washingtonia robusta Washingtonia Robusta re-potting and Root growth!

[RobustaEnvirons]

I decided to take the next step as PalmatierMeg long ago suggested and I re-potted my oldest Washy (that I bought from Nevada on ebay last August). I re-potted it in a more standardized black container, rather than the clear Powerade bottles I've been using up til now. And boy was it a job cutting the Powerade bottle down the side. I hope I didn't cut the roots up or anything while doing this. I tried to be careful but it was hard to cut and all with the roots right up against the walls. 

It now looks as if it did indeed need re-potting! Geez, there's a lot of roots here. There was still a lot of potting medium that fell lose though.

I can now see that because I had the soil piled so high up the trunk over time, it only appeared that it wasn't growing very fast. Under closer observation I can see it has a larger trunk indeed. I tried to plant it high enough in this new pot so that more of the trunk could be exposed. Now it actually has a trunk on it, and with the signature red/purple color too! 

I think it definitely needed it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it does now that its got room to let loose now.      

[RobustaEnvirons]

[RobustaEnvirons]

[RobustaEnvirons]

There's even a little new growth pushing through (came up before potting it though). 

Edited July 28, 2016 by RobustaEnvirons

[Latinmtl67]

Any news since?

[RobustaEnvirons]

3 hours ago, Latinmtl67 said:

Any news since?

Yes, actually! My Washy has grown quite rapidly. It now has 4 leaves and is sending out its 5th. Although, I should mention that the oldest one is looking like its tip is browning and so it'll probably turn brown all the way down until the leaf completely dies off. And then my Robusta will be back down to 4 leaves. But, such is the life-cycle of a Palm leaf.

Its doing very well overall. Each leaf it sends out is slightly larger than the last. All summer long I've put it outside every morning upon sunrise and I bring it back indoors shortly after sunset. At night I keep them in my sun-room. Daytime and Nighttime temps are dropping here. Its dipping down into the low 50s here at night! Yikes. And daytime temps are staying in the 60s and 70s, but looking at the forecast it appears the temps are struggling a bit to hold onto the 60s and 70s.

So, I'm not too sure how much longer I can get away with putting my Washies outside during the day.       

[RobustaEnvirons]

[RobustaEnvirons]

[RobustaEnvirons]

Edited September 26, 2016 by RobustaEnvirons

[Latinmtl67]

Oh wow. Nice im jealous hehe 

i can't wait for mine to like yours 

they are growing quite fast that's true 

faster than the trachycarpus for sure

 

 

Thx for the update 

always interesting 

and nice pictures

Edited September 26, 2016 by Latinmtl67

[RobustaEnvirons]

Lately, I've actually been having a problem with something digging up my soil in my palms containers. I've got the palm shown here, and also a Robusta seedling and something keeps digging a hole into the soil about 3-4 inches or so down. It looks like its always a small animal. probably a squirrel or something. I don't know what it could be but its happened now sporadically a few times. I always just gather up the soil and tidy it all back up. They haven't yet disturbed either palm, just dug up the dirt (in the container). I've been fortune. 

I keep both of my Washies in a larger (storage) container for stability out in my front yard to soak up the sunshine during the day (and then I carry them indoors each night). For the last month I've moved my palms closer to the perimeter of my front yard by the fence. It did this so that they could begin to receive sun at 9am instead of 12:30pm. It gets them more hours of sunshine per day since my house blocks the morning sun, except by the fence. When I had them in front of the house though, they never seemed to have a problem with critters digging up the soil. So, I think I might relocate them back to their original position in front of the house again, even though they won't get as many hours of sunshine. I can't have animals digging up their soil.         

Although, in about 3-5 days I'll be moving them full-time to my bay-window for the winter since the weather is slated to get colder next week. So I won't have to deal with this critter problem to much longer anyhow.