Best Universal Palm Fertilizer?

[Barry]

6 hours ago, sonoranfans said:

Wow that is more than I pay for florikan florikote($65/50 lb) 8-2-12 with an osmotic membrane designed to release micros evenly over 6 months.  Seems like people are paying for 50 lbs of NPK plus micros and .not delivery technology.    

Where do you buy the Florikan florikote from, I’m in Ft Myers and can’t find it anywhere close? Been going to homestead to get it.

[sonoranfans]

59 minutes ago, Barry said:

Where do you buy the Florikan florikote from, I’m in Ft Myers and can’t find it anywhere close? Been going to homestead to get it.

Big earth landscape supply palmetto FL.

[chad2468emr]

I’ve had a bit of a crash course in fertilizer since I got back to Florida and dove head-first back into palm keeping, with my addictive personality then causing me to find myself with 40+ potted palms between August - December. Previously, I’d never fertilized, but I wasn’t as serious about caring for my palms as I am now, and I also didn’t have to worry about cold weather in zone 10b like I do now living in zone 9b. I wanted to make sure all my potted palms were very well-fed to prevent as much cold damage from nutrient loss as possible, and I needed to figure out where the line fell exactly between potted palm soil composition requirements paired with how well-draining soil requires different release rates.

I tried Palm Gain first, which I definitely saw improvements from if there was something that looked a little less green than ideal due to lack of nitrogen. I’d notice a much healthier looking palm just days after use, but I knew the fertilizer mostly washed out of the pot after a few waterings being that it is instant release.

I tried hunting down the elusive florikan 8-2-12 osmotic release, but my job has crazy hours and is pretty demanding, so getting away to a wholesaler during business hours was a challenge. I opted for osmocote plus since it contains all necessary micros and is also osmotic with a 180 day release duration. It’s easy to find. To be honest, I’ve observed only moderate improvements in the palms I used this on. Anything that I used this on back in late Jan / early Feb definitely show no signs of nutrient deficiency, but they didn’t take off the way I’d expect a well-fed palm to in a hot Central Floridian spring. My Washingtonia has even slowed down since I used this fertilizer on it which is not the norm for the species.

What I’ve found works best is an 8-2-12 slow release granule by TreeSaver that follows the UF palm-specific formulation. It’s basically palm gain or florikan in slow release granule form. Instructions say to apply every 2-3 months, so I actually just re-fertilized yesterday after my initial Feb application. When it first arrived from Amazon, I was a little miffed because I was rushing when I ordered it (again, work getting in the way of my fertilizer acquisition!!) and I thought I was ordering an osmotic fertilizer. However, everything I’ve used it on has seriously taken off. A coconut, butia, what WAS a yellowing and stunted chinensis when I bought it, alexandrae seedings, other small archontos, caudesdens, mule palm, lutescens, alfredii, leptocheilos, and more have all seriously SHOT OUT new growth in the last few months. My butia in particular has literally grown four new fronds in just a few month’s time. Coconut definitely had winter-woes and looks dark green and amazing now. I realize a lot of this has to do with the onset of warmer weather, but the clear delineation between the aggressive growth and robust appearance of the palms I used this on vs. osmocote is very dramatic.

This is just suspicion and qualitative observation, but I feel the fact that not having a 100% osmotic and slow-release formulation has actually worked in my favor with this fert in particular. I do wonder if maybe that fact just helped with the post-winter bounce back and the 100% slow release palms will show better growth overall throughout the summer as the 180 day application works more consistently. I will monitor this throughout the summer and make a clearer (albeit, still qualitative!) determination. 
 

 

[sonoranfans]

osmocote does not release all micros for the full stated time release period at least in tests by U of F 10-12 years ago.  I had K deficiency problems remain unresolved with it.  Florikans osmotic membrane technology is patented and has been effective in limiting deficiencies for me.  If you add fertilizer regularly a little at a time you might be able to equal forikan in consistenty of micro delivery.  I have fertilized once at the beginning of february and my containers are cranking out new leaves as the heat kicks in.  Bottom line is that any comparison on growth rates would have to be data driven to convince me.  I have 3 copernicia hospitas, one appears to be slower than the others and one is clearly the fastest.  They all get the same fertilier, soil and sun, so why?  Well the history of any palm can play in, infection as a small seedling etc. can lead to future slow growth.   So to compare fertilizers, I would look for deficiencies on sensitive palms in a comparison, not growth rate.  I have (4) dyctosperma album conjugatum in same soil, same sun and same containers, 2 are remarkably fast for a "slow" palm, and these seemed to have less issues with scale last year, though all had it.  Even with the same species, palm and the same fertilizer and soil, growth is often unequal, due to other uncontrolled factors that may include your environments effects on a non native palm.  Deficiencies are what they are, spotted yellowing in leaves, potassium deficiency, check.  Generalized yellowing in leaves with retained green in veins, Mg deficiency check etc.  I have never evaluated fertilizer for growth speed in the ground either as the soil varies as mulch is added and decomposed even if sun exposure and water are identical.  I mulch heavily to ensure cation exchange and moisture retention and watch for signs of yellowing, spotted and general yellowing.  The 8-2-12 formula for florida(a high phosphate in soil state) was developed long ago as were the ratios of micros for palms in florida.  When you plant in a lawn, you have to be careful not to lime your palms with lime for grass as that screws up the Ca/Mg ratio which causes Mg deficiency.   A well kept lawn here is a tradeoff with the more sensitive palms, the better the lawn looks the worse off the micronutrient sensitive palms will be.  My most sensitive potted palms are copernicias and dypsis leptcheilos(teddy bears).  In the ground, its again cuban copernicias and teddy bear, plus kentiopsis O.

[sonoranfans]

by the way, I was told that you overlap the osmotic applications, by month 5 of a six month fert you add more.  this way the levels are maintained.

[chad2468emr]

1 minute ago, sonoranfans said:

osmocote does not release all micros for the full stated time release period at least in tests by U of F 10-12 years ago.  I had K deficiency problems remain unresolved with it.  Florikans osmotic membrane technology is patented and has been effective in limiting deficiencies for me.  If you add fertilizer regularly a little at a time you might be able to equal forikan in consistenty of micro delivery.  I have fertilized once at the beginning of february and my containers are cranking out new leaves as the heat kicks in.  Bottom line is that any comparison on growth rates would have to be data driven to convince me.  I have 3 copernicia hospitas, one appears to be slower than the others and one is clearly the fastest.  They all get the same fertilier, soil and sun, so why?  Well the history of any palm can play in, infection as a small seedling etc. can lead to future slow growth.   So to compare fertilizers, I would look for deficiencies on sensitive palms in a comparison, not growth rate.  I have (4) dyctosperma album conjugatum in same soil, same sun and same containers, 2 are remarkably fast for a "slow" palm, and these seemed to have less issues with scale last year, though all had it.  Even with the same species, palm and the same fertilizer and soil, growth is often unequal, due to other uncontrolled factors that may include your environments effects on a non native palm.  Deficiencies are what they are, spotted yellowing in leaves, potassium deficiency, check.  Generalized yellowing in leaves with retained green in veins, Mg deficiency check etc.  I have never evaluated fertilizer for growth speed in the ground either as the soil varies as mulch is added and decomposed even if sun exposure and water are identical.  I mulch heavily to ensure cation exchange and moisture retention and watch for signs of yellowing, spotted and general yellowing.  The 8-2-12 formula for florida(a high phosphate in soil state) was developed long ago as were the ratios of micros for palms in florida.  When you plant in a lawn, you have to be careful not to lime your palms with lime for grass as that screws up the Ca/Mg ratio which causes Mg deficiency.   A well kept lawn here is a tradeoff with the more sensitive palms, the better the lawn looks the worse off the micronutrient sensitive palms will be.  My most sensitive potted palms are copernicias and dypsis leptcheilos(teddy bears).  In the ground, its again cuban copernicias and teddy bear, plus kentiopsis O.

Yes to KO being nutrient-sensitive! I picked up an amazingly healthy one a few months ago from Jesse Durkos in Broward and I’ve been watching it get less green as the months go by, haha. I had a small one before this that I eventually gave up on because there was no coming back for it and I knew it, haha. 

I totally recognize my “palms are healthy and growing fast. I prefer this fertilizer” approach is qualitative and far from scientific. I have no where near the time (or money or room LOL) to make this scientific with enough of a sample size to provide statistically relevant data that negates that case-by-case health / growth of individual specimens of the same species. For now my “hmmm, yes, healthy!” approach is all I’ve got. 

[sonoranfans]

2 hours ago, chad2468emr said:

Yes to KO being nutrient-sensitive! I picked up an amazingly healthy one a few months ago from Jesse Durkos in Broward and I’ve been watching it get less green as the months go by, haha. I had a small one before this that I eventually gave up on because there was no coming back for it and I knew it, haha. 

I totally recognize my “palms are healthy and growing fast. I prefer this fertilizer” approach is qualitative and far from scientific. I have no where near the time (or money or room LOL) to make this scientific with enough of a sample size to provide statistically relevant data that negates that case-by-case health / growth of individual specimens of the same species. For now my “hmmm, yes, healthy!” approach is all I’ve got. 

just saying that deficiencies for K. Mg are far better at evaluating fertilizers since nitrogen is easy to deliver.   I have not had issues with small kentiopsis using florikan.  In the ground you have to watch them more since the soil is more likely to have channeling.  Palm growth rate is effected by too many factors.  Deficiencies are pretty simple, generally you get more useful results in complex problems when you keep it simple.