-ups Steve.

I really like the progression over a year that the videos evidence.
Curious about the Cycas revoluta.
Wonder why some old leaves were cut off, and some were left.

On one of my two sagos, I cut all leaves off...and still waiting for a flush.
Maybe I should've left a few?

Barb

Hi Barb,

Those all show new growth between March & May of this year

With the Sago, the leaves were starting to lay down on top of the Dioons and Encephalartos. Had to trim some to give everything a chance.
Seems to take a minimum of 60*F soil temps for a couple weeks to get the Sagos moving, trimming might speed things up.
Then again, the ones I left alone this year are flushing at the same time as the others



Steve

So warmth seems to be the kick-start they all need.
Thanks.
Barb

Updates and new starters...


The Willy from last post. 4 leafs and they are BEAUTIFUL. Still, my favorite Cycad.



The Ceratazamia from my last post. Steve, is the Latifolia (sp?) species then?



A Dioon Edule seedling that migh be putting out it's first multiple leaf flush.



Zamia Pumila with two heads, the one I trimmed over Winter has a nice flush starting.



Spinulosum that I cut the leaves off last Winter has new flush of at least 4 leafs, maybe more.

Wes,

Looks like Ceratozamia latifolia to me, I think we both got ours at the same place too
Mine is holding two fronds from last year, hoping to see at least one more this year.





Your stuff looks good! Great to see things growing again

A couple more photos...











Steve

Encephalartos natalensis seedling,




Zamia vazquezii,






Steve

Zamia inermis,





Zamia polymorpha,





Steve

Steve

Zamia vazquezii, This has been growing since early April.

Here is a link to a video,(photo progression), from 4-3-2009 to 6-9-2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1wCYcaGPgM









Steve

A couple Zamia floridana,











Zamia picta,







Encephalartos natalensis,










Dioon edule seedling,





Steve

Amazing.

Gimmie a couple days and mine should be up enogh for pics. I have new flushes on...
2 Revoluta, 3 Spinulosum, 1 Edule, 1 Zamia Pumila (both heads), 3 Wilailiks, 1 Petrea, 1 Tait X Panzhi, 1 Tait X Guiz, & 1 Encephalartos Ferox.

New flushes. I didn't get a chance to take pics of the Tait X Panzhi or the Tait x Guiz, or the Edule (ping pong ball), but here is what I did get...

Zamia Pumila. as of right now 4 leafs on one head and 3 on the other head. Both heads are baseball size.


Zamia Vazquez. This has at least 3 leafs on an existing head, but also has started a subteranium head with two leafs so far.


Wilailik at least 3 leafs on a baseball size head


Wilailik just the one leaf on a Ping Pong size head


Ceratozamia latifolia, just the one leaf on a baseball size head


Revoluta, at least 9 leafs on a softball size head


Revoluta at least 9 leafs on a softball head, just like it's brother above


Spinulosum, 3 leafs on a baseball size head


Spinulosum 4 leafs on a baseball size ball like it's brother above


Spinulosum with a 6 leafer on a softball size head


Wilailik with at least 3 leafs on a softball size head.

Wes, Looking good
Have you had any problems with roots growing out the drain holes when you lift them out for the winter?

Steve

I actually tape a mesh material to the bottom in which the water can drain, yet keeps roots from growing into the soil. HOWEVER, some of these roots are real go getters and actually break the mesh. The good thing about Cycads is that when that happens, you just have to let them dry out and scab over and all is good.

Wes, Thanks for the info!

These Dioons are outpacing the Sagos this year








Steve

OMG that is BEAUTIFUL!

I agree These Dioons have great emergent colors, the one starting in the GH has a real nice purple/blue color.


Here's some more Cycas sp. "Wilailak" fronds opening, up against the ceiling...
Need to replace the roof this year, going to add a little more height



Steve

Zamia floridana planted in the GH,






The Sago is filling out well, hard to get a good photo..........







Steve

Looks great, Steve!

Most of mine our doing well to. But I have noticed a trend. It seems as though some years one will put out several growths and then slow down the next year. This is most prevalent in container grown Cycads. Yet I do have a couple that are nearly side by side in the ground, yet one remains pretty inactive and another continues to flourish year after year. Pretty strange to me. I guess I must have done a better job during my initial plantings.

Coincidence continues: Another example is I planted two Live Oak trees at the same time about 2002. One of two of the Oaks I planted is on the North side of a hill and has grown tremendously. It probably has a trunk girth of 8-10" thick and over 18'-20' tall. Yet the other planted on the down side on the South slope has a girth of Approximately 5-8" thick. And in edition is a lot shorter and less progressive in it's growth. There is only about three reasons I can figure out this growth type syndrome. One, when planting I didn't dig holes equally and or back fill proportionally. Two the popular "Sandy Loam", that is used was more prevalent and deeper in the Southern downhill area of the yard as a result of wash down/ erosion. This I will explain further, this may be a phenomenon of Texas. Third there is some type of root girdling going on. By this I mean the tree in the pot for those of you who do not know basically strangle themselves.

Okay, now I will get to the "Sandy Loam" issue. I apologize if this seems to get a bit off the Cycad issue, but please read on as it will pertain. Here locally in Central Texas as part of the Political Buddy System/ or whatever you would prefer. It is required that new houses have so much of the so called "Sandy Loam" dirt back filled in a yard. Initially this might seem good as this would provide new soil for grass and misc. plants to take off. However this dirt is basically a mined subsoil that comes from 20-50' deep in most cases and is pretty much dead in most cases. In edition there is often little to no nutritional value in this substance. It also has a tendency to pack down very tightly and dose not allow any oxygenation of the soil because of the lack of organic matter. In an effort to remedy the situation I continually introduce all types of humates, etc I can get my hands on.

The above example with the trees is the same with the cycads (Sago's), the down hill side (southern side) is not flourishing. So I suspect the "Sandy Loam" hypothesis. I would be curious to hear what anyone else thinks?

I once again apologize if I seem like I'm hijacking this thread, but it was one of the first that I've read in awhile and seemed most applicable here.

Dean

Hi Dean, It was photos of your Sago that inspired me to get mine planted.
(it may be inside the GH, but it's still in the ground


In my opinion, it sounds like soil compaction is the biggest issue. It might benefit to use something like lava rock as an amendment. It's fairly inert and will introduce plenty of air space.
I've been using it in my containers with good results, Lowes sells bags of this as "Flower Rock"
Think it's marketed by this company: http://coloradolava.com/index.html


Steve

Dioons still moving along,






Zamia vazquezii too,





Steve

Here is 2 1/2 months of Dioon growth condensed into a short video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lInWHvKf06o



Steve