San Joaquin Valley King Palm

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

Here is a photo of my 10 year old King palm taken yesterday.

It gets nailed by temps below 30f, which we had plenty this past winter. I think the lowest it endured was about 26 -27f.

Most of the leaves were frosted but as you can see, it recovers.

BTW, our warmest months, July and August averaged 98f for a high temp, this didnt even faze this palm.

Jeff

[Walt]

The trunk on your king palm looks fairly stout. I can see that it had winter damage to the fronds. I seem to recall you posted a photo of your palm some years ago, but I could be wrong. I know it was somebody that had one or more planted between their house and garage (or at least two structures, and this helped to protect them during the winter).

Most of my A. cunninghamia palms got various degrees of frost damage this past winter except for a few of them planted in more protected (not in the open) areas. I had 21 king palms in the ground this past winter. All have trunk of various lengths. None have trunks more than about 12 feet (my tallest one). Some of the more smaller ones are still recovering from the severe winter months here of January 2010 and again in December of 2010. In fact, some kings I had were killed, but 21 of them survived.

So far this summer I've planted out 14 3-gallon king palms I grew from seed. I plan to plant at least 10 more out (I have way too many of them). I have so many I'm planting them here and there to be used at freeze/frost indicators about my property. Some areas are just warmer than others, mostly due to overhead canopy.

Most of my king palms have skinny trunks due to havin them planted in more shady, protected areas. That's the price I must pay in order to have them in my low 9b climate. I also have two A. alexandrae palms. These get whacked every winter.

Above photo: A. cunninghamiana (with foxtail trunk just to the right background), A. alexandrae, and A. cunninghamiana. These are my oldest and largest ones. You can still see some last winter's damage on some of the lower most fronds.

Above photo: This A. cunninghamiana palm is growing beneath the canopy of a Carolina cherry laurel and Peltophorum dubium trees. It gets way too much shade. I will have my tree trimmer company cut back some of the limbs of this tree to open it up next spring when he comes to trim all palm too tall for me to do.

Above photo: This A. cunnighamiana escaped cold damage this past winter. To the right of it is a small A. cunninghamiana I planted about a week ago. I also planted five more close by as this area runs a little warmer during the winter, so I want to concentrate a grove of these palms in this area.

[Walt]

The trunk on your king palm looks fairly stout. I can see that it had winter damage to the fronds. I seem to recall you posted a photo of your palm some years ago, but I could be wrong. I know it was somebody that had one or more planted between their house and garage (or at least two structures, and this helped to protect them during the winter).

Most of my A. cunninghamia palms got various degrees of frost damage this past winter except for a few of them planted in more protected (not in the open) areas. I had 21 king palms in the ground this past winter. All have trunk of various lengths. None have trunks more than about 12 feet (my tallest one). Some of the more smaller ones are still recovering from the severe winter months here of January 2010 and again in December of 2010. In fact, some kings I had were killed, but 21 of them survived.

So far this summer I've planted out 14 3-gallon king palms I grew from seed. I plan to plant at least 10 more out (I have way too many of them). I have so many I'm planting them here and there to be used at freeze/frost indicators about my property. Some areas are just warmer than others, mostly due to overhead canopy.

Most of my king palms have skinny trunks due to havin them planted in more shady, protected areas. That's the price I must pay in order to have them in my low 9b climate. I also have two A. alexandrae palms. These get whacked every winter.

Above photo: A. cunninghamiana (with foxtail trunk just to the right background), A. alexandrae, and A. cunninghamiana. These are my oldest and largest ones. You can still see some last winter's damage on some of the lower most fronds.

Above photo: This A. cunninghamiana palm is growing beneath the canopy of a Carolina cherry laurel and Peltophorum dubium trees. It gets way too much shade. I will have my tree trimmer company cut back some of the limbs of this tree to open it up next spring when he comes to trim all palm too tall for me to do.

Above photo: This A. cunnighamiana escaped cold damage this past winter. To the right of it is a small A. cunninghamiana I planted about a week ago. I also planted five more close by as this area runs a little warmer during the winter, so I want to concentrate a grove of these palms in this area.

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

Walt,

Very nice ! I would think the heat/humidity would get your kings in FL?

Yea I posted a photo many years ago of Glenn's " ghar41 " King palms growing between 2 houses a couple blocks away.

They have at least 20 ft of clear trunk. But a clearly protected by the buildings.

Mine is out in the open... somewhat and get nailed most winters.

Jeff

[Walt]

Walt,

Very nice ! I would think the heat/humidity would get your kings in FL?

Yea I posted a photo many years ago of Glenn's " ghar41 " King palms growing between 2 houses a couple blocks away.

They have at least 20 ft of clear trunk. But a clearly protected by the buildings.

Mine is out in the open... somewhat and get nailed most winters.

Jeff

Jeff: Okay, I knew I recalled seeing some kings growing between two houses and in an area considered marginal for growing kings.

The first king I ever bought, I bought online from a nursery here in Florida called the Greenescape. It was sent mostly bare root as a 5 gallon size, and it was Archontophoenix cunninghamiana 'illawarra'. I planted it under high red bay tree canopy so that it would be protected from too much direct sun light and also have protection against frost. It did well for many years, putting on a good amount of trunk. But then I got hit with four back to back hurricanes, blowing my king palm over on a 45 degree angle. I re righted and staked it but it was never the same after that. To further complicate things, Florida got hit by the laurel wilt diseases that killed all of my bay trees (red bay, swamp bay , and silk bay of the Persea genus). As such, the king palm was now fully exposed to the direct sun. The leaves got badly sunburned. eventually my king palm got some kind of disease and croaked.

Other than that, all my king palms do well here until I get the usual 1-3 days each winter with temps down into the mid to high 20s with frost. That's when the foliage damage is done. But it depends, really, where the king is planted. Some parts of my property is five degrees warmer than the coldest parts. It is in the warmer parts I am now planting all my young kings. They will go through a trial period this winter.