General seedling questions

[Keys6505]

Sorry for the long post.  I have accumulated a pretty good collection of palm seedlings thanks to the classifieds here (99.9% Meg and Charlene) as well as some collecting myself.  I am south of Houston so a lot of these aren't necessarily hardy for this area but I have plans of moving to 9b/10a FL in the next few years so this is my stockpile for when I get some land down there.

First question, what mix does everyone use for seedlings.  I've been using the 1:1:1 bagged garden soil/perlite/turface mvp mix that has been recommended to me, but I've been having some issues.  When I dump out pots that are less that 2 years old the bottom of the pot is mucky and some of the pots seem to have white mold throughout the entire mix.  I've also noticed when I water some of them if I dig my finger down an inch or 2 in the middle of the pot it's bone dry like I never watered it at all.  I only hand water if it hasnt rained in over a week.

Second question is what is considered a "normal" loss rate for palm seedlings.  I lost a lot initially from rats/squirrels so I built this contraption in my pic.  I left everything outside all winter with a low of 28 and lost a big chunk then too.  Since the summer I've probably dropped another 15 or so of various species, but again I may be pushing my luck with the cold exposure and some may have dropped from delayed cold damage.  All in all (excluding the rats from my numbers) I'd say I lost 35%.  Is this typical or am I just bad at this?

#3.  They are under 40% shade cloth.  TX sun is strong, any reason I should change this?

#4. I've read strap leaves shouldn't be fertilized, at what point do I start?  And when I do start is it with regular PalmGain of something lighter like a fish emulsion?

Lastly, at what point do I start thinking about up-potting.  Most are in 4" nursery pots.  This has so far been a relatively budget-friendly endeavor, I'd prefer to not spend $500 on tree pots, so suggestions are welcome.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Darold Petty]

Your plants look great !  Keep up the good work.  The pot size looks OK until the plants are significantly larger.  

I use fish emulsion and kelp extract with each irrigation for small plants like yours.   (1 or 2 tablespoons of both per gallon)

[96720]

I don’t know about others but I loose a lot of seedlings I always try to buy larger plants than seedlings!!!

[TheMadScientist]

As @Darold Pettysaid, your plants look GREAT.  You have to have drain holes in all pots.  You are using good draining mix.  I get NO RAIN, so I have to be the one judging just how much water each species is needing.  I love peatmoss / perlite to germinate seeds for roots to expand and transfer from community pots to individual containers, but it doesn't retain the water.  One thing I will mention starting each species into it's own container, the moist mix is put into the container, I push my finger into it to allow the small roots to drop in and push surrounding mix around each root, I didn't push hard enough and/or the mix wasn't as moist as it should have been.....so I created an AIR POCKET which kill palms....MY BAD.  Over the years, I have become friends with the community landscapers and can pick up their empty 1 gallon, 5 gallon black plastic containers.  I started with a case of 20 oz. styrofoam cups from a big box discount store, took a soldering iron with 3/16" dia. tip and burned drain holes as fast as I could move the tool.  My next container I have prepared for use are 2 liter plastic soda bottles with 1/4" drain holes drilled into the 5 feet then box knife the tops off where it necks down.  I am always looking at those drain holes to see if the roots have reach the bottom, then depending on the size of palm will I consider repotting.  I don't remove the attached soil from roots because of damage potential, let this soil dry out for 1 day so it releases from the cup, then a 20 oz. cup transfers to a 2 liter and with moist new mix, I stuff that around the empty space.  Seedlings won't take the cold temperatures that that adult species can take....so 3 to 4 deg. higher is something to consider.  Last year, half of all my seedlings were put into the garage where it stayed 60 deg. F and the others were put into my enclosed car trailer with a 200 watt drop light raised 3 ft. higher and it brought the temp.'s up 10 deg.  Keep it up.