Experimenting with new growing media for pot palms

[XYZ]

The lengthy thread elsewhere on this subforum that discusses different "soil" types for successfully growing palms indoors is of great interest to me. I suspect that, like most participants on this forum, I have grown most of my potted palms in the past in media that are based largely on organics (e.g. composted oak leaf litter, sphagnum peat, composted conifer bark) with varying amounts of mineral additions for drainage (e.g. pumice, perlite, DG).

Over the past several years as a greenhouse grower in northern California I have been forced to experiment with somewhat different mixes for pot plants than I use in Guatemala. Over the past two years in particular, I have started to work more with some traditional bonsai components in some of mixes for rare plants, including some palms. My initial foray into "bonsai soils" involved hyuga/Japanese pumice as the base component of a mix I used to grow a young trio of a very nice ecotype of the south Mexican cycad, Ceratozamia miqueliana. I have just completed potting these plants up after more than 15 months in that medium and their root development and leaf size/color is quite outstanding, even after having been underpotted for much of this year.

Pal Meir's excellent posts on use his fired clay ("Seramis" and LECA) and conifer bark mixes for his personal indoor collection in Germany prompted me to rethink the incorporation of new materials for some Papuan palmlets that I will be potting on this week. All of these products are available online or in the better garden centers for US growers; most will also be available in the EU and in parts of Latin America. I have attached a few photos below of some of the products that I will be working with over the coming weeks. Readers should be aware that, with the exception of Orchiata "Precision" fine pine bark, the lava and hort grade pumice, all the other components are rather costly and so should be reserved for use with very valuable and/or very delicate tropical palms.

From top, clockwise: medium-fine red lava, medium akadama, LECA spheres, hort grade pumice, Orchiata "Precision". Center container is 4:2:1 blend of Nutricote triple 13/T-180, Encap gypsum, granular dolomite

Some here will not be familiar with akadama. It is an moderately crumbly clay-like substance that is surface mined in Japan and has been a mainstay for bonsai soils for centuries. Unlike unfired clay, when wetted it does not dissolve into a past or slurry but stays gritty. Because of its structure and cation exchange capacity (CEC), it's a good component to use in very sharply-drained soils. It is worth spending an extra dollar or ten on higher-quality akadama as opposed to bargain brands.

Orchiata's "Precision" is their fine grade pine bark for hort use. It is an excellent product and not really comparable to other orchid barks in my opinion. It has been mechanically processed, graded, composted, rinsed and pre-loaded with Ca and Mg, leaving it with a pH range of between 5.5 and 6.5 when fresh out of the bag. Not a huge fan of conifer bark as a primary component of growing media for palms, but this one is the best I've ever worked with.

And finally an experimental mix of "Precision", pumice and akadama at a 3:3:1 ratio, amended with differing amounts of nutricote, gypsum and dolomite that I made up yesterday. All products washed or soaked prior to use. Looking for a long-term buffered pH of ~6.0-6.5 for the Calyptrocalyx spp. I will be potting up later this week. This type of "soil" will probably not be familiar-looking to palm growers, but is very similar to that used by many west coast bonsai people, however they will have also added some fine lava, fine hort charcoal and DG, and left all the ferts out.

Cheers,

Jay

 

 

 

[Missi]

Oh this is such a great post! I love to read about new an improved growing media recipes for palms to thrive in! Thank you for the great photos and descriptions!

[Monòver]

Wow, you are a real "gourmet"!!!!

Your mix will be perfect for small jewels, but i think, too expensive for pot a big palm.

Thanks for post it!!!

[PalmTreeDude]

Good luck with this! Looks good! 

[XYZ]

To round out the list of non-traditional components for mineral-based palm mixes discussed earlier in this thread, I have added a few additional images showing hyuga (Japanese "pumice") as an optional component in mixes for root sensitive species. Like the images shown above, the materials are staged in 10 cm/4" pots for scale.

Washed medium grade hyuga. Note how different in appearance it is from hort grade pumice/Dry Stall, etc.

Medium grade hyuga and composted, heat-sterilized oak leaf litter (that had a small bit of hort grade pumice already mixed in) at a 3:1 ratio, amended with nutricote, Encap and dolomite. Note that the fine leaf litter tends to settle just below the surface but ties in very well with the hyuga, creating a perfect environment for the roots of lithophytic tropical rainforest palms.

A pair of seed-grown Pinanga ridleyana transplanted into hyuga mix five weeks previously. Not evident in this image but both are just initiating new leaves. These plants were transplanted from their closed germination case containing long-fiber NZ sphagnum. This particular hyuga mix is the new media I have the most experience with and it has proven to generate excellent results for a number of challenging tropical plant types over the past 12-15 months.

As I noted earlier, these mixes are best used by advanced growers of rare, dwarf palms. At the same time, many of these largely inorganic/mineral-based mixes provide "cleaner" options for apartment dwellers to grow and transplant their palms than traditional soil based growing media.

Cheers,

J

[Darold Petty]

People, pay attention to Jay's information.  I have seen his  Bay Area greenhouse collection and it is tremendous ! 

[Pal Meir]

I used similar mixes in the 1970s ; here only one example:

[XYZ]

Darold:

High praise indeed coming from you!! Thanks, my man, for the accolade.

Pal: Yes, I obviously tip my hat to old-school German/Dutch succulent growers and Japanese bonsai masters as having been here before.

J

[Missi]

How would one novice know which palms to give this potting media?

[maxum2610]

I found this article from the Bonsai community on using clay based catlitter (Diatomaceous Earth) as a substitute for "Akadama" (much cheaper). Here's the link:

http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm

I haven't tried it yet as I use Seramis myself, but looks promising.

For pine bark, I use "Reptibark", and instead of "Leca" I use "Hydroballs", both available at any reptile pet store. Hydroballs are a lot smaller than Leca, leaving fewer air pockets for molds and and other nasties to develop. For seedlings I generally 1/3 Seramis, 1/3 Hydroballs and 1/3 Reptibark.

 

 

[Fishmoose]

On 9/12/2016, 4:42:26, Monòver said:

 too expensive 

That's what I was thinking.. 

Here in Costa I use rice hulls and soil mixture. Very inexpensive, especially when you are bagging or potting up a thousand seedlings or so.