Pinanga sarawakensis ?

[aussiearoids]

Anyone growing this sp. out of the tropics ? It sure is a nice looking one and lots of seedlings around that could be spread down south . Clayton is growing it in his protected microclimate , but what about someone over the border ?

Sarawak has some pretty high mountains , it could be a highland sp.

Mature plant pictured here , as well as a seedling.

[aussiearoids]

This is a repeat of a post I made in Feb 08 ... maybe someone has tried in the near 2 years ...... ???????????

[elHoagie]

Sweet looking palm! Pinangas seem to be hit or miss surviving winters at my place. If I can find some plants I'll give 'em a nice cold test in my backyard...

[Tyrone]

I wouldn't know on its cold tolerance Michael. I've never had access to this species. Maybe someone's got it in Brisbane.

Best regards

Tyrone

[freddie]

Hi, I'm on the Sunshine Coast, about 50kms south of Clayton's nursery and 80 kms north of Brisbane. I have a tiny 3 leaf p. sarawakensis seedling that was sent down from Cairns five months ago. It wintered completely outdoors in a pot, sheltered only by the fronds of some larger palm seedlings. We had 3-4 weeks of night temps that averaged 8-9 degrees, with a few that fell below 5 degrees, but no frosts. It hasn't suffered any leaf damage whatsoever and is currently pushing out a new spear.

I also have 20 seedlings that arrived bare-rooted through the mail from Nth Qld just over 4 weeks ago which were potted up and placed outdoors under shadecloth. Really bad timing because that same night the temp got down to 3 degrees, our coldest one for the winter! Then, as mentioned above, we had several more weeks of mostly single digit overnight temps. Most of the seedlings have some leaf damage (from minor to significant), a few of them weren't bothered by it at all and 2 suffered very badly and look like they might not survive. Four weeks later, about two thirds seem to be making a rapid recovery and are pushing out new fronds.

And finally just 3 weeks ago I received two 4 leaf seedlings, mailed in their pots this time rather than bare-root. They were also placed outdoors under shadecloth and surrounded by some leafy cordylines for protection. They missed the worst of the very cold nights but still went through a couple of weeks of single digit temps. They have shown no sign of damage or stress and are looking great.

I don't yet have any advanced or mature p. sarawakensis in the ground so can't offer anything there but hope this bit of info regards seedlings is of some help.

[Walter John]

Hi, I'm on the Sunshine Coast, about 50kms south of Clayton's nursery and 80 kms north of Brisbane. I have a tiny 3 leaf p. sarawakensis seedling that was sent down from Cairns five months ago. It wintered completely outdoors in a pot, sheltered only by the fronds of some larger palm seedlings. We had 3-4 weeks of night temps that averaged 8-9 degrees, with a few that fell below 5 degrees, but no frosts. It hasn't suffered any leaf damage whatsoever and is currently pushing out a new spear.

I also have 20 seedlings that arrived bare-rooted through the mail from Nth Qld just over 4 weeks ago which were potted up and placed outdoors under shadecloth. Really bad timing because that same night the temp got down to 3 degrees, our coldest one for the winter! Then, as mentioned above, we had several more weeks of mostly single digit overnight temps. Most of the seedlings have some leaf damage (from minor to significant), a few of them weren't bothered by it at all and 2 suffered very badly and look like they might not survive. Four weeks later, about two thirds seem to be making a rapid recovery and are pushing out new fronds.

And finally just 3 weeks ago I received two 4 leaf seedlings, mailed in their pots this time rather than bare-root. They were also placed outdoors under shadecloth and surrounded by some leafy cordylines for protection. They missed the worst of the very cold nights but still went through a couple of weeks of single digit temps. They have shown no sign of damage or stress and are looking great.

I don't yet have any advanced or mature p. sarawakensis in the ground so can't offer anything there but hope this bit of info regards seedlings is of some help.

Hi Ilona/Freddie, wow Michael, you couldn't get a better response that this. I'd love to see some photos Freddie if you have any.

[freddie]

Hi Wal, nice to meet you! we're nearly neighbours

ok, I got some photos - not sure how well they'll work because a.) I had to use the camera flash since it's kinda dark out in the backyard at night, and b.) I've never tried to upload photos to a forum before....

here goes:

this is where my first little p. sarawakensis has spent the last five months. the plants are sitting on a wooden pallet at the base of a large old paperbark tree - heavily shaded but otherwise open to the elements with no other protection.

photo taken just a couple of hours ago. the leaf spotting/discolouration occurred during the three and half months of non-stop rain we had. i haven't noticed any further damage due to the recent cold. if you look closely you can just see the tiny new spear starting to emerge!

[freddie]

group photos of the bare-rooted p. sarawakensis seedlings mailed from cairns 4-5 weeks ago. apart from a couple of them which weren't too bothered by the stress of it all, they're a rather sad looking bunch

(btw, the lush looking chamaedorea oblongatas at the back of the pic also arrived in the same box, they haven't been phased by the ordeal one little bit!)

[freddie]

where there's life, there's hope.... new spears emerging from broken and battered bodies

[freddie]

don't go barefoot... or bareroot in winter! these two p. sarawak seedlings were mailed in their pots. they've been outdoors in the cold for 3-4 weeks, photo taken a couple of hours ago.

[freddie]

just thought I'd also mention that for the past few days we've had an unseasonal summer heatwave... and it's still officially winter! the temps have gone from recent overnight single digit lows to blazing hot days - monday and tues reached 36 degrees (just short of 100 F), a record temp for august in this area, today cooled down a bit to 30 degrees. right now (just past midnight) it's dropped to 14, next week's forecast is for another cold spell. the madness isn't over yet for my poor seedlings, will be interesting to see how they cope with the radical temp swings.

[aussiearoids]

Thanks very much for the feedback .

[KrisKupsch]

I’ve one in NQ in a 7” pot I’ll bring back soon and try it in far NENSW. It’s good to hear they do ok in SEQLD. Now to push it even further in Mexico !

[happypalms]

On 1/1/2022 at 8:31 AM, KrisKupsch said:

I’ve one in NQ in a 7” pot I’ll bring back soon and try it in far NENSW. It’s good to hear they do ok in SEQLD. Now to push it even further in Mexico !

Hi kris did you ever bring your Sarawakensis down from far north and if so has it lived. cheers 

[KrisKupsch]

8 hours ago, happypalms said:

Hi kris did you ever bring your Sarawakensis down from far north and if so has it lived. cheers 

The plant I was referring to in the post above I ended up giving to someone in NQ. I can’t confirm I have this species here but I have lost a heap of Pinanga I thought was sarawakensis they all died when I tubed them too early in spring. Ask Harry he probably has it