Chamaedorea adscendens

[Kathryn]

I’ve had these Chamaedorea adscendens in this pot on my back porch for about four years now. It looks healthy, but has been so slow. There were three in the pot, but one died a few years ago. It doesn’t get any direct sunlight, gets some wind occasionally, is watered weekly and has been left out there for the last few winters. The temperature gets down to 28F, but the porch is a few degrees warmer - the Chamaedorea metallica next to it doesn’t get damaged and the Chamaedorea adscendens isn’t showing any cold damage.

Is the slow growth rate normal or do I need to change something? The pot seems heavy - it may just be the pot or maybe I used the wrong type of soil.

[PalmatierMeg]

I just planted a C. adscendens in my back yard this afternoon. It's only 12" tall, with maybe 5-6 fronds & is putting up a reproductive spike (male, female, who knows?) so it must be mature. I wish I had both sexes so they could produce viable seed, as these palms are rare. They must be pretty slow. My book says they reach only 6' tall at most. You've been pretty lucky with winter. This palm should survive only in 10b-11.

[tjwalters]

They're not too slow.  I have some I started from seed several years go, and now they are producing seed of their own.  I just attempted pollinating a week or so ago and am waiting to see if it took.  some of the rachillae are starting to turn red, so I'm hopeful.   Btw, these are all in pots and don't see the lows that yours are seeing.  Maybe that is slowing them down a bit.

[tjwalters]

Here are a few shots of some of mine...

Male on right, with old inflorescence:

Female with fruit:

[PalmatierMeg]

Beautiful, Tom. Hope mine will look as nice when he/she? gets more trunk.

[Jeff Searle]

Hi Kate,

     You didn't mention anything about fertilizing these, have you?  ( they like to eat too) I know they respond well to nutricote, so if you haven't given them any lately, spring is here and I would fertilize them. Also, you said the pot is heavy. Probably your soil is old and has broken down some, and this will cause some dieback of the roots. If so, you might want to change the soil and get them into some fresh dirt. Hope this helps. See ya in CR.

Jeff

[PalmGuyWC]

I have some C. acendens growing in a pot that I purchased in Florida some years ago. They were growing very slowly, so I repotted them and found they had very few roots. I put them in fresh soil and planted them deeper and then put spagnum moss around the base of each trunk to try to stimulate them to grow new roots. Some Chams. such as C. Ernesti-Augustii and metallica will grow new roots from the base of the trunk using this method. After a year I see no new roots, but they are plodding along, but very slowly.

I protect mine in the winter but grow them under lathe outside in the summer. They seem to tollerate our cool N. Calif. nights, and seem to grow equally as well inside or outside in the warmer months. Mine have taken at least 32F (0 C) with overhead protection with no damage.

Dick

[tjwalters]

Dick,

Now that you mention it, a few of mine from seed did proceed very slowly.  Others really took off, though.  Perhaps it's an individual thing, as all were given the same treatment.  To this day I have a couple that have yet to produce inflorescences.

[chris.oz]

Here in cool temperate Melbourne,  Oz,  I have found them slow .  By contrast,  C.costaricana,  C. tepejilote,  are lightning speed.  I have found them similar in growth rate to C. ernesti-augustii.  I agree with Jeff on the mucky medium I suggest you check that out.

[Kathryn]

I think it might be the pot itself that has all the weight, not the soil, but I will change it out anyway because I want to check out the roots. I haven’t fertilized - I guess I need to find that Louisiana contact that Jeff gave me for Nutricote.

[Tomsky]

I have a small one in the ground for about a year. There's one erect inflorescence.

Jack

[palmazon]

Kathryn,

There's a distinct "metallica-esque" sheen on the leaflets of your seedlings - or has my eyesight deteriorated further?

[SubTropicRay]

They have grown relatively slowly for me as well compared to others in the genus.

[Kathryn]

I repotted these palms a few months ago. The soil didn't look too bad. I don't think those glazed pots are good for palms - terra cotta seems to work much better. Here are some pictures showing the minimal roots they had. The smaller one may have been planted too high like Dick mentioned - I tend to do that a lot for some reason.

[Kathryn]

And here they are today, doing well.

[MattyB]

These may be one of the palm species that have a darker colored root, but usually when I see roots that color that means they're rotting. Maybe one of the experts can enlighten us.

[Kathryn]

Kathryn,

There's a distinct "metallica-esque" sheen on the leaflets of your seedlings - or has my eyesight deteriorated further?

Yes, they have a nice sheen that doesn't show up too well in the photo. Here is picture with a metallica that has a good sheen, which also doesn't show up well.