bonsai Lytocaryum weddellianum as Bonsai

[Pal Meir]

My 10 Lytocaryum weddellianum grown up from seed in 2013 were more and more getting too tall  for my desktop, except one (N°1306c) which I had kept quite small by very brutal  root pruning. (But even the other pruned palm N°1306a is growing too tall …)

Now I am intending to keep my 3 one year young L batavum as small bonsai palms. First, I will keep them as long as possible in their tiny Ø8xH9cm clay pots. Second, I will expose them also to direct sunlight, but watching that they don’t get burned. 

@Jamesasb , you have mentioned (and posted a pic) one year ago that you are making one of your L weddellianum to a bonsai. Are there already visible and positive results? 

Here the desktop-sized N°1306c:

And here the 3 new bonsai candidates:

[Pal Meir]

As N°1306a is already much too tall for a desktop bonsai I intend to separate both palms and make only the small N°1306c to a bonsai. Do you think it is possible to separate the palms without killing one or even both?

N°1306a too tall:

I’ll separate N°1306c:

Inside the tiny Ø12cm H10cm pot:

Can I separate the roots without killing the palms?

[Alcibiades]

I would not try to separate the palms. I always avoid to interfere the roots by any means. Risking such a beautiful palm is just not worth it. The concept of growing palms in a bonsai form is not what I would do. Many small understorey palms are available especially from the genus dypsis. Although I have to admit that I try to grow dwarf dypsis now unsuccessfully for several years. D. bonsai, d. thyriana, d. poivreana a. s. o.. They all died in bunches. I will now use your Seramis mix to try this again. 

[Pal Meir]

50 minutes ago, Alcibiades said:

I would not try to separate the palms. I always avoid to interfere the roots by any means. Risking such a beautiful palm is just not worth it. The concept of growing palms in a bonsai form is not what I would do. Many small understorey palms are available especially from the genus dypsis. Although I have to admit that I try to grow dwarf dypsis now unsuccessfully for several years. D. bonsai, d. thyriana, d. poivreana a. s. o.. They all died in bunches. I will now use your Seramis mix to try this again. 

Thank you for your answer, but it is already too late … Yes, if I didn’t have so many L weddellianum I wouldn’t try separating them, but I have problems with space. Almost all of my L weddell are becoming too tall for the desk in my home office. So I decided (1) all three L batavum shall always stay dwarfs, (2) N°1306c shall become a small compact palm. As I don’t have so much space here I don’t know what exactly to do … 

And here the result: pics #1 to 4 separating the 2 palms; pic #5: separated; pic #6: the bonsai mix PalMeirA™; pic #7: the two palms N°1306c and N°1306a repotted; pic #8: the future bonsai N°1306c (pushing its 18th leaf).

Separated!

 

Bonsa mix «PalMeirA«™:

 

[Alcibiades]

@Pal Meir

Do you always remove the old soil completely when repotting or was it only done to separate the two palms? I'm just asking because I bought Seramis today and now I think about completely removing my old mix. 

Edited August 4, 2018 by Alcibiades

[Pal Meir]

1 minute ago, Alcibiades said:

@Pal Meir

Do you always remove the old soil completely when repotting or was it only done to separate the two palms? I'm just asking because I bought Seramis today and now I think about completely removing my old mix. 

Nonono, of course I don’t, it was in that case the only way to separate the densely tangled roots of the two palms. Esp. in case of L weddellianum you should never disturb the roots.

[Pal Meir]

I hope it will survive ………… 

[Alcibiades]

@Pal Meir

That pot is way to small... 

[Pal Meir]

29 minutes ago, Alcibiades said:

@Pal Meir

That pot is way to small... 

But compared to these two it is almost huge: 

[Pal Meir]

Since N°1701 and N°1702 are exposed to direct (!) sunlight the leaves grow more compact (cf. leaves #04); N°1703 was still too weak for that treatment.

[Pal Meir]

Having lost four (!) fronds since the brutal  separation on August 4 bonsai N°1306c has grown 2 mm since 2 days: 

[piping plovers]

That growth progress is encouraging.  I think the black marking and monitoring of the growth is one of the best things you can do after a risky repotting.  It's so visual and objective.   Otherwise, your mind may play tricks on you as you assume the worst and may over-react with other care measures. After I bought my first Johannesteijsmannia altifrons, I feared repotting because of their notorious reputation for failing after root disturbance.  It was potted in a heavy peat-only mix and I knew I had to change the mix. Removing it from pot went horribly wrong, all the peat fell to the table and I had a saturated bare root Joey palm in my hand---panic!   I thought for sure it would die.  Anyhow, I transplanted into the fast draining potting mix that you and others have recommended in numerous posts, and I black marked the new emerging growth.  I was so relieved that the growth mark kept rising in that week and following weeks.  This encouraged me that all was okay and I just continued with the present care routine rather than panicking and 2nd guessing myself by over or under-watering. Those are beautiful potted palms, so delicate in appearance.

[Pal Meir]

Update of the 3 L batavum bonsais, which were exposed to direct sun for over 2 months:

The leaf 2-03 and the upper half of leaf 3-04 got burnt by the sunlight. Palm N°1701 has leaves with saturated green colour without any harm by the sun, while the weaker N°1702 got a bit yellowish. N°1701 and N°1702 have spears of their 6th leaf, N°1703 of its 5th. The older shade grown leaves 1-03 and 3-03 are much wider than the newer ones.

[Pal Meir]

The very compact 5th leaf of Lytocaryum batavum N°1701 grown under full sun:

[Pal Meir]

N°1306c survived the brutal root pruning and is growing healthily since one month:

[abdalav]

What's a Lytocaryum batavum?

[Pal Meir]

21 minutes ago, abdalav said:

What's a Lytocaryum batavum?

L batavum is a subspecies of L weddellianum, endemic to the Netherlands from a tree grown up by  @Kai

 

[abdalav]

Pal Meir, unfortunately, my weddelliana is drying up. I don't know if it will survive...

[Pal Meir]

4 minutes ago, abdalav said:

Pal Meir, unfortunately, my weddelliana is drying up. I don't know if it will survive...

Oh, that’s sad news.

Please open a new thread with as many photos of your sick palm as needed.

[abdalav]

I've created a new thread, Pal... 

 

[Pal Meir]

The babies (*2017) didn’t like the hard winter sun here; their leaves got some heavy sunburn …

 

And I hope that the fronds of the almost 6 years old N°1306c will become much mor compact:

[Pal Meir]

Even the smallest babies have to get acquainted with direct sun; leaves #5 and #6 got already burnt by the winter sun:

[Pal Meir]

The 6 year old N°1306c is pushing the 2nd leaf (= leaf #20) since the separation from N°1306a:

I hope the newly growing leaves will become more compact than the older fronds because they are exposed to almost full sun from noon to sunset.

[Howeadypsis]

On 8/4/2018 at 12:45 PM, Pal Meir said:

Thank you for your answer, but it is already too late … Yes, if I didn’t have so many L weddellianum I wouldn’t try separating them, but I have problems with space. 

 

I wish I had space for one, I would take one off your hands! Gorgeous palms.

[Pal Meir]

It is not easy to keep a Lytocaryum weddellianum small without killing it. At present it has four fully developed fronts, but the latest one is much to large for a bonsai. Even posing the palm tree to direct sun didn't help …

[Pal Meir]

Today 11yr old: 🥳