Turning a Water Oak Forest into a Tropical Paradise in NW Orlando

[Ben in Norcal]

Agaves are nice until they all decide to flower at once, and you find yourself having to remove dead things/re-landscape whole parts of your yard one winter. 

[Merlyn]

5 hours ago, Ben in Norcal said:

Agaves are nice until they all decide to flower at once, and you find yourself having to remove dead things/re-landscape whole parts of your yard one winter. 

Hah, that is true!  Especially when they are giant stabby things like a 10' diameter Salmiana or a 15' diameter Valenciana!  Fortunately most of mine will mature in a more manageable size, like 2-4' diameter and height.  I did the "shotgun approach" to agaves, since I wasn't sure what species would tolerate the torrential rains and high humidity.  I'm honestly really surprised at how many of them grow just fine, or even grow incredibly fast here!

[Ben in Norcal]

1 hour ago, Merlyn2220 said:

Hah, that is true!  Especially when they are giant stabby things like a 10' diameter Salmiana or a 15' diameter Valenciana!  Fortunately most of mine will mature in a more manageable size, like 2-4' diameter and height.  I did the "shotgun approach" to agaves, since I wasn't sure what species would tolerate the torrential rains and high humidity.  I'm honestly really surprised at how many of them grow just fine, or even grow incredibly fast here!

I've had to take out a couple of MASSIVE A. americanas and A. tequilianas the last few weeks.  PITA.  I also found out the hard way what incredibly bad news it is to use a chainsaw and spray the oxalate pulp all over your bare legs and arms.  Oh.  My.  God.

[Silas_Sancona]

8 minutes ago, Ben in Norcal said:

I've had to take out a couple of MASSIVE A. americanas and A. tequilianas the last few weeks.  PITA.  I also found out the hard way what incredibly bad news it is to use a chainsaw and spray the oxalate pulp all over your bare legs and arms.  Oh.  My.  God.

Yep, When dealing w/ these monsters, Machete is your best friend Fun too  This is another group of plants i plan on being very selective with.. No gi-normus, Weevil magnets allowed, lol..

[Merlyn]

48 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Yep, When dealing w/ these monsters, Machete is your best friend Fun too  This is another group of plants i plan on being very selective with.. No gi-normus, Weevil magnets allowed, lol..

I've been told that a large serrated knife is just as good (or maybe easier) than a machete.  I haven't had to try it myself, yet!  But I do have one weevil-magnet, apparently:

I drenched every single agave in my place with Imadicloprid, and sprayed this one with Acephate inside the weevil hole and around the base.  It's still growing, so that's a good sign.  The weevil was still inside when I spotted it, and I haven't found any weevil signs anywhere else so far...

[Silas_Sancona]

37 minutes ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I've been told that a large serrated knife is just as good (or maybe easier) than a machete.  I haven't had to try it myself, yet!  But I do have one weevil-magnet, apparently:

I drenched every single agave in my place with Imadicloprid, and sprayed this one with Acephate inside the weevil hole and around the base.  It's still growing, so that's a good sign.  The weevil was still inside when I spotted it, and I haven't found any weevil signs anywhere else so far...

Little B-turds LOVE Americana.. Which fights back when you try and remove it, lol. 

[Ben in Norcal]

I have certainly learned to pull Americana pups when they are small.  Bru-tal.

[Silas_Sancona]

17 minutes ago, Ben in Norcal said:

I have certainly learned to pull Americana pups when they are small.  Bru-tal.

They're bad enough for sure.. Agave, like A. lophantha/ univitatta, with what i call MODLT/ HS ( Masses Of Damn Little Teeth/ Hand Shredders ) are even worse to try and clean up/ remove pups from.. Might be smaller in size, but just as savage, lol.

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hello Merlyn, 

When reading this thread you made a comment about the bottle not surviving colder weather, this is true, luckily if you can get a Spindle/ bottle cross it would be much more likely to survive as they are much more cold tolerant , They still look like a bottle but look more robust and healthy

regards

Colin

[Merlyn]

The Bottles and Spindles both hated the Christmas night frost a few weeks ago, and were probably the most damaged out of the bunch.  Even things like Dioon Spinulosum and Encephalartos Laurentianus fared a lot better, with only minimal damage at 28F with medium frost.  I posted a bunch of photos and damage list here:

 

[Merlyn]

In early December my neighbor had his remaining 4 water oaks cut down, leaving only my two 80-90' tall pines and a 40' and a 60' water oak along the fenceline.  Tall trees out by themselves are hurricane risks, so I decided to have them all removed, along with the last 2 dying water oaks in the front yard.  So now there is one single water oak in the NW corner, and I only left it there because I like the heliconia flower bed I created around it.  Eventually it'll start dying too, but it is far enough from the house to not be a threat. I sorta recreated the original photos from ~10 years ago:

I could have saved a lot of money and headaches by having all ~40 oaks and pines cut down at once.  And it would have avoided things like this:

That's the climber sitting up there after cutting off a 35' long chunk of pine and having the rope break, because he is stupid.  It landed right in the middle of the giant Encephalartos Hildebrandtii, took out one small foxtail, and defoliated a big Dioon Edule cluster, two Manikensis-type Encephalartos and squished a Cycas Rev x Deb seedling.  I *think* that the Hildebrandtii will be okay, because the main weight of the trunk was arched over the center and not directly on the crown.  Time will tell.  Needless to say that climber got fired.

 

[Merlyn]

I think the Hildebrandtii will be okay, because the pine bent and snapped the fronds off of one side but didn't seem to touch the center.  I clipped off the broken bits and the center "fingers" still look okay:

The small Rev x Deb had two fronds ripped off at the caudex, hopefully it'll survive:

The Gratus x Whitelockii had 4 fronds ripped off at the caudex, same with the Dioon Edule and Encephalartos Manikensis "Choala."  Encephalartos Chimanimaniensis "Elizabethville" lost 3 fronds, but the only untouched one in the center of the area was...a Jubaea x Butia seedling next to the block! 

[Meangreen94z]

Stinks, but stuff like that seems to happen no matter how careful you are. As far as plants getting damaged anyway.

[Merlyn]

So in the front yard I decided to do something weird...a Butia triple!  I picked up 5 "clearance" 15 gallon pots at HD in December, and planted one in the back yard a week later.  But I ran across a pretty old Butia double in Altamonte Springs over the summer:

It looks like they were planted together, and then the trunk diameter started pushing them apart as they grew.  After that I am guessing it was just gravity tugging at the trunk, causing them to continue to slowly grow apart further and further, despite them trying to grow back vertical.  So I decided to attempt it!  I aggressively root-pruned (i.e. butchered) one side of each palm, so the trunks could fit very close together:

Then I tied the root balls together first (with my wife holding them upright), and then tied the tops together so they'd be close together as they rooted in place.

Then I backfilled around them and washed dirt in underneath and in between the trunks.  I'll give this some Banrot systemic fungicide, since I did hack up quite a bit of roots.  Butia are pretty tough, so I'm not too concerned about it.  I didn't tie the ropes really tight, just enough to keep them from moving around.  After they root in place I'll take the ropes back off, maybe over the summer.  This triple fills in the corner where there used to be a pretty big water oak.

[Swolte]

That's an interesting experiment! Great spot for it too!
:)

[Meangreen94z]

Kind of like a faster growing  Jubaeopsis Caffra

[Merlyn]

After the Christmas night frost at 28F and tree guys dropping the 40' piece on the bed came...the February heavy frost!  This was a thick frost, but about 2 degrees warmer than in December.  I bought an Ambient Weather 5 channel datalogger (WS-3000-X5) in early January and placed the 5 sensors out around the yard.  I calibrated them first in the house, in the freezer, and on the back porch.  They all read within about 0.1-0.2F of each other, which is more than accurate enough for me.  Below sensors 2 and 3 (red and yellow) are in the backyard, sensor 1 (blue) is the Nursery area (backyard but about 5' from the house), and sensors 4 and 5 (green and burgundy) are NE and NW front yard.  The NW drops out a lot due to the position and distance, but generally tracks sensor 4 in the NE corner.  The back yard (where I thought it would be more sheltered and warmer) actually turns out to be about 3 degrees colder at night!  This explains why identical palms in the front and back yards were damaged very differently in the Christmas night frost.  The backyard was 28F and frost on Christmas night, and my guesstimate is that the front yard was 31F.  Without a multichannel logger I would have never known this.  (FYI - the nursery sensor gets hit by sunlight at about 8:30, which is why it suddenly spikes in temperature.)

So now I'm planting more cold-sensitive plants in the front yard, and moving more cold-hardy ones to the backyard.  There's lots of changes afoot, not all of them are particularly fun.  One (as you'll see once I edit photos) is NOT fun or cheap...

[Merlyn]

The major change is in the front yard, as I discovered that there basically hasn't been a functional septic drainfield for years.  The original field was off to the NW side, and had been infiltrated by (you guessed it) water oak roots.  The drainfield guy suggested digging up the existing field and replacing it, but the drainfields now are about twice as big as when the house was built.  So that would require digging within 2 feet of the house foundation and the driveway, taking down the last water oak, and it still might not even fit with the location of the underground power lines.  I asked him whether it was safe to dig in sand that close to the foundation, he said, "Sure, we do it all the time!"  Yeah, but do you stop by 5 years later when the sand has washed out from under the slab and the foundation has cracked?  I bet not. 

So instead, the new drainfield is going on the other side of the driveway.  Unfortunately this means a lot of my front bed had to go.  The drainfield is going more or less where I've hammered in the PVC pipes, so I had to dig up 8 or so clumps of orange Bird of Paradise, 7 big Revoluta pups (1-2' of trunk), an Encephalartos Whitelockii, 3 smaller agaves, and the two fairly big Agave Desmettiana on the right.  The last ones I dug out this morning were the Canariensis and the Butia triple.  They are now in 45g pots off to the side, and I'll replant them somewhere when it's done.  Oh, and about 3000lb of edger stones had to move too...of course!

In the main center bed I'm having to clear out pretty much the entire West side, including a big clump of Bordelon bananas, a 4' trunk Revoluta, the big Encephalartos Tegulaneus, and a whole bunch of other smaller stuff.  I moved the Revoluta over to the NE side of the driveway, and turned it into a triple with two other "rescue" Revoluta.  The one on the right came from a neighbor down the street, and has been there since early last summer.  The pencil-pointing one on the left was a rescue from another neighbor who has a monstrous asian scale problem and refuses to do anything about it.  One dose of Dinotefuran and a few random sprays of Acephate and the scale is almost gone on this one.  Hopefully it'll flush out this year with a normal sized flush instead of the stunted 12" fronds it has now.  I hammered a steel post into the middle and tied all three of them together.  I may have to put some blocks of wood in between them to keep the orientation, at least until they root in.

In the front bed I dug up a smaller Encephalartos Transvenosus and moved it to the backyard.  This gave me space in the front bed to transplant the big E. Tegulaneus away from the impending septic field:

 

[Merlyn]

So today we FINALLY got rain!  1.1 inches so far, I think I logged about 0.5 inches for the entire month of March.  This will definitely help the flushing cycads, because the big E. Hildebrandtii was starting to get curled and sunburnt leaflets at the top of the current flush:

Fortunately it, and all the other cycads from the pine tree debacle, all are flushing.  So far the only fatality was one out of a Foxtail double.  And that's easy to replace and of no great value.  The only other recent fatality was my poor abused Bosch reciprocating saw.  I stripped teeth off of the wobble plate, and there were too many other badly worn parts to consider fixing it.  RIP poor saw, you had a hard life... 

But that was not before it demolished two more stumps!  In the SW corner I removed the largest single chunk of oak yet.  They couldn't fit their stump grinder back there without damaging other stuff, so I took out this 3 foot diameter chunk in one piece.  Based on oak density I'm guessing it's around 700lb.  I could barely roll it out of the hole and into the future firepit area.  I replaced the beast of a stump with two more Viburnum shrubberies to fill the gap in my hedgeline.

And the fatal stump was this smaller one in the East side, next to the neighbor's fence.  I had planted some Basjoo bananas in that spot, I figured that they would grow okay even with a stump 1 foot down.  Nope.  So I dug out the chunks of stump here and planted another Viburnum.  I moved a few Basjoo off to the left of the photo:

[Merlyn]

And another stump I'd avoided was the one at the edge of the agave bed in the backyard.  I was going to leave it there, since it was mostly under the edge of the agave bed blocks.  But when I went to transplant this E. Whitelockii it was a serious PITA.  Because of the stump location I had to cut a lot more roots off the Whitelockii than I wanted, so I was not going to do that again.  I moved the Whitelockii over to the W side near my nursery area.  It's a bit warmer there due to proximity to the house, and will have some canopy from the B. Alfredii and Dendrocalamus Minor Amoenus bamboo just out of frame to the right.  The potted Bottle did mostly ok during the December and February frosts, so I figure it's a good spot for the somewhat frost-sensitive Whitelockii.  The day after I transplanted it, it started flushing...

And here's about half of the offending stump, which came out courtesy of a new Milwaukee reciprocating saw.  I only broke two of the 9" Diablo 3TPI carbide pruning blades...sigh...

And the finished area got the E. Transvenosus from the front yard, since it's supposed to be hardy to at least 25F.  It isn't the best photo, but the Transvenosus is a 3" caudex one just behind the horizontal black dripline.  Just to the right edge of the blocks (with the white nursery tag) is another new palm, a Thrinax Radiata.  I picked up two of them from Green's Nursery and decided to plant one in the back and one in the front.  Since there appears to be a 3F difference on cold nights, it'll be an interesting contrast to see how hardy they are.  I also transplanted a Foxtail triple just to the right side of the photo, which is intended to give a little frost protection to an E. Tegulaneus and E. Turneri.  The Foxtails only yellowed a bit at 28F and 30F with frost.  But the Tegulaneus and Turneri were 90% defoliated.  I'm still waiting for a flush on the Tegulaneus, it is the 2" caudex directly below the drooping Foxtail frond.

[Merlyn]

Off to the West in the backyard, I made a bunch more changes...  I repotted a big cluster of an unknown Zamia and replaced it with a Kentiopsis Oliviformis from @FishEyeAquaculture.  I had to stake it up due to high winds and/or a local black bear that stomps through the area.  The Bambusa Lako on the right should give it some PM shade.

In the center of the backyard the Sylvestris on the left got a couple of neighbors.  I moved a Psuedophoenix Sargentii (bottom left) an Encephalartos Gratus (center above the Edule) and a suspected hybrid Cycas Diannanensis x (Revoluta x Taitungensis) queen-ish behind the Gratus.  These fill the gap between the Sylvester and the Fallaensis on the center right.

And here's the Sylvestris.  The Licuala Peltata v. Sumawongii did so well in the 28F and 30F frosts that I decided to add another bigger one.  The original is about 8" tall and kind of hidden in the bottom left, and the new one I planted just outside the ring of gingers on the lower left of the Sylvestris.  The 3 small fan leaves are poking up into the lowest Sylvestris frond.  To the middle left of the photo is the mostly dead Chambeyronia.  It has a new spear that's about 4 inches long, but I marked it in February and it hasn't moved.

[Looking Glass]

My god, I thought I liked to dig-up and chop-up stuff manually, but you’ve taken things to a whole new level...   the transformation from the beginning pics is amazing. It really opens up a whole new world for you to play in.  It all looks great.  

Makes me feel more comfortable rearranging and digging up stuff here (something I hesitate to do sometimes).  

We’re getting some of that rain down here today too...  finally.  It’s been a bone dry, dry season the last couple months.  Things were getting unhappy, despite irrigation.  

Can’t wait to see how it all pans out, and grows in for ya.  
Keep um’ coming. 
 

 

[Merlyn]

On 4/11/2021 at 8:53 PM, Looking Glass said:

My god, I thought I liked to dig-up and chop-up stuff manually, but you’ve taken things to a whole new level...   the transformation from the beginning pics is amazing. It really opens up a whole new world for you to play in.  It all looks great.  

Makes me feel more comfortable rearranging and digging up stuff here (something I hesitate to do sometimes).  

In hindsight, I should have paid someone to come in and clearcut the whole place, and extract all the stumps with a tractor.    Thanks for the encouragement!

Initially I was stuck in "paralysis by analysis" because I hadn't figured out the exact right spot for each plant.  With the exception of a few palms (Sabals & Copernicia) most stuff transplants fine, with just a bit of transplant shock.  I just have to accept that there's a chance I'll kill it by moving it.  Out of the 30-40ish transplants I've done, I think I've only killed one Phoenix hybrid and one 6' trunk Roebellini...and they both looked pretty bad before the move.  The biggest one I've moved is this Sylvestris, which was next to the front walkway.  It had to move so they could get to the septic tank, and it's now on the NE corner.  I just chopped off the lowest set of fronds, hopefully it's rooted in now about 2 months after the move.

[kinzyjr]

Looks like you found a good substitute for the gym there @Merlyn

[Looking Glass]

On 4/17/2021 at 8:01 PM, Merlyn said:

In hindsight, I should have paid someone to come in and clearcut the whole place, and extract all the stumps with a tractor.    Thanks for the encouragement!

Initially I was stuck in "paralysis by analysis" because I hadn't figured out the exact right spot for each plant.  With the exception of a few palms (Sabals & Copernicia) most stuff transplants fine, with just a bit of transplant shock.  I just have to accept that there's a chance I'll kill it by moving it.  Out of the 30-40ish transplants I've done, I think I've only killed one Phoenix hybrid and one 6' trunk Roebellini...and they both looked pretty bad before the move.  The biggest one I've moved is this Sylvestris, which was next to the front walkway.  It had to move so they could get to the septic tank, and it's now on the NE corner.  I just chopped off the lowest set of fronds, hopefully it's rooted in now about 2 months after the move.

The benefit of doing it yourself, is that you'll know literally every inch of ground and soil intimately by the end...  Every rocky area and bend in the drainage line.  The drawback is lots of blisters, a sore back and shoulders, and a slower timeframe.

I get the paralysis by analysis.  I'll research until there is no more information, then all that's left is the action phase.   (I'm currently analyzing some stuff to death here at the moment)   

In the end, I'm sure you'll find it all worth it, and you'll have quite the journey to look back on, and progress to marvel over.   

I think that forums like this are the last bastion of grassroots knowledge.   I seek them out in various areas of life where I need more genuine information.  I came here to learn from other's experiences and anecdotes, and to enjoy the pics ("palm-porn", I call them).

Keep at it...  Can't wait to see how it all shakes out.

Got these shots of you last Sunday....

 

 

 

 

     

[Merlyn]

I've done a lot of digging, planting, moving and mulching this summer, but I haven't posted much if it yet!  Here is the "final" version of the SE corner, just before a huge thunderstom came through.  We've already gotten about 2.25" of rain in the last 30 minutes...

Peeking in from the left is a Butia that was planted in 2019, and then an Encephalartos Ferox in the shade and a bigger Ferox just beyond it.  In the front row along the path are: Encephalartos Lehmannii, Dioon Edule Rio Verde x Angustifolium, Cycas "Thai Silver," Dioon Merolae, Encephalartos Longifolius "Joubertina Blue," another Dioon Rio x Angust., an Encephalartos Sclavoi blue type, and a monster 9 headed cluster Dioon Edule.  Off to the right of that are three small Licuala Peltata v. Sumawongii, in part shade under the big E. Hildebrandtii.  Behind that front row is a tiny Agave, Americana Mediopicta Aurea, then Brahea "Super Silver," a Copernicia Hospita, and a plain old Agave Americana with the yellow margins.  The agave in dead center is a Salmiana.  Towards the back (L to R) are a hidden Encephalartos Gratus x Hildebrandtii, Chamaerops Humilis with about 3 feet of trunk, a Cycas Guizhouensis, a Jubaea x Butia (from Patric), an Encephalartos Gratus x Whitelockii, a pair of small Allagoptera Arenaria, and a Ficus Auriculata.  Along the back are the big 10' tall Encephalartos Gratus, Cycas Pectinata, Cycas Panzhihuaensis, Encephalartos Turneri and Encephalartos Munchii.  The backdrop (L to R) are Beccariophoenix Alfredii, Arenga Engleri, Sea Grapes, White Bird of Paradise, Dypsis Lutescens, and a big tall Bambusa Lako.

I may have to do some "editing" in the future, with over 50 plantings in this area.  But that's okay!

[Merlyn]

In the front yard I replanted the Canary in a bed off to the side of the new septic drainfield.  I made a 2-blocks-high containment zone for the Heliconia Psittacorum "Lady Di" on the left, hopefully that'll keep them from exploring the rest of the Northern hemisphere.    The two Agave Desmettiana in front started blooming about 2 months after I replanted them, so it was probably a "stress blooming" event.  In between them is a small Encephalartos Gratus x Laurentianus I bought from Neil down in Satellite Beach area.  I also planted an actual Gratus to the right side, and an actual Laurentianus just to the left behind the big white Furcraea Foetida.  Around the Canariensis are a random Bottle that I had in a pot, a couple of Queen Emma crinums, a Chambeyronia (hopefully it'll survive winters in this spot), a Gaussia Princeps triple, an Encephalartos Bandula, and an Encephalartos Choala.  Back along the driveway are (L-R) Agave Angustifolia/Vivipara Marginata (now trunking), Bordelon bananas, a Dioon Spinulosum, Dictyosperma Rubrum, and in the right corner 3 clusters of Dypsis Pembana.  I planted a double of Archontophoenix Alexandrae in the far right corner, but a squirrel dug up one of the two and it's probably not going to make it. 

[kinzyjr]

13 hours ago, Merlyn said:

I planted a double of Archontophoenix Alexandrae in the far right corner, but a squirrel dug up one of the two and it's probably not going to make it. 

Everything looks great!  That's a a lot of back-breaking work!  The second layer of retaining wall blocks in the last post caught my eye because I like seeing elevation change in landscapes.

The tree rats had a banner year down here as well, wiping out young plants: 5 x Veitchia arecina, 11 x Dypsis lutescens, 3 x Sabal minor 'Cherokee', 1 x Chamaedorea radicalis, 2 x Serenoa repens, 1 x Howea forsteriana, ~25 x Wodyetia bifurcata, 3 x Adonidia merrillii and a few others I can't even remember at this point.  I miss my "shared" cat.  When he was around, I didn't lose a single seedling to rodents.

[Merlyn]

Wow, it's been a while since I posted an update here!  Over the last 6ish months I've been doing a lot of other stuff, weeding and cleaning up after a late January brutal cold weekend.  Despite about 4 hours at 24-26F in the backyard, most of the damage was transient or at least not fatal to most plants.  My yard was definitely a cold spot, as less than a mile away there were white bird of paradise, zamia furfuracea (cardboard) and philodendron that were essentially untouched.  Here's my profile for that weekend:

The backyard took the most damage, with extended time in the mid 20s.  Here's what it looked like ~3 weeks after the freeze:

The most shocking one to me was the big Dioon Spinulosum on the right, which looked nearly perfect!  They have a reputation burning badly around 28-30F, and my experience has been minimal damage even with frost.  The majority of plants bounced back, and today the cycads have all flushed and the bamboo are filling back in.  The only likely deaths are a couple of non-hardy agaves, a triple Foxtail on the left, and a Thrinax Radiata.  Even seedlings of Livistona Speciosa, Saribus Robinsoniana, Dypsis Arenarum, Pinanga Coronata Kuhlii, Pychosperma Macarthurii and Dypsis Pembana all survived!  They were somewhat protected by the bamboo, so probably didn't get a lot of frost.  A small Dypsis Cabadae over near the Bismarck was completely torched, but I left it in place...today I noticed about an inch of green leaf popping up!  Here's what it looked like this morning:

 

[Merlyn]

My vacation day job for this afternoon was moving the Sylvestris.  It was one of the first palms I planted back in early 2018, before I knew anything about palms.  I saw them everywhere and I wanted one, so I bought it!  Now I see them everywhere, and I don't want it!  TPPD/LB appears to be killing a bunch of Sylvestris and Dactylifera nearby, so I decided it was time to take it out of the prime center spot in the backyard.  I trenched around it with a shovel, then used a reciprocating saw cutting horizontally about 18" below ground level to slice off the roots.  The reciprocating saw was key, with an 8" Diablo carbide pruning blade.  A 12" blade probably would have been easier, but I could slice across easily instead of trying to chop and pry with a shovel.  I also diamond-cut it (kinda) just because it made it easier to handle:

Clearly I could have taken more roots, but directly below the trunk was a section of pure root mass with no dirt.  This was probably from the original 7g pot, and new roots didn't seem to have grown through it.  So as long as it survives the transplant, maybe it'll grow better without a huge pocked of air underneath:

And it now lives (I hope!) in the front yard, between an Attalea Cohune double (front right) and a huge Encephalartos Ituriensis (behind it to the right).  Hopefully it'll give them a bit of frost protection in a couple of years!

[jg3035]

Great update, and cool experience with the Dioon spinulosum, especially since it looks like it's not under much canopy. Did you get frost that coldest night? And I assume you didn't cover it (or anything else)? Still waiting on any signs of life with my Dioons so I'm impressed yours are already done flushing!

[Merlyn]

24 minutes ago, jg3035 said:

Great update, and cool experience with the Dioon spinulosum, especially since it looks like it's not under much canopy. Did you get frost that coldest night? And I assume you didn't cover it (or anything else)? Still waiting on any signs of life with my Dioons so I'm impressed yours are already done flushing!

Yeah the biggest Spinulosum there only had a Bambusa Lako about 10 feet away, behind it in the photo.  So really it had no frost protection.  There was medium frost on the coldest night of 24-25F, and then heavy frost on Sunday night at right about 32F.  The second frost was almost snow-like.  I did cover a few palms, a variegated Caryota Mitis and Elaeis Guineensis "Idolatrica" whole leaf in the backyard, neither of which took any noticeable damage.  On the East side I put a big cardboard box over a Corypha Umbraculifera, which took mild damage but nothing that slowed it down.  In the front I put a piece of cardboard horizontally over a Caryota Gigas/Obtusa and it was 100% defoliated at 27-28F.  I didn't have a box big enough to completely surround it, but I hoped that the frost protection would help...nope!  But it just opened up a good looking new frond, so it's not severely damaged.

The Spinulosum in the photo still has the ~2 year old fronds on it, with minimal damage.  I cut off 2 or 3 fronds that were kinda ratty looking, and left it as is.  It's flushing now, along with other Dioon and Encephalartos.  An Encephalartos Gratus and Kisambo in the center-right of the backyard were about 75% defoliated, but flushed out nicely.  Here's the new Spinulosum flush going, with the Cycas Multipinnata in the foreground just starting to "roll out."  It's tough to get a photo because they are at least 8' tall!

[Merlyn]

Today I took on another big job, removing the 2.25 year old clump of Bambusa Maligensis aka "Seabreeze."  It was getting too big, too fast.  As I posted over in the Bamboo Thread, I planted 1 culm in February 2020.  It put out a whopping 40 culms by the end of fall last year, and already was pushing another 24 culms this spring.  If these were 1" diameter and 10-20' tall that would be fine...but these are already 30' tall and 2.5" or bigger!  I ended up with two Miata-sized piles of brush and a stack of canes:

Here's the 6' diameter clump, with the oblong outline sorta circled in red:

My favorite oak stump removing Diablo 3TPI carbide pruning blade kept getting stuck in the fibers, but the Milwaukee "AX" 5tpi works really well.  I'm using a battery-powered reciprocating saw, which works reasonably well but eats the batteries really fast.  The clump removal will have to wait until later in the week...

[Merlyn]

As I posted in the Bamboo thread, I sliced out the Seabreeze clump today.  I sliced out individual culms with the 9" Diablo 3TPI pruning blade by cutting down on each side and then horizontally just underneath to cut the fine roots.  6 hours later...here's the remains:

This clump grew way too big, way too fast.  I'll be re-evaluating the other clumps based on growth rate and size.  Most likely if they are over 1.5" diameter, over 30' tall, and fast growing...they are toast.  The only exception might be ones that are truly unique.  I don't need a maintenance nightmare in a couple of years...

[Merlyn]

Since I was taking out the Seabreeze clump, I decided to play with stumps!  WEEEEEeeeeeEEEEEeee!!!  I started this on a Friday vacation day, with the oak stump on the right and my trusty Diablo 3TPI carbide pruning blades.  It was a little tough because there was a big pine root going under the oak, but not too difficult.

Like the other water oaks, this one had about 6 major roots around the perimeter, and a few 1-3 inch diameter roots going straight down:

I started on the pine stump on Sunday, after taking Saturday as a bike ride day.  So far so good...just a few side roots to cut:

And then I discovered the infamous "tap root" of pines.  Yep, it was bigger diameter than the trunk!

I had a whole bunch of Ryobi 40V battery powered stuff already (leaf blower, edger, hedge trimmer) so I bought the 14 inch regular (not the new HP version) to cut through the ~20 inch diameter trunk.  The first cut went okay with a brand new chain, but it ate the entire 4A-hour battery for one cut and a small part of the second cut.  So I used one of the other 2.6A-hour batteries from the other tools, and I got about half a cut before the saw overheated, turned off, and wouldn't restart for about 20 minutes to cool down.  I had to use up a battery, let it cool down for 20 minutes while I did something else, use up a battery, let it cool, rinse and repeat for a whopping 6 HOURS before I managed to cut far enough to knock it loose with a sledgehammer.  I would not recommend this saw for anything other than a few minor pruning tasks.  My parents have a Stihl MSA140 and MSA220 that have enough power to cut up entire 30' tall pine trees on a single charge.  It may be this saw is fine for typical small diameter pruning work, and I was just overheating the battery and saw by doing a big continuous cut.  Here's the final result, with the tap root underground and still bigger than the above-ground trunk!

[Merlyn]

In the middle of taking out the stumps, I also removed a young clump of Bambusa Pervariabilis x Dendrocalamus Daii #3.  This was a Tropical Bamboo hybrid import, and they didn't really have a firm size estimate on it.  In emails they said it was "at least 35' tall with 2" culms."  This one was a "jumper" and was planted in late February 2021 as a single 0.5" culm.  It shot up a couple of 1 inch short culms last summer and a 2 inch 20 footer last fall.  Then it jumped to pushing 5 big culms in the 4 inch range...that's a big NOPE in this area of the yard.

[kinzyjr]

@Merlyn That's a lot of work for a vacation!  

[Merlyn]

@kinzyjr yes, I need a vacation from my vacation!

[EPaul]

I need my own "Merlyn" to help with my Orlando yard.  How did your agave desmettiana fare? 

[Merlyn]

1 hour ago, EPaul said:

I need my own "Merlyn" to help with my Orlando yard.  How did your agave desmettiana fare? 

I don't hire out, I can barely keep up with my yard!    I only have two Desmettiana left, on the East side near the pathway.  The others up front were out of the ground too long during the septic install.  They survived just fine, but started stress-flowering around late summer last year.  I cut them up and replaced them with a Weberi "Arizona Star" and a variegated Americana/Salmiana-ish beast.  The two remaining Desmettiana are around 2-4' diameter and are one variegated and one solid green.  They took minimal damage even with the frost.  An Arenga Tremula next to them was 100% defoliated, and a Dypsis Lutescens was 75% defoliated...and a 2' tall Aloe Hercules rotted and died.