Red Lemur Palm (Lemurophoenix halleuxii) growing tips for seedling...

[trioderob]

any growing tips for my seedng red lemur ?

[pogobob]

any growing tips for my seedng red lemur ?

Send it to Hawaii

[paulgila]

[realarch]

Need my address?

Tim

[mike in kurtistown]

From limited experience in Florida: treat it like a Dypsis. There are some Dypsis I could not grow there, but I had one out of two Lemuros survive and grow.

[trioderob]

From limited experience in Florida: treat it like a Dypsis. There are some Dypsis I could not grow there, but I had one out of two Lemuros survive and grow.

could you give me an idea of the growth rate ?

[Gileno Machado]

For my climate, in the winter:

Lots (I mean lots) of moisture, half day shade under 50% shadecloth, regular potting mix with cocopeat added.

[LJG]

It is not worth the effort here in SoCal. The best have tried it and failed. If you want to just grow it for pot culture, then you will need a nice greenhouse.

[paulgila]

Need my address?

Tim

dear tim:

stop rubbing it in.

yer pal,p.kelapa

[Phil]

Robert,

For those of us in So Cal, the number one enemy is the winter's cold. It's not the easiest of grows. I had one outdoors in the ground for about 12 years in my Mission Hills home in San Diego. It got up to about 5 to 6 feet in the garden. It received broken morning sun but protection from mid-day sun and later. My garden doesn't get too cold and I have overhead canopy. It was killed when a tree trimmer dropped a branch on it (despite requests for being careful). I would recommend growing it in the pot for several years until it's a big 5g size before planting it. Protect it during the coldest time of the year. Because this species probably won't be available in the future, take care to do what it takes to get it to survive. As you've seen from photos from HI, it's a beautiful species and worth the effort.

Phil

[mike in kurtistown]

At the seedling level, it is not one of the faster growing Madagascar palms, but not the slowest either. My survivor came through two winters in a greenhouse where I kept the temperature above 39 deg F in the colder months. I think that it would have been really challenged if I had planted it out.

Now I live in Hawaii and I can't get any viable seeds.

[Morabeza]

I'm resurrecting this topic to see if I can get some advice on a rather specific question I have (explained in detail below) - basically when it it advisable to remove Lemurophoenix seedlings from community germination tubs/pots and separate them into individual pots?

I have Lemurophoenix seedlings in rigid clear plastic tubs growing in tubs that I germinated them in. The lids have come off since the leaves began emerging. They were kept on heating mat indoors with its thermostat set between 90°F-100°F (32-38°C) until I saw the first sprouts to begin pushing their second leaves. For the past 5 weeks they have been under fibreglass with some shade outdoors now that the weather is at its warmest.

I sowed 110 Lemurophoenix halleuxii seeds in November 2008 and germination began in February 2009. So far 16 seeds germinated with 3 having damped-off.

Of the remaining healthy 13:

- 5 have opened secondary leaves (2-leaf seedlings)

- 3 have open eophylls and are pushing un-opened secondary leaves (1-leaf seedlings)

- 5 are pushing unopened eophylls

- none are mature enough yet to push third leaves.

My micro-climate is has considerably cool temperatures for lowland O'ahu (there are happy healthy tall Rhopalostylis baueri and R. sapida not far from me), precious little full sun exposure, ample humidity and precipitation; I have to take care with all my palms (esp. heat-loving ones) to make sure that opportunistic pathogens don't brown leaves or kill off young understorey Dypsis species when it's too cool and wet. This is especially true in winter since my winter days don't get much above 75°F (24°C) and night time temps dip into the high 50's°F (~14°C). (Not that I wish to complain, generally it's fabulous weather for most of my plants)

Watering these seedlings is tricky because the tubs have no drainage holes and drilling sufficient drainage holes doesn't seem feasible. With the tubs on a hot heating pad our under cover with warmer summer temperatures, watering is not too complicated because the warmth helps the moisture evaporate within an acceptable amount of time so that the roots aren't too starved for the gases they also need. My great concern is that they may start to complain (e.g. weaken or die) while remaining all together in a container that perhaps takes too long to dry out between waterings when the temperatures are low until next spring (about 7 months away) and I would be sad to lose seedlings this way.

Then again if I disturb these seedlings (I hear their roots are especially sensitive to disturbance) before they have enough leaves (I have also heard that it is best to wait until they have at least 3-4 open leaves each) will I risk killing them? I generally have a great track record with hundreds of other bare-root seedlings of dozens of different genera, but I have a notion that the Lemurophoenix are perhaps more exigent than most other palm seedlings.

Of course my third option is to just wait and observe and then bring the tubs back inside (without disturbing the seedlings individually) and place them on warm heating mats again if the cool weather and watering regime does prove to be problematic.

The reason I put my question to the experts on the group is due to timing. August is coming to a close and by the end of September things should be cooling down. I don't want to miss a window of opportunity for potting these seedlings up individually both while the weather is warm enough to encourage faster leaf and root growth and while the weather is less apt to allow for opportunistic pathogens to gain a foothold - that is if the seedlings are 'mature' enough to handle being separated.

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

[bgl]

Jacob,

This is not a particularly difficult palm to move out of a community pot into individual 1G or 2G pots. I have done it with close to 100 seedlings over the last couple of years. I may have lost a handful. But not necessarily because of the move from a community pot. Since they germinate sporadically (i.e. one or two will germinate this month, then another couple will germinate next month or the month after) I have to remove the seedlings from the community pot while leaving the rest of the seeds intact. I do this very carefully with a little knife. Key is to remove the seedling with the roots intact, and that's not really all that difficult. I perform this little operation before the seedling has opened up its first leaf. I used to put them in 1G pots. Now I put them straight into 2G pots. The root system should be fairly well developed, even though it's not necessarily very deep.

Let me know how it goes. And don't worry about the time of year! I've done this at all times of the year - winter, summer...shouldn't make a difference (and I grow Rhopalostylis as well!)

Bo-Göran

[trioderob]

my red lemur plant has opened a very nice set of (2) red leaves this week!

this is in san diego

I repotted it into a larger pot with a 100% soil change.

yes I barerooted it and replanted.

the media I am using is a organic rich outdoor potting soil with a 1" compost layer on top of that.

it really responded well to the 1" "super organic" compost layer

the plant gets sun from 8 am - 1:00 pm

it is kept soaking wet all the time

the daytime temp has been around 80

this plant likes it warm, wet with rich organic soil

Edited August 20, 2009 by trioderob

[LJG]

You have had it for two months. Give it some winter months and come back and let us know

[Morabeza]

....Key is to remove the seedling with the roots intact, and that's not really all that difficult. I perform this little operation before the seedling has opened up its first leaf. I used to put them in 1G pots. Now I put them straight into 2G pots. The root system should be fairly well developed, even though it's not necessarily very deep.

Let me know how it goes. And don't worry about the time of year! I've done this at all times of the year - winter, summer...shouldn't make a difference (and I grow Rhopalostylis as well!)

Bo-Göran

Thank you so much Bo-Göran! I really appreciate your advice.

[Paul The Palm Doctor!]

My Lemur... was growing just fine in SE Fla. for three winters, then last year, after we hit 41 F. it just declined. I had it always getting ample water and a partially shaded location, but it just flat out hated something about its planting site and died within a week. I now don'y want to try again, as I want a seedling in a 4" pot and I can't find one.

Paul