Need help from Coastal California palm growers for Hawaii mountain climate

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I am getting ready to do another palm expansion on my farm. I am a little gun shy because in the past, quite a few species that I planted just ended up not going very well here. Even though I live in Hawaii, the problem is that my Farm is in a very cold microclimate by Hawaii standards. Temperatures here rarely climb above the low 70s, so even though we rarely drop below 50° in the winter, and there's just not a lot of heat to get things to grow. I've had success with a number of dypsis and New Caledonia Palms which grow well in the 60-70F range but I also have a number of failures for palms that just end up looking like crap or not really growing much. For example, Licuala, copernicia and corphya pretty much put on maybe a frond a year, it's truly pathetic. I have some palms that grew less than a foot in 7 years.

My most successful palms are dypsis prestoniana, clinostigma, bentickia, lemuriophoenix, beccariophoenix, bismarckia, joeys, marojejya and ravena. All of these thrive in wet 55-75F temps. And surprisingly, Atalea thrives here too but it's slow.

My thinking is that due to the temperature range, I might have better luck growing what grows well for coastal California. My Farm is full of coast redwoods and other conifers as well as maple and liquidambar trees along with common mountain Hawaiian natives like Koa, so that gives you an idea of the kind of climate we have here. We even have some spruces and firs growing here and the farm produces xmas trees. The main difference between Coastal California and here is the fact that we have ample rainfall year round and very acidic soils. But the coastal drizzle and fog and overcast is really similar to what I've seen in Coastal California. 

Any suggestions are welcome. I will add some pictures of the farm from my phone later so you get an idea of how temperate our conditions really are. For those of you familiar with the Big Island, think of the wet side of Waimea or the wet side of Volcano village. 

 

[PlantMorePalms]

How about Hedyscepe or some Ceroxylons? Seems like they would thrive in your climate.

Not sure how much space you have but a bunch of C quindiuense would look cool on the mountainside. 

[Hurricanepalms]

How about some Rhopalostylis and Howea. 

[2palm]

36 minutes ago, PlantMorePalms said:

C quindiuense would look cool on the mountainside.

i was going to say the same thing. if you have space quindo wax palms would be amazing. even if you don't have much space just a few would be beautiful. the seeds are available to buy right now at Rare Palm Seeds

[Darold Petty]

Axel, in a few months I could send you several thousand Rhopalostylis seeds ! 

 They could fight it out with Archontophoenix alexandrae.  

[Matt in OC]

I think @Hilo Jason might have tried a Hedyscepe?

Aside from the already great suggestions, don’t overlook Purpurea. It’s a good grower for me but looks crappy after the cold winter. I think it’d be much happier with a more moderate, cool temp. 

Burretiokentias and Chambeyronias love growing through our mild Spring and Fall temps. 

[tim_brissy_13]

I’d guess some of the higher elevation Geonoma species would do well and they seem to be under utilised in cultivation probably because they are tricky if temps fluctuate too much. Also some of Euturpe, Prestoea, Socratea, Dictyocaryum, Chamaedorea, Oraniopsis, Laccospadix, Linospadix, Lanonia and maybe even Juania or Lepidorrachis might do well. Possibly Welfia and some of the more unusual Madagascan genera like Satranala would do well. You’ve got a unique climate where you could really show off some unique species for your area of the world. 

[happypalms]

Kerriodoxa elegans bactris gassipaes allogoptrea arenaria chuniphoenix nana variegated rhapis wallichia densifolia dypsis louvelii chamaedorea adscedans thats just a few winners to mention I would be getting onto Jeff Marcus and buying a trailer load weekly if I was in your climate.