Parajube cocoides -- hero or goat?

[SanDimas]

haha...downunder...LOL.

You guys are fuuuuuuuuuunny.

[LJG]

Len is that in austraila???

New Zealand under full canopy actually

I can't figure out which damn way my iPad wants to take photos so they are straight up on PT. Maybe Dean can flip it

[Stevetoad]

Len is that in austraila???

New Zealand under full canopy actually

I can't figure out which damn way my iPad wants to take photos so they are straight up on PT. Maybe Dean can flip it

Len. A trick I use when posting from my iPad or iPhone is to rotate the photo to the right or left and save it side ways. Then rotate it so it so its look right again then save it again. Then when you post it it will be right

[Gtlevine]

Uh, i have no idea what you just said.

[Stevetoad]

Uh, i have no idea what you just said.

It's an apple thing

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I like cocoides a lot when grown properly, but they dont like heat. I eventually removed all mine and they were quite large. The ones i see on the coastline where there is a marine influence are gorgeous.

what did yours look like? i get very hot in summer so im wondering if im setting myself up for a let down once mine grows up.

Mine looked gorgeous until they had several feet of clean trunk, then they started getting a crown funk when the summers got above 90F, every one of them, and I had five of them in my yard. They grew out of the funk when the weather cooled off, but I got tired of torturing them, so I gave them away to friends living on the coast and they are now enormous and beautiful palms. The big ones at the Huntington got the funk, then Gary Woods in Fallbrook had one with twenty feet of trunk that always had the funk and I think it finally carked also. I would advise anyone that likes P.C. to plant the hybrid with butia or not at all, unless your within 5 miles of the coast and get a lot of coastal influence. All you have to do is see the ones I saw in Leucadia on the ocean to fall in love with them, they are amazing!

Gary

Gary

Here is one Gary gave me 5 years ago. I took it kicking and screaming as I wasn't into Parajubeas much then. It is now one of my favorites. Also, I have heard from others also that once they get trunk they become problematic. Might be a maturity thing that once it starts flowering and producing seed it has much greater requirements. I think Bob De Jong had some in his old garden close to the coast he cut down.

That's a beauty, looks really healthy if you don't count the upside down growth pattern. Growing it downwards usually doesn't improve its heat tolerance, but in Vista it's going to grow into a beautiful giant.

[pogobob]

Yep, they are nice when small, but they allways turn to crap eventually, wish I knew why. Doesn't make a difference if they are coastal or inland.

[JasonD]

here is my 3 yr old Parajubaea cocoides

I've never seen a cocoides seedling look like that. The form we grow here gets really long strap leaves that don't split until much later. I'll have to find my youngest cocoides and take a picture and illustrate.

Tassie Troy's is typical of all the juvenile cocoides I've seen.

[JasonD]

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

I have to admit, I am not keen on the fur on the trunk, and I certainly would like to know how the fur disappeared off those giants in Quito. It didn't do it on its own. I am not about to climb my cocoides to clean them.

Axel, Many hairy trunked palm species "clean" their own trunks as they age. Look at really tall Trachycarpus and you'll notice a smooth or partially smooth trunk. Over time, especially in a humid climate, the hairy fibers rot and fall off.

The older plants spontaneously shed their leafbases. This is happening at the Oakland Lakeside Palmetum and Darold Petty is fighting to keep the leafbases on his tall tree.

[JasonD]

Steve, grow torallyi var torallyi instead, it's more robust and I think it looks a lot more like a coconut because the fronds are more upright but still curve like those of a coconut. What could anyone not like about this palm, just look at this beauty! See photo below:

Fantastic photo!

[JasonD]

Axel,
Your info provided above on germination (and frost) is
invaluable - thank you. I think at your property they get the ideal
diurnal temperature range to sprout.

Parajubaea cocoides
really is a cloud-forest delicacy, one of the few palms we can proudly
feature in the Central California and SF Bay Area fog belts. In cooler
coastal locations they really need full sun, but just a few miles inland
or uphill they can take some shade and still progress.

Dick Douglas's never really thrives in Walnut Creek, because summers are just too hot and winters too frosty.

They look really nice as young plants, then go through an awkward adolescence before the leafbases shed and the proportions change again.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Very nice example of cocoides Len once i retrieved it from it's inverted state !

[LJG]

Very nice example of cocoides Len once i retrieved it from it's inverted state !

Wait, it was inverted for you too?

[ghar41]

Cocoides is a goat for me, but sunkha and, to a slightly lesser degree, pvt, look very promising!

[Tropicdoc]

Stupid question, why not just clean the hair from the trunk as it forms?

[palmaddict]

I live in San Diego and am six miles off the ocean. In late summer many 90-100 degree days with low humidity. My P cocoides never did well but I like the look of a well grown one in cooler climates. So I did the next best thing and purchased two P. cocoides X Butia hybrids from Patrick Shaefer. The palms are now about 5 years old and are going to be stellar palms. You get the heat tolerance combined with a different look. There is a thread going around about this cross with pictures of a large specimen and everyone was raving about it. I think it belonged to Richard Douglas but I am not sure. Most people are looking for these hybrids to expand the range of cooler climates that palms can be grown in. The reality is the reverse is also true. This hybrid expands the range of hot climates where you can get a P. cocoides look alike. Absolutely no regrets on this hybrid although they were not cheap.

Patrick

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I live in San Diego and am six miles off the ocean. In late summer many 90-100 degree days with low humidity. My P cocoides never did well but I like the look of a well grown one in cooler climates. So I did the next best thing and purchased two P. cocoides X Butia hybrids from Patrick Shaefer. The palms are now about 5 years old and are going to be stellar palms. You get the heat tolerance combined with a different look. There is a thread going around about this cross with pictures of a large specimen and everyone was raving about it. I think it belonged to Richard Douglas but I am not sure. Most people are looking for these hybrids to expand the range of cooler climates that palms can be grown in. The reality is the reverse is also true. This hybrid expands the range of hot climates where you can get a P. cocoides look alike. Absolutely no regrets on this hybrid although they were not cheap.

Patrick

I ended up ordering one from Patrick, expensive but given the labor he puts into it, it's worth it. But personally, the more I see my torallyi and a friend of mine's torallyi mature, the more I lean towards the torallyi look. And that one is cheap, heat tolerant and hardy. And I still have extra seedlings left over! My cocoides look fantastic (as shown above - mostly in part shade) until they trunk into full sun, then they do what happens to everyone else in warmer climates - they start to look crappy with leaf burn. I guess they're really more for the cool fog belts of Norcal and the immediate coastal zones in Southern California. It gets a little too hot here for them some 15 miles from open ocean even though the Monterey Bay is 3 miles to the south. I am going to watch them a while longer, but most likely they're all going to slowly get replaced with the other parajubaea species and Patrick's hybrids.