Rhopalostylis Sapida (Oceana) Chatham Island Nikau Palm

[Chris83]

On 8/18/2022 at 6:59 AM, PalmCode said:

I have not been back this this source in couple months and the were no ripe  seeds that hadn't been eaten by bugs or rotted. Same goes for the Bueri i know of. It's a shame i cannot send you some seedlings i have more than enough of both types now. But i will check again for seeds soon. As richnorm said on the other thread try contacting Gary, he would be your best bet for the seeds youre after.

Hi Cody, also looking to get my hands on some Chatham Island Nikau. Who is Gary? Would be grateful to get in contact with the guy.  Haven't found anywhere to buy from, and I'm even considering flying to the Chatham island to collect, but even then I'd need a contact of a private property owner who is willing to allow me to collect. DOC doesn't allow seed collection from public land, or at least doesn't have an avenue through which to do this legitimately. 

The hope is to regrow Nikau on my family farm in Gisborne, which by all indications was once a Nikau forest - the only original trees remaining are three very, very old Nikau, which would have been tall enough to survive the original burn-offs as the forest was cleared, so possibly over 200 to 250 years old! 

 

Any leads would be appreciated!

 

 

[PalmCode]

13 hours ago, Chris83 said:

Hi Cody, also looking to get my hands on some Chatham Island Nikau. Who is Gary? Would be grateful to get in contact with the guy.  Haven't found anywhere to buy from, and I'm even considering flying to the Chatham island to collect, but even then I'd need a contact of a private property owner who is willing to allow me to collect. DOC doesn't allow seed collection from public land, or at least doesn't have an avenue through which to do this legitimately. 

The hope is to regrow Nikau on my family farm in Gisborne, which by all indications was once a Nikau forest - the only original trees remaining are three very, very old Nikau, which would have been tall enough to survive the original burn-offs as the forest was cleared, so possibly over 200 to 250 years old! 

 

Any leads would be appreciated!

 

 

Hi Chris, Garys on the forums here maybe you could message him if you want to contact him, he knows a lot more about this stuff. 

Getting seeds directly  from the chathams would be you best bet for authentic palms but I don't know how you'd do it without knowing anyone over there ect.
Maybe you could try your local Gisborne / east cape Nikau palms for seed instead. They are a nice form of Nikau and Your 200 year old nikau still standing is impressive.

I do have a few chatham seedlings about a year old. Let me know if you're interested in some of them. Might be able to sort something out. 

[Chris83]

On 12/28/2023 at 11:39 AM, PalmCode said:

Hi Chris, Garys on the forums here maybe you could message him if you want to contact him, he knows a lot more about this stuff. 

Getting seeds directly  from the chathams would be you best bet for authentic palms but I don't know how you'd do it without knowing anyone over there ect.
Maybe you could try your local Gisborne / east cape Nikau palms for seed instead. They are a nice form of Nikau and Your 200 year old nikau still standing is impressive.

I do have a few chatham seedlings about a year old. Let me know if you're interested in some of them. Might be able to sort something out. 

Thanks for the reply Cody, really appreciate it. I see a Gary in the forum, will send him a message.

 

Good to hear the Gisborne Nikau have some reputation, I already have around 2000 seedlings. The idea is to diversify this with some of the other varieties around NZ, particularly faster growing ones.

 

Thanks for the offer of seedlings, I might come back to you on this and try work something out, but the scale is going to be quite large, so for the minute the idea is to purchase a lot of seeds to keep costs down, and I've also had trouble keeping seedling alive once transplanted - might be another forum question at some point to see what i'm doing wrong there! I may even try reach out to some of the residents on Pitt island, and see if they would be interested in making some extra coin through collecting and sending seeds - there is only 13 residents on the island I think, so cant be too hard to find one with Nikau on their land.