Cycad ID?

[rizla023]

Hello!

I just scored this cycad from FB market place. They said it was around 40 years old? It's been living in a pot the whole time. 

Thank you in advance! I think it's a dioon.. 

[Tracy]

4 hours ago, rizla023 said:

I just scored this cycad from FB market place. They said it was around 40 years old? It's been living in a pot the whole time. 

Thank you in advance! I think it's a dioon.. 

Welcome to PalmTalk Rizla023.  Definitely a Dioon, looks like a Dioon spinulosum to me.  Now that you have it in the ground, it should push a nice full flush next time it does.  Assuming I'm right, Dioon spinulosum is a pretty consistent grower, so should flush for you annually.  With so many leaves in a flush, it takes some time for cycads to build up sufficient energy for a flush.  It could also spend some time putting down roots.

[Merlyn]

11 hours ago, rizla023 said:

Hello!

I just scored this cycad from FB market place. They said it was around 40 years old? It's been living in a pot the whole time. 

Thank you in advance! I think it's a dioon..

Hi, and welcome to PalmTalk!  If you are into cycads, you found a great spot.  Check out the huge thread here for great photos:

I'd agree with Tracy, the most likely candidate is Dioon Spinulosum.  Here in Florida they do great in full sun or shade, and like the sandy soil + 40-60 inches of rain during the summer.  I'm not sure about CA temps, soil and sun.  Yours looks a touch sunburned, but it might just be that it needs fertilizer and water.  Usually severe sunburn shows up as burnt red/brown spots on the tops of the leaves, especially at any point directly facing the hottest mid-afternoon sun.  So I'd guess add some potassium and nitrogen rich fertilizer.  Any "palm special" fertilizer with timed release is a good starting point.

There are three Dioons that look similar, but you can probably figure out which one is yours:

• Mejiae has "furry" lower petioles, the other two are pretty smooth with only a hint of hairs.
• Rzedowskii is very similar to Spinulosum, but the leaflets get narrower towards the stem.  Leaves also get a bit smaller towards the bottom of the stem, and then abruptly stop and leave several inches of bare petiole.
• Spinulosum has leaflets that are pretty much the same width all the way to where they attach to the stem.  The leaves just keep getting smaller and smaller as you go towards the bottom of the petiole/rachis, eventually tapering down to little spikes or stubs.

Based on your photo I'd say 95% chance it's a Spinulosum.  Here's my biggest one, bought from a local nursery for a crazy low $300!  This was just after a 24F frost, which is why everything else nearby looks pretty trashed!

[Palm Tree Jim]

Dioon spinulosum as Tracy indicated above.

[rizla023]

11 hours ago, Tracy said:

Welcome to PalmTalk Rizla023.  Definitely a Dioon, looks like a Dioon spinulosum to me.  Now that you have it in the ground, it should push a nice full flush next time it does.  Assuming I'm right, Dioon spinulosum is a pretty consistent grower, so should flush for you annually.  With so many leaves in a flush, it takes some time for cycads to build up sufficient energy for a flush.  It could also spend some time putting down roots.

Thank you, Tracy! I have attached a picture. I planted this in the ground on Saturday, watered well and lightly fertilized. I think it likes it!

 

[rizla023]

4 hours ago, Merlyn said:

Hi, and welcome to PalmTalk!  If you are into cycads, you found a great spot.  Check out the huge thread here for great photos:

I'd agree with Tracy, the most likely candidate is Dioon Spinulosum.  Here in Florida they do great in full sun or shade, and like the sandy soil + 40-60 inches of rain during the summer.  I'm not sure about CA temps, soil and sun.  Yours looks a touch sunburned, but it might just be that it needs fertilizer and water.  Usually severe sunburn shows up as burnt red/brown spots on the tops of the leaves, especially at any point directly facing the hottest mid-afternoon sun.  So I'd guess add some potassium and nitrogen rich fertilizer.  Any "palm special" fertilizer with timed release is a good starting point.

There are three Dioons that look similar, but you can probably figure out which one is yours:

• Mejiae has "furry" lower petioles, the other two are pretty smooth with only a hint of hairs.
• Rzedowskii is very similar to Spinulosum, but the leaflets get narrower towards the stem.  Leaves also get a bit smaller towards the bottom of the stem, and then abruptly stop and leave several inches of bare petiole.
• Spinulosum has leaflets that are pretty much the same width all the way to where they attach to the stem.  The leaves just keep getting smaller and smaller as you go towards the bottom of the petiole/rachis, eventually tapering down to little spikes or stubs.

Based on your photo I'd say 95% chance it's a Spinulosum.  Here's my biggest one, bought from a local nursery for a crazy low $300!  This was just after a 24F frost, which is why everything else nearby looks pretty trashed!

Thank you so much for your expert review! I attached a picture - by your descriptions, I think it is in fact spinulosum.

The woman did say she thought it was sunburnt as well. I did plant it in a mostly full day sun situation - I am in Santa Ana, CA, zone 10b, about 10-15 miles from the coast. I hope it will be okay... I did also fertilize and water well when I planted on Saturday. It has a new flush coming! 

Thank you again.

[Merlyn]

48 minutes ago, rizla023 said:

Yep, that is definitely a Spinulosum.  It'll flush out in a neat blue-lime-green color, then slowly fade to a medium green.  Keep up on the watering during the flush, it'll need that to acclimatize the new leaves to full sun.  Tracy knows more than I do about cycads in general, and *definitely* knows a lot more than me about keeping them happy in coastal CA.  I'd follow his recommendations on watering.  My soil is mostly pure sand and can take several inches of rain per hour and never show puddles.  That's totally different than CA clay.  My in-ground and in-pot plants seem to be pretty happy in constantly moist soil, so my gut feel is a bit more water is okay.  @Tracy any watering suggestions?

[Tracy]

20 hours ago, rizla023 said:

So what direction is that wall behind the cycad, east, west, north or south?  You will get plenty of reflected heat from that, not that you need any more in Santa Ana for this to grow well.  My thought is more in understanding what time of day this gets full sun versus shade.  I think that Dioon spinulosum and mejiae will do a little better in only part day sun versus full sun, holding green leaves longer versus turning yellow or brown.   The time of day that I would want to think about giving it partial shade or filtered light would be in the pm.  So ideally, I would think about having something taller to the west of your Dioon that would provide that filtered light or shade.  If the wall is to the west behind it in this photo, you already have your shade built into this spot.  These might handle more sun than I've given mine but others may want to weigh in.  As far as water goes, depends on soil type.  I have D spinulosum growing in heavy clay that gets watered by drip and some overspray from lawn irrigation which normally gets watered twice per week.  I have D mejiae which grows in similar type of conditions in sandy soil that I water longer with drip, but still twice per week in summer.  I shut off irrigation at both locations during winter rainy season sometimes for weeks at a time in Carlsbad and Encinitas to your south.

[rizla023]

44 minutes ago, Tracy said:

So what direction is that wall behind the cycad, east, west, north or south?  You will get plenty of reflected heat from that, not that you need any more in Santa Ana for this to grow well.  My thought is more in understanding what time of day this gets full sun versus shade.  I think that Dioon spinulosum and mejiae will do a little better in only part day sun versus full sun, holding green leaves longer versus turning yellow or brown.   The time of day that I would want to think about giving it partial shade or filtered light would be in the pm.  So ideally, I would think about having something taller to the west of your Dioon that would provide that filtered light or shade.  If the wall is to the west behind it in this photo, you already have your shade built into this spot.  These might handle more sun than I've given mine but others may want to weigh in.  As far as water goes, depends on soil type.  I have D spinulosum growing in heavy clay that gets watered by drip and some overspray from lawn irrigation which normally gets watered twice per week.  I have D mejiae which grows in similar type of conditions in sandy soil that I water longer with drip, but still twice per week in summer.  I shut off irrigation at both locations during winter rainy season sometimes for weeks at a time in Carlsbad and Encinitas to your south.

Hey Tracy!!! 

Thank you for this information. I attached a map. It faces west- all day sun in the late winter-early fall but gets some shade during fall and winter. I have a drip attached next to it, but not directly by it and it is currently watered 3 days a week. I think I will need to taper that down because I think that's too much water. 

Next to it is a plumeria and a guava tree so perhaps that will provide shade. We also planted a shade tree in the yard that will hopefully grow and provide some relief. 

Thank you again for all your expert insights! 

[Tracy]

38 minutes ago, rizla023 said:

Next to it is a plumeria and a guava tree so perhaps that will provide shade. We also planted a shade tree in the yard that will hopefully grow and provide some relief. 

Guava trees are pretty fast growers so you will probably be able to get some shade from it depending on how close it is and the direction.  A neighbor across the street in Carlsbad has a Dioon spinulosum in a similar position with the full western exposure and his house immediately east.  He has  Phoenix reclinata planted to the south of his, and it provides enough filtered light that his spinulosum handles the late afternoon light without showing any damaged leaves.  If it is getting too much sun it won't kill it, it just may not hold more than one nice flush at a time.  So you can always be patient for your shade tree to get bigger if the guava and plumeria don't provide enough filtering of the light.  Congratulations on the nice addition to your garden.