Syagrus romanzoffiana growth speed

[Fusca]

I looked for a good example of this subject on this forum but found none so I thought I would help document the speed of the ever popular queen palm.  There have been many comments over the years on how fast this palm is and there's an excellent example from an old thread from the main forum.

I'll follow up with what I have experienced here in the RGV of deep south Texas.  Purchased this palm as a 7-gal with approximately 9' overall height in spring, 2023.

 

Here it is a year and a half later in October 2024 with the container next to it for scale.  It's approximately 13' overall height now - roughly 2.67' per year!  The base has really beefed up too.

 

[Harry’s Palms]

I have a lot of experience with these . I used them to get a canopy for other palms . The one you showed is right on track but the speed will increase dramatically once that nice fat base turns to trunk! I put some in as 10” pot size and are now HUGE after twenty years . The first 2-3 years were just getting it to the size of yours  , then ..look out , they really get big in a hurry. That said , some are much faster than others , but all are what I would consider fast growers. The only negative is the mess of the inflorescence and copious amounts of seed.Harry

[Chris Chance]

I have found like most palms they take time to establish roots then they explode. Usually around 2 years they will start fattening up and before you know it 4 years later they're too tall to maintain. 

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I have a lot of experience with these . I used them to get a canopy for other palms .

I bought a second one to provide canopy for other palms in a different part of the property.  It was about the same size as this one was at purchase and it's growing at the same rate as this one.  Not a problem here but further north of here can get some queen killing temperatures every couple of decades but you can still grow a good sized palm pretty quickly!  Houston, San Antonio and even Austin had some massive queens prior to 2021 but sadly the vast majority were wiped out.  Hopefully normal winters return to those areas so that we'll see large ones again soon.

[Scott W]

Okay, these were bought as seed February 2016 from RPS.

First picture (July 2020) shows a difference of one year in ground versus still in containers.

Second picture is today, October 2024, approximately 8 years from germination.  Could be location, but she's definitely put on some size in 4 years. Tiki head for scale is 2 feet.