Rhopalostyllis sapida and Chatham

[Alberto]

I have some seedlings of both that I want to plant out in the shade of some trees. It rains here +-1500mm/year.

  I know they need humid conditions,but how moist must be the places where they will grow???

  Thanks,Alberto

[DoomsDave]

Alberto!

Nice to meet you!

Sapidas like a lot of water.  LOTS.  

Baueri, and variants, take a lot less.

But still a lot.

Show us pix?

dave

[Bennz]

Usually sapida grows in rainforest, so even in dry (less than 1000mm) areas the microclimate is typical humid temperate rainforest. I do see them in backyards in dry aras though without obvious stress, so I think they should be ok in dry areas (800mm). I have also seen them totally root submerged in rainforests, so wet is also ok.

Chatham form seems a bit more challenged by heat and humidity, as its habitat is very cool and windy but totally frost free. Mid summer there would be colder than your mid winter I suspect.

Climate stats;

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather...s=939870&refer=

I have heard some growers say Chatham form is hard to maintain in warm wet summer areas, so for you a windy dry site might be best.

[Alberto]

Hi Dave and Ben! Also nice to meet you !

My Nikaus are from Akaroa. (hardier?) and my Chathams are now 2.5 years old and have grown fine in pots in a shady place.

Climate stats of the city of Curitiba : somewhat warmer then Carambeí because i´ts closer to the sea and also located at a lower altitude

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather....=metric

 Regards,Alberto

[Steve in Brookings]

Mine seem to do well under tree fern culture.  Just pretend they are specimens of Dicksonia sellowiana and they should do fine.

[Tyrone]

I have a few Chatham seedlings and some normal sapidas and I've got them in full shade and keep them wet all year round and they're fine. Our summer heat doesn't seem to hurt the Chathams if I keep them shaded and wet. I'd imagine the humidity around the plant would stay high this way.

regards

Tyrone

[Bennz]

HI Alberto,

How much colder than Curitiba is your place?

Akaroa is warmer than Chathams in summer, and possibly slightly cooler in winter. But over the year a lot colder than Curitiba, only those occaisonal lows you get would be a problem. Young nikau get damaged at about 0C, and even adults die at -5C. Although there are some areas that get this cold and still have nikau, but not the places you have got seeds from. Your seed sites have the lowest mean air temps, not the frostiest temperatures that you really should be growing.

[Alberto]

(Bennz @ Sep. 15 2006,16:50)

QUOTE

HI Alberto,

How much colder than Curitiba is your place?

Akaroa is warmer than Chathams in summer, and possibly slightly cooler in winter. But over the year a lot colder than Curitiba, only those occaisonal lows you get would be a problem. Young nikau get damaged at about 0C, and even adults die at -5C. Although there are some areas that get this cold and still have nikau, but not the places you have got seeds from. Your seed sites have the lowest mean air temps, not the frostiest temperatures that you really should be growing.

Our mean temps. are cooler here. Our region sees more cool winds. Maybe a´´century frost ´´could be also lower than Curitiba.And the last years there is a strange change in the climate here: much warmer and drier winters!

This winter was very,very dry, with 2 or 3  radiational freezes (2 to 3´C)and we had a late freeze of 0´C begin september that didn´t hurt the nikaus!

   Are there colder places (frostier!!!) where nikaus grow? Maybe at higher altitudes.....? I made this question some years ago and the answer was that Akaroa was the coldest place where nikaus grow in NZ....

[Zac in NC]

Alberto- Glad to see you are back on the board. I think we lost some people. I haven't seen J australis here on this board. Just thought I would say welcome back.

Zac

[Bennz]

Coldest is relative. Akaroa and Chatham Islands are probably the coolest places regarding mean annual temperature, but they are not at all frosty. There are places where nikaus get much colder night minima, as well as warmer days, both of which would probably suit you better. Some of the central North Island areas would be like this. I have seen nikaus in the Rotorua area for example, that must go through 20-30 frosts a year, and temps down to about -5C or so every year.

Now I must stress that I do not know if any one population of nikau is any more or less frost hardy than any other, just going on what the temperature is like in the places where they grow. Possibly the seed provenances you have are the most frost tolerant, as they come for the southernmost latitude. But it is otherwise possible that the plants that grow in the frostiest places might be better, I really don't know.

What I do know is that R. cheesemanii grows in a subtropical island that even has a couple of self-sown coconut palms there, but when planted here in the mainland dont seem much more tender to cold than the southern nikau forms.  Possibly they all have similar cold tolerance, which seems also to be the case with Archontophoenix cunninghamiana which alos covers 1500km of latitude in natural distribution.

[Alberto]

Hi Zac, thank you!!!

 Ben, very interesting!I really hope mine nikaus will survive here!

But I think that  plants that grow in the frostiest places possibly are better.... The same with queen palms,that are known to be hardy to - 4.5`C in the USA,but here in south Brazil they grow in regions that see -10`C!!!! So the seed provenance they grow the queens from is possibly one from northeastern Brazil and not from south.....

  Do you know some ´´palm people´´ in the region of Rotorua???

  Thank you! Alberto

[Alberto]

Taking a look at this old post. Here are pics of the Rophalostylis sapida Chatham I planted out , after 20 uears

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

Very nice palms.  Have they ever seen cold damage?

[DoomsDave]

VERY NICE!

One good thing about getting old is being around to see your palms in their glory!

[Alberto]

12 hours ago, Jeff zone 8 N.C. said:

Very nice palms.  Have they ever seen cold damage?

Yes, they saw negative temperatures that killed an old mature Chamaedorea costaricana. At ground level at the lowest part of my property it was near -5⁰C. About this location,  beneath canopy, I don' t know the exact temperatures. They suffered minor damage.

[Harry’s Palms]

@Alberto Those are beautiful ! In warmer climate , shade is best . I learned the hard way! Harry

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

20 hours ago, Alberto said:

Yes, they saw negative temperatures that killed an old mature Chamaedorea costaricana. At ground level at the lowest part of my property it was near -5⁰C. About this location,  beneath canopy, I don' t know the exact temperatures. They suffered minor damage.

That's colder than I thought they would be able to tolerate.  The multiples you planted together give a good look. Now I have to try some.