Satakentia liukiuensis

[PalmatierMeg]

I really like Satakentias but in the past 2 years I have planted and watch die:

a 1g seedling

a 15g about to trunk

This palm is supposed to be in the top 10 landscape palms for S. FL. but for me they die slow and miserable deaths. Last fall I again bought one: a 3g from Catherine/Creekside. I want to plant it when/if weather ever warms up. I obviously need advice. What does it take to keep one alive and growing? I'm considering planting it in part-sun/shade. Is that a good idea? If not, what?

3g Satakentia

[Really full garden]

I really like Satakentias but in the past 2 years I have planted and watch die:

a 1g seedling

a 15g about to trunk

This palm is supposed to be in the top 10 landscape palms for S. FL. but for me they die slow and miserable deaths. Last fall I again bought one: a 3g from Catherine/Creekside. I want to plant it when/if weather ever warms up. I obviously need advice. What does it take to keep one alive and growing? I'm considering planting it in part-sun/shade. Is that a good idea? If not, what?

3g Satakentia

Meg, these have been a challenge for me as well.I have three planted at the beach in a protected spot.They took forever to get established.It has been almost four years.Two are starting to really take off and one is a runt that does nothing.I fertilise monthly,they have a rice hull mulch and all had their own burlap cabanas for two years to adapt to full sun.They were about two gallon sized plants when originally planted and had done well in pots.I still have one of their siblings in a pot in partial shade and it is almost double in size.

[SW_FL_Palms]

We have several growing on our property in Cape Coral and have had no problem.

I would wait until they are 7 - 15 gallon size before planting. They do like some protection when they are young.

Our seeding specimens were planted about 10 years ago and have been growing strong.

The smaller one (planted about 2 years ago) does have some tip burn from the cold.

Meg, are you on the dual water irrigation system ?

[Jeff in St Pete]

Geri, that is a beautiful palm! Wow!

[rozpalm]

Wow, SW_FL that is a nice palm! I can't wait for mine to start to look like that.

Meg, when I planted mine (25g) it just sat there and did nothing for 10months. I actually was starting to beleive it was dead. Then, all of a sudden it started growing like mad. It opened nearly one frond a month for several months and then slowed down in the winter months to a rate of roughly 1 frond every 3mos. I plan to add a few more to my landscape to replace dead stuff.

[PalmatierMeg]

We have several growing on our property in Cape Coral and have had no problem.

I would wait until they are 7 - 15 gallon size before planting. They do like some protection when they are young.

Our seeding specimens were planted about 10 years ago and have been growing strong.

The smaller one (planted about 2 years ago) does have some tip burn from the cold.

Meg, are you on the dual water irrigation system ?

Thanks, Geri. Yours is fantastic. We have dual water and irrigate the permitted 2x per week unless we get a lot of rain. I also hand water if things look too dry. I will take your advice to keep this guy potted till it gets bigger. Although the Satakentias at Cape Harbour are in full sun, I'm leaning toward keeping this one in part-shade if/when I ever plant it. That's where it is for now in the back yard. I will move it to shade when summer gets here.

Scott, we mistakenly planted the 1g in full sun in 2008, where it languished. Later I dug it up and potted it again and moved it to shade to no avail. I got the 15g in fall 2008 and planted it immediately. It started growing and survived winter of 2008/09 with minor tip burn where I couldn't protect it. It seemed to start growing again but in late summer it started dying from oldest fronds in and was dead in a only a few week. Before that our Capoxylon did the same thing - that is another palm I've tried and failed at twice.

[OCPalmnut]

Curious as to what is considered the dual water system?

[PalmatierMeg]

Curious as to what is considered the dual water system?

Dual water refers to separate water systems: one for potable water, the second drawn from recycled water and water from freshwater canals that is used for irrigation. Cape Coral, I believe, was the first city in the country to use recycled water for irrigation. I pay a monthly flat fee - can't remember how much now, perhaps $10-15 per month - and can irrigate my yard 2x per week from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. because of water restrictions. Of course I have an irrigation system with timer so I don't have to get up to water. But without dual water I'd have a much harder and more expensive time growing palms.

[palmislandRandy]

Meg, Heres mine towering over my now dead L. grandis. It's actually growing so fast, I'm gonna have move it this spring. It's pretty much in full sun all day. I planted it out as a 15 gallon 2.5 years ago. As you can see it held up much better than my poor wimpy Licualas!

Randy

[BS Man about Palms]

Randy, don't count that Licuala out yet. Does it still have a green spear?

[ariscott]

It still has green on it... It will recover... Just VERY SLOWLY like licuala would...

Regards, Ari

[Moose]

It still has green on it... It will recover... Just VERY SLOWLY like licuala would...

Regards, Ari

All the Licuala Peltatas look great here. Definitely more cold hardy than the grandis.

[sick1166]

yep

[palmislandRandy]

Randy, don't count that Licuala out yet. Does it still have a green spear?

Bill, All 4 of my grandis spears rotted & pulled. I poured peroxide & am waiting. With a flashlight, I don't see any action down there in the center, but I'll give em another month before I replace them with peltatas, which did fine. If ya want I'll yank em out & show you them at Searle's on Friday! they were almost flawless in December I havn't seen many grandis north of Broward County that survived this past weather event. Out of the 15 or so adults I see around here only 2 looked OK.

Randy

[Tyrone]

I'm growing a few Satakentia's here. One is in the ground and has been in for 4 years. It's a slow grower but consistent. They're meant to be slow even in the tropics.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Dave-Vero]

I lost a young Satakentia to an infection of the spear that hit a couple of other species at the same time. Two older ones have been growing vigorously, putting out leaves about as frequently as nearby Archontophoenix. Thanks to short internodes, the stems won't grow nearly as quickly as Archontophoenix. The Satakentias suffered serious leaf damage this winter from cold down to 28 degrees F. They're in more or less full sun (partial shade in winter due to being on the north side of the house), sand soil.

[MattyB]

My Satakentia breezed through last Winter and is on track to do great again this Winter (fingers crossed). It gets morning sun (in Summer) and then filtered light for the rest of the day under a Jacaranda. It seems to like that exposure a lot, but what palm wouldn't, it's perfect. I noticed that it's throwing adventitious roots out the side of the trunk a lot more horizontally than most of my palms. This worried me a bit because I water by drip and only saturate the soil subsurface, not on the surface. So I've added lot's of mulch around the trunk and surrounding areas to help with that. It seems to like it. Plus, while in Florida at Ken's place I noticed that his Satakentias had roots popping up, doing loopty loops above the surface so I think these guys need a lot of mulch to keep these spreading, surface roots happy.

[glbower]

I planted a seedling in the spring of 2006 (bought from Christian, if memory serves) and it already has 4 inches of wood. It's my most overachieving palm, in competition with my rocket-like Dypsis pembana. I didn't do anything special; just planted it in a mostly shady spot and fertilized it and watered it like the rest of my collection. The last two months-plus of cold weather hasn't affected it all.

It's been such a trouble-free good grower I ordered two seedlings from Kapoho last summer; both died in pots within a month of arrival. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you don't.

[ariscott]

I planted one of my Satakentia the other week. I put it under 30% shadecloth until it gets a bit bigger.... It seems like grow fine. I put my carpoxylon under the same shade too, and it seems happier than in full sun.

Regards, Ari

[Wanderanwills]

We have several growing on our property in Cape Coral and have had no problem.

I would wait until they are 7 - 15 gallon size before planting. They do like some protection when they are young.

Our seeding specimens were planted about 10 years ago and have been growing strong.

The smaller one (planted about 2 years ago) does have some tip burn from the cold.

Meg, are you on the dual water irrigation system ?

Great palm and photo, your garden looks magic.

Regards

Stephen