Palm Maintenance Work.Yr_2009

[Kris]

Dear Friends

Today lets see the repotting work of C.M palm,i.e Corypha Macropoda palm.I must say that out of 24 seeds used in 2 baggie bags only around 6 had germinated and of that even one had damped-off while shifting it to a big sized barrel.And i was told by few gardeners here that these seeds are viable up to 3 years,So its evident that the rest of the non germinated seeds in the baggie bags do not float yet.The saplings have exhibited slow growing tendency compared to corypha umbraculifera/Talipot Palm.

This C.Macropoda palm is most commonly known as corypha utan var.macropoda.

And for those who like to know more of this variety of corypha here are some intreasting links !

Corypha Macropoda !

Corypha macropoda

Germinating Corypha

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Corypha_macropoda

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Corypha/macropoda.html

http://www.utopiapalmsandcycads.com/Coryphamacropoda.htm

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/226548/

I will keep you updated as to how this palm is growing and later i intend to plant one in our house garden and rest will be donated to goverment gardens & parks nearby..

Hope you all enjoy the visuals which will follow from the following post.

Lots of love,

kris

[Kris]

Like always to help the palm grow comfortably we have provided big sized pots,Since they are not easily avaliable here..So we used industrial barrels that are UV stablised and they do not disintigrate that easily for years.

kris soil mix...

Here's the hero of this thread !

A close-up still of the palm in discussion

The Palm Doc @ work !

In the soil filled barrel,now a circular pit is dug to the dimension of that mineral water bottle in which the C.M palm was growing for months..And the barrel is made wet since the sandy soil was trying to slide or cave in.

Now the palm along with the its cut away mineral water bottle is lowered into this dug up pit.You can see the bottle is fairly empty since the bottle too contained only sandy soil.So while cutting the bottle most of the sandy soil just dropped away.Since we were doing this work during the time when we were experiencing intermittent rains,its okay.Or else it could be very dangerous situation since the barrel is placed in roof top terrace exposed to the ravages of hot-wet tropical zone with high coastal influence(humidity).

...

[Kris]

Cont..

Here you can see we have removed the mineral water bottle and you can also see that the palm is almost bareroot/barefooted.Though this is not my style,but i could not help..

Now we started to fill this barrel with our soil mix..

Watering is done to remove air-pockets and soil caving in later on.

A close-up view as to how things are settling down

A long shot of this barrel

And during the day time,we placed this light weight bamboo basket so that the sunlight & heat does not get to this newly planted palm

And during the evenings after 6.00 pm(Daily)we opened that bamboo basket for the palm to breath freely the fresh air !

Here's a still taken after a week of this repotting work and the palm seems to be doing just fine..

More updates as to how this baby is doing will follow in the comming months,since now we are in our rainy season which we call as winter.But the air around is warm throughout the year.

Thanks & Love,

kris

[Walt]

Hi Kris,

Yes, I think germination is poor, but that's life.

Of the 10 C. utan macropoda seeds you sent me, only three germinated. They grow slow, too. My seedlings now have three leaves. Just yesterday I moved them to a more full sun location as the days keep getting shorter and shorter here, since we are going into winter.

But otherwise, my three 3-leafed seedlings are doing and looking great. I will pot grow them, stepping them up as needed, until they get to a good size, at least 2 meters in overall height.

I will keep you updated, as I said I would in a different posting.

Thanks again, my friend, for the seeds.

Walt

[Kris]

Dear Walt

Thanks for droping by and i have realised that its the slowest of all the corypha's and it does not seem to move much,may be its due to our winter season..

Here are some updates !

Thanks & Love,

kris

[Kris]

Latest update..

Love,

kris

[FRITO]

Kris, thanks for the update! Your little baby looks happy in that big barrel on your rooftop!

I have good news, You sent me seeds 8/2008 and I had 2 germinate after a couple months but the babies damped off during our summer. I let the rest of the seed incubate with no results for about a year! I saw John in Andalucia's thread on 'de-lidding' technique. I got sand paper and sanded off where the seeds germinates to expose the small white dot. I then placed these seed on heat and like magic they all popped open. they all have 5" long roots now and will repot them as it starts to warm up in our spring. I hope I can get them to start producing leaves soon.

[Kris]

Dear Luke

Nice to hear from you..And i think we both owe to John for teching us all new methods of seeds germination which are hard to germinate & those that have long & irregular gestation periods.

And by the way if our members could not follw what we are discussing here,then here is a link to that topic !

Tickling the embryo

Germinating 'old' palm seeds

Lots of love,

kris

[Kris]

Here's an update ! And now this palm is putting out white wax kind of colouration as seen in Silver bismarkia & B.Armeda.This palm looks healthy but the grouth rate is far far behind a Talipot palm..

Love,

kris

[Peter Pacific]

Hello Kris,

I wanted to update you on my Corypha macropoda seeds. Five have germinated so far and I am giving the others some time before I take out the sandpaper! I planted one directly into the ground and a few others into a large black plastic pot (trash container really). I will post a pic of the Borassus seedling under a different post. warm regards, Peter

This one in the ground is just starting to sprout.

This is one that germinated a couple of months ago. You can even see the other one alongside.

[Kris]

Dear Peter

Nice encouraging visuals...But i think you must seperate both the C.Macropodas growing in the same container.Since grown up seedlings hate to be transplanted.i.e these palms are very suscepetable to root shock.And i have lost few seedlings that way.

Keep up the good work !

Love,

kris

[Peter Pacific]

Thanks, Kris, duely noted. I shall separate them at once!! Peter

[Kris]

An update !

By the way do any one know how long does it take for this variety to put out that bismarkia kind of leaf colour ? This palm is growing great,once the rainy season is over we have planned to feed chemical based fertz for this palm on regular basis...

[Kris]

An Update !

Love,

kris

[Kris]

Here's a video update !

Love,

kris.

[BS Man about Palms]

Very nice Kris... I kept waiting to hear you narrate! Please do next time!!!

[carver]

Excellent! Looking great, I too was expecting a shout out to the palm talk crowd.

[Kumar]

Thanks Kris - please put a few more photos as I cant view palmtalk videos on my mobile