PalmsNorth.com

thanks Kent!

It'll take quite a while for mine to be the size of your Foxtails.
Barb

sorry barb, i missed your post :S

I dont know to much about foxtails, but i belive, once palms have 2 or 3 good leaves, and a good root system their good to repot.

They seem to be growing with the seed above the soil, and still attatched to the plant ( i know theres a word, and for some reason its totaly lost on me right now). Most dypsis species grow like that. When I repotted my D. lutescence ( sp), I thought I had put enough soil around them, as I tried not to bury them to deep, and kill em. It turns out most of the soil washed away, and the first 1/8 inch of roots on most of the plants were exposed for 2 years, and the things grew. Their still alive to this day. Goes to show you how tough some can be.

From what i can see, their adaptible to lots of soil conditions, so thats a bonus. These guys arent the cheapest, and look freakin sexy when their happy.

A side note too, If you have a fishtank, or a pond, use that to water your potted plants. If you have a really large fishtank, and use a syphon to clean it, just run the hose to the garden beds. A 25% water change on a 40 gallon fish tank gives you 10 free gallons of super instant fertilizer, that enriches your soil with live bacteria, to keep the food chain growing in your soil. My plants loved this, especialy my palms. Fast growth, nice dark green leaves.

hi canadian, thanks for the fish water tip...have a fishpond that's chock full of water hyacinths, tough to take water out of there
I'm very happy with the Palm Special Fertilizer bought this year.
Even my grapefruit plant seemed to love it, growing more than 3 feet.

the first 1/8 inch of roots on most of the plants were exposed

Some of mine are like that too, and I added a tiny bit of soil to keep the still-attached seed from floppin' in the wind.

When I germinated cycas debaoensis, they too held onto their seed for quite a while, eventually shedding them.
Spent seed just comes loose one day and can be tossed into compost.
Until it does I won't tug on them.

Barb

Now 10 months since they germinated and the whole summer outdoors in semi-shade, they're back in the basement near the woodstove, fluorescent lights on 16/off 8 hours.
Fertilized two weeks ago with Special Palm fertilizer, and here comes new growth:

Also added a thin layer of sand to the top. Somebody's idea was: as sand dries out quickly, it might help with the fungus gnat problem.
Seems to be working so far.

<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/518 ... 4560bf.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04091" />

<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/518 ... 007062.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04093" />

Barb

AH very nice!!! loks liek the leaves are finaly starting to separate. Your yard is gona look baddass with a mini forest of foxtails..... I have to post pics of mys eedlings.... colocasia a few palms

Awesome! Very nice!

great job Barb! Those seedlings look sooooooooooooooo cool!!

Thanks guys.
BUT...Just noticed this unusual "split" leaf on one.

Foxtail leaves stay "chunky w ragged ends" for a good period of time, until they get their plumose appearance.

So could this be a hybrid?
<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/521 ... a5a15f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04142" />

Barb

hmmmm

could be a mutation. Planta are naturaly varied.

It looks like my phoenix when it started to ger pinnate leaves. When i say the pic I was happy cause i thought it was inaly gonna get some more mature leaves. Then I read what you said about the leaves. Mabey its a sort of middle stage in development?

very cool photo showing differences..........keep us posted on the 'hybrid'.

a sort of middle stage in development

Could be, but other juveniles beside it have grown more leaves already.
None are split like this.

Thanks folks...just thinking "some people have hybrids...I have mutations"

Any up to date pics? They look great. Did you use sand to plant them in? Looks like it.

Took some pics today at 13 months since germination.

Sand is only as a top-dressing to discourage fungus gnats (sand dries out faster than "soil", fungus gnats love wet soil to lay their eggs in)

<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/545 ... 0c70_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="DSC04487" />

Re my previous comment that I might have hybrids, I was dead wrong! (again )

In the pic above, you can see the oldest leaves look "foxtail-ey", and the second flush leaves looked so much more divided.
I thought it was odd that the oldest leaves resembled a juvenile Foxtail more than the newest leaves, but apparently it happens all the time.

So the next (third) flush should see leaves more like the first flush.
They'll look like the next two pics for probably 8-10 years.
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5164/520 ... bfc8ef.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04100" />

<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5241/520 ... 5218ea.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04102" />

These impress me with how robust they are, the stem in the pic below is thicker than a chopstick.

<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5294/545 ... 9ff4_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="DSC04490" />


And then one day, a long time from now, they'll look like this link: http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http ... 29,r:3,s:0

Barb

Barb they look great!

They are growing fairly fast. Cant wait to see them in a few more months

Barb very cute Foxtails, now I will need one(or more) of those too! Thanks. I like the sand idea to stop fungus gnats. OMG my house is full of them this year. The bounty drier sheets are actually helping. I swear the miracle grow soil I purchased comes infested with the buggers.

Paul

Thanks folks!
To me a mature Wodyetia is the most beautiful palm in the world.
But some folks think they're ugly!
One guy was reported saying after seeing a foxtail leaf for the first time "Gee, I thought your plant had been vandalized!"

Good to hear the dryer sheets are working for you Paul, only so-so here but I've got a Zoo this year.
Everything but dinosaurs.
Last winter was bad for fungus gnats...H got pretty mad when the beggars flew up his nose when he was eating dinner.

AND to add to the zoo, discovered some LIVE box elder bugs on the plants that are under grow lights in the basement.


If only the box elder bugs would eat the fungus gnats, then they could feast on soft scale, but leave the lady beetles alone (what are THEY eating?)

Next Fall everything's getting a nuclear blast before they come in.
Oh, wait a minute, not everything's going to fit in here next fall...

Barb

great looking seedlings Barb!

Nice seeing there progress. I have a few seeds I'm looking forward to seeing grow myself. I'm with Paul on the sand thing. I think it's a great ideal.

oh yeah, Dean, I meant to comment on what Paul said about MG

I swear the miracle grow soil I purchased comes infested with the buggers.

that could very well be true, Paul.
But another thing is that Miracle Gro soil, I believe, is still manufactured with "minor nutrients/fert added for your convenience" .

That's fine for petunias but I wouldn't recommend MG soil for palms. Find something with more GRIT, faster draining, and NO fertilizer in it because you'll be using your own Palm Special Fertilizer.

I'm now using what John (okanagandesertpalms) uses (thanks for the tip John!).
It's super-fast draining and entirely eliminates having to buy any Perlite (except for starting seeds).
Pro growing mix, about $25 for about 80 lbs of mix. Cheap.

<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5002/535 ... 6e075d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04277" />

Barb

Barb, can you please stop showing your "bag" on the forum LOL

Almost empty now anyway...from the old bag.

LOLOLOL

lucky1 wrote:oh yeah, Dean, I meant to comment on what Paul said about MG

I swear the miracle grow soil I purchased comes infested with the buggers.

that could very well be true, Paul.
But another thing is that Miracle Gro soil, I believe, is still manufactured with "minor nutrients/fert added for your convenience" .

That's fine for petunias but I wouldn't recommend MG soil for palms. Find something with more GRIT, faster draining, and NO fertilizer in it because you'll be using your own Palm Special Fertilizer.

I'm now using what John (okanagandesertpalms) uses (thanks for the tip John!).
It's super-fast draining and entirely eliminates having to buy any Perlite (except for starting seeds).
Pro growing mix, about $25 for about 80 lbs of mix. Cheap.

<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5002/535 ... 6e075d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04277" />

Barb

I have never seen that brand around here - I'll try to find it or something similar. I have been doctoring up the miracle-gro mix with vermiculite for drainage. I also have only fertilized with miracle-gro all purpose fertilizer for two years. Will have look on-line for palm fert., no one sells it around here.

Thanks
Paul

Paul,
Check the MG bag as there are several kinds.
I had one that said it was for container plants, "holds moisture longer", preventing drying out (good for containerized flowers, etc.)
Had a lot of peat in it.

All but the "boggy palms" like Nypa and Cyrtostachys etc. thrive in a fast draining soil.
So adding vermiculite to that MG container mix wouldn't be great for palms because vermiculite absorbs and holds moisture (like peat moss).
Perlite doesn't absorb water and helps to keep soil "lighter", both in weight and pH not becoming too acidic.
Water-logged soil generally is more acidic.

Until I bought my palm special fert last year, I also used general fertilizer brands with not many problems.
Some growers even use Peters 20-20-20 on palms!
But palms are so fussy about trace elements (in particular Magnesium and Potash) usually lacking in general fertilizers that you can only get away with that for so long...
As the saying goes: "Good fertilizer isn't cheap, and cheap fertilizer isn't good" when searching for Palm special.

Even though I screwed up this year with my palm special application rate (the label stated it incorrectly!), here's approx what you should look for in a palm special:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/421 ... 198bc9.jpg

Plus this: the 12-4-12 is now recommended to be 12-4-16 for Palms according to latest research in Florida's soils (where most palms grow) lose their Potash so quickly, causing problems.

But since we're not in Florida, my 12-4-12 will be fine once I get the hang of how to use it properly.
I flushed out the toxic levels, and hope it works.
Whatever a label says, I've learned the hard way now to always use FAR LESS, and apply it a little more frequently.

Back to the soil mix...a cactus mix would be better than most container mixes.

Barb

Barb

Thanks for all the great info! I've got some shopping to do. I guess I've been lucky because it's so warm in the house in winter that they dry out every couple days. In the summer I have to water daily cause they are in full sun all day.
Anyway the pots are too small, probably helps dry out quickly. I need to re-pot or put in the ground. I hope to get even better growth with the Palm Fertilizer.

Paul