Phoenix hybrid update

[surgeon83]

Some of you may remember my post last year about trying to fertilize my female Phoenix roebelenii with pollen with another Phoenix species.  I wound up using reclinata because I did not think in advance to save pollen from canariensis during the winter.

I harvested seeds in December and they just started sprouting in late February.  I planted one pot of pure roebelenii seeds as a control and four pots of hybrid seeds.  Nine of the pure seeds sprouted pretty quick and already have leaves, but so far only 2 leaves among all the hybrid seeds, but now that its warming up, several more are sprouting.

The hybrid leaf is 8.5mm wide, while all of the pure roebelenii leaves are only 5.5mm wide. The leaf texture and color is also different.  I hope that means it worked!

Hybrid:

[BS Man about Palms]

I like my accidental hybrid I found.

[wendisplantation]

Hey- that's cool!!!!

[Alicehunter2000]

I wonder what the cold hardiness of such a hybrid would be. I also wonder about the P.can. X  P.roeb. ...........would this even prove to be more cold hardy?.......and what about size and leaf texture......would love to see a big specimen.

[iwan]

I thought my reclinata x roebelenii was toast after the spear pulled, but it is pushing three new spears (a bit deformed).  Looks like it will pull through.  More details in the freeze data section.  Pretty amazing for a 2g potted plant.

[Kris]

First of all i must say its great work ! and the leaves are so

green that i feel like eating them up like a cow.  

so sweet and eyeful it is.and have you started to fertilize these babies and if so with what and how many granules

and how many times a month...need these answers desperiately my friend.since i have lots of CIDP,rupicolas..

etc in that size & age group.but their leaves appear fade

due to lack of nutrition.so need help since your looks in

preety good shape.

while all my babies that are 3 to 4 months old are in my over head terrace in full & direct sunlight.and the temperature are around 88 to 92 degree farenheat.

thanks & Love,

Kris  

[surgeon83]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  Seems like there are older specimens of this hybrid out there- PICTURES would be MUCH appreciated    I can't wait 10 years to see what it will look like.

Alicehunter2000- I originally wanted to use canariensis for improved hardiness.  Even this year I had too much stuff going on to try to save canary pollen when they were flowering.  My roebelenii spathes are about to open any day now, so if I had canary pollen...

Kris, thank you for the compliment.  I actually don't fertilize seedlings when they are that small for fear of burning up the roots.  They are planted in soil I dug up from the yard. These have been in full afternoon sun for a couple of months but I moved them back into the sunroom to give them about 10 extra degrees F (5.55 C) so more seeds would sprout- it worked!  Outside temps have been about 75 day/65 night (cold for this time of year).

[palmsrgreat]

Hey, nice work and I hope this has worked for you. Good luck

[rubyz]

Nice work, Brian. Please update us with pics as the palm progresses.

[Kris]

thanks brian for that info..

love,

Kris  

[iamjv]

Hey Brian,

 I have one of those roeb X canary crosses (10 gal size).  It took the ice storm and the lows of 24F this year with no problem.

 My pure roeb's were pretty much toasted but survived.

 Good luck with your hybrid.

Jv

[surgeon83]

Jim, where did you get your hybrid?  I have searched and failed to find anything like that advertized.  How about a picture?  Its hardiness is encouraging- even just knowing that your roebeleniis survived brings me hope.  These hybrids will hopefully be somewhat hardier than roebelenii; I have read that reclinata does ok in zone 9b.

Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone!  I expect new flowers to open any day now, and when they do I'll go back to the reclinata to see if it has a male flower available to repeat the process, and I can ship seeds to anyone who is interested in December.

[iamjv]

Hey Brian,

 Picked it up in the Rio Grande Valley during one of our meetings down there.  If I come across another one, I'll certainly pick it up and get in touch with you to see if you'd be interested in it.

 I'll see about taking a pic and posting it to my webshots album.  I really like the looks of it, kind of like a roeb on steriods.

Jv