Copernicia fallaense

[Cindy Adair]

So this is one of my (many) favorites!

I checked on it the first day here even though it was starting to rain. Just like when I got to see this species in habitat last year.

I saw the vines around it and the ant's nest next to it.

Did I wimp out and make the poor palm wait to be helped?

Of course not!

With my bare hands and taking care to lean away from the disturbed ant hill I made the palm happy and myself too!

Not sure if this camera pictured it but the ants were angry!

Before and after

[waykoolplantz]

Make them angry enough to call U-Haul and move.

I have lost more than one palm to ants.

[Cindy Adair]

Pardon my ignorance, in Virginia the ants farm aphids and mealy bugs and here I know the ants can bite me but how do they kill the palms?

I can pour some dawn detergent on the mound and add some water which works in Virginia but that's all I have around on the farm with daylight fading fast on my last day here....

Should I go get dirty again and do it?

[Kostas]

Looking great thee Cindy!! Awesome palm!!

[Cindy Adair]

Okay. Those that know me well know that I would never risk a palm's health just because of a little dirt. So I knew if I changed into proper clothes and hiking boots and got a walking stick and stopped to think about it the light would be gone.

So off I went and even stopped on the way there to admire the sunset. The next rain will add the water.

I didn't put detergent directly on the palm just the adjacent mound.

It was much darker on the way back so I'm glad I snapped this photo first.

And here I am back in one of the bedrooms safe and sound after my now night time jaunt up and down a slope.

Good thing it wasn't raining!

[Pedro 65]

Good work Cindy, I really thought it would look like "crap" under the vines being "full sun" lovers , plenty of blue/grey already in its colour

Pete

[Gbarce]

looks very robust. It's doing really well.

[peachy]

This was the species that really got me into palms many years ago after a saw some in the Brisbane city gardens. They just wont take more than one or two of my winters however. Also by the time it got to 3 metres I would have been dead about 40 years, so I had to give up my first dream palm proclivity.

Peachy

[Cindy Adair]

I will do my best to not kill this one, partly in honor of your dream Peachy!

[Moose]

I will do my best to not kill this one, partly in honor of your dream Peachy!

Cindy - Hope you've established a source for good palm fertilizer - all them minors are important.

[Cindy Adair]

Nope,I have done nothing yet.

Probably getting by for awhile because of the richness of the existing soil where most everything seems happy except true xerophytes.

I am sure all would grow faster still if fed properly so it's my still huge to do list!

Thanks for the reminder Moose!