Southsea Phoenix canariensis, Phoenix canariensis_CIDP seed germinated !!!

[Dave Brown]

Dave

Look foward to the updates,
mine is i lost my 4 yr old dacti. core rot.
think i mother my palms too much. As in trying to keep them too warm.

Posted on the palm centre discussion forum for the fisrt time. Coconut palms. rip off from all garden centres. I did metion that kew had 2 dwarf palms. In the end I had an apology that i was right. makes a change lol.

Dave the arums looking bit sorry for themselves but still sound. Do you still want them????? Leaves all gone but "trunks" as it were still solid.

Palmy days ahead

Mixie

Yes would still like an arum I can't kill, or at least stunt.

4 year old dactyl is a tiddler and probably not hardy at all, but remember dactyl likes dry atmosphere so rather than a heater under the fleece you will need a dehumidifier

Coconut palms in uk... not a chance... you'll probably find that someone has looked at a hardiness record, and appearently Cocos nutrifera can withstand -0.9C.... I can survive -70C but only for a few seconds... same thing.

You have to view buying a Coconut palm in the same way as you buy cut flowers... a couple of weeks and you throw them out.

Best regs
Dave

[Dave Brown]

After 5 tense weeks of waiting The little fella's up First spear is 1cm tall now.

Growing quite quickly now, and in spite of being in an 8" tube the root came straight out of the bottom, as they always do.

When I visited Southsea back on 17/18 th Feb, I picked a few more unripe fruit.

Best regards
Dave

[Dave Brown]

Update 4th April. I picked 39 unripe fruit back in Feb which ripened on the kitchen windowsil during Feb/Mar. These were sowed o n 12th Mar and to date 22 have germinated.

Also on another visit to Southsea on 31st March I found a ripened fruit on one of the palms. This means they can self sow, but the Council will probably weed out any seedlings without realising what they are.

[Dave Brown]

Update on SIDP as of 15th June.

Many of the sill ripened seed were not fully ripe, and rotted in propagation. 22 of the 39 seed picked germinated, but a further 5 of the 22 falied to produce a a spear. So the tally to date is 17 SIDP.

The first born is now growing a second leaf.

[Libby]

I have just thoroughly enjoyed reading all this, plus links how cool! Well done you!

[Dave Brown]

More to come when I get time, glad you liked it.

Dave

[Dave Brown]

Another update Little Sid has started to grow a third leaf, and is looking quite chunky with quite short, broad leaves compared to some of it younger siblings. Picture taken this evening.

Unfortunately the other seedlings have not done as well. with only 14 of the original 42 seeds surviving. 22 germinated, only 17 emerged, the others rotting off, and 3 disappeared, presumably eaten by slugs. It was very lucky the first one made it, or I would have assumed the seed was not viable, and not tried again.

[kentgardener]

Spotted about 4 Phoenix canariensis_CIDP in flower along Eastbourne seafront yesterday. One looked like it had fruited but they had all been picked off.... Dave?!...

The plants really didn't look big enough to be flowering but something had set them off.

John

[Dave Brown]

I've not seen the Eastborne ones. They must have been planted in the last couple of years. They do flower when quite small. Any Pics?

My daughter has just started to learn to drive.... where are you going with this I can hear.... Well she has a lesson a week and I take her out for 3 to 4 hours practise. We drive all over Gravesham up and down all the residential roads that you would never normally go down.

And I think I can quite safely say that Canary Island date palms are now the most common planted palm in Gravesham, there are hundreds, and with well over 100 above 6 feet. The largest are up to the top of the upper windows of the house. Maybe 18feet.

The main problem is most of them are not planted ina place where they can stay for long.

[Dave Brown]

This is Little SID's Mum as she was in 1997 after her first winter outside on Southsea Common not very big and a bit cold wind damaged..... but

CIDP1997A.jpg (23.85 KiB) Viewed 3078 times

She has grown so much in the last 11 years from planting (pic added 29/092008)

Little Sid seed was sown a year ago today having been picked unripe from Sid's mum on Southsea Common on 15th December 2006. Sid ripend on the kitchen windowcill for a month.

Little Sid seed still attached to mum 15th Dec 2006

Little Sid after ripening for a month on the kitchen windowcill 15th Jan 2007

Little Sid with flesh removed 15th Jan 2007

Little Sid was then soaked in tepid water for 3 days then sowed, while the storm raged outside on 18th Jan 2007

[Las Palmas Norte]

Dave ... perhaps I missed it previously, what was the eventual outcome of Little Sid.

Cheers, Barrie.

[Dave Brown]

Dave ... perhaps I missed it previously, what was the eventual outcome of Little Sid.

Cheers, Barrie.

Well, on 3rd Feb 2007 Little Sid germinated. Pic taken 8th Feb 2007

[Dave Brown]

Pic taken 11th Feb 2007 root growing strongly.

Little Sid was then sown in a paper tube in coarse potting mix in 12th Feb 2007

11th March 2007 -Little Sid emerged putting a small spike up.

14th June second leaf emerging

21st August 3rd leaf emerging

19th January 2008 4th leaf about 1cm (difficult to see)

[Eddy]

Paper tube! now that is a novel idea. Got any other good tips like that Dave?

[Dave Brown]

Scrim, many palms particularly Date palms survival technique is to get a root as far down into the ground as quick as posible. This is probably due to the areas they live being mainly dry from rainfall. The seed needs moisure to germinate, but may dry out within a few days at surface level. If the palm does not get it's root down quickly, it will die in any dry spell.

To cater for this type of growth is very difficult as the first root may go down 2 or 3 feet, possibly more, naturally, before putting it's head above the surface. My paper tubes were 2 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. but the root still comes out the bottom before the first spear breaks surface. I am convinced that for optimum growth a very, very deep pot is required. Could you imagine a 2 inch wide, 3 foot deep pot but that would be ideal. I make the pots by winding a cut strip of several sheets of newspaper, cut to the required length of the pot. This is wound around a 2 inch (50mm) plastic pipe and scellotaped together. I then screw up a piece of paper and ram into the bottom as a plug (stops compost falling out), and there you have it.

These need regular watering as there is a lot of surface to evaporate water from