Simply Bananas

I know we have some accomplished palm growers on here, so perhaps some of you can assist me.

I got these three plants a few years ago from eBay. All were the same size going into the ground. All have been fertilized, mulched, watered virtually in the same manner(time, amounts, etc). One is thriving, one is lagging, and one is languishing.

Any suggestions on evening out the growth rates? As you can see, the proximity/soil should not be a problem.

Thanks in advance!

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orinoko

Could be the biggie is robbing the smaller ones,

Ground looks a bit dried out. When did you last water them. We're entering the real growing season now so water is essential, too much they will rot so introduce watering slowly.

This product may help.

Cold hardy Palms Cycads & Yuccas

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raygrogan

Wow, what a diff.

Just guessing. Color of the big one is greener ... maybe give the others something like iron / acid / sulfur etc. General foliar for the smalls?

Or just accept / enjoy your destiny, change the vision from 3 equal palms to, hmmm, a brilliant sequence for succession.

1aday

My guess is that it's a shade issue- the larger one perhaps gets a bit more shade than the two smaller ones? Thus less stress, soil stays moister, it grows faster, has more protection from the elements... can you take a photo from where the cars are, showing the yard?

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Susan

snc

I also have planted 3, 2 1/2 yrs ago. All three have grown (or not grown) to different sizes. I planted in 3 different areas with different watering and light qualities to see which area was the best. I did fertilize them all the same last year. The largest of the 3 gets 8-9 hrs of sunlight and watered everyother day by the sprinklers. It has actually seemed to grow faster now that my cassava tree is forming a semi canopy over it and giving it some 2+ hrs of filtered sun. The 2nd largest gets water every other day but only 4-5 hrs sunlight. The smallest (not suprisingly) get buckets watered 2x a week by me, only a couple hours of sunlight, ran over by my son and dog since its near the bottom of his slide.

I would cut the yellow/brown fronds on the bottom off, it seemed to help push new ones out in mine. That is just me though and I am no expert.
My largest one is not as large as your biggest though.

Not much help I know but you are not alone on trying to figure these guys out.

RobG7aChattTN

They all grow at different rates. They say never try and plant two on different sides of something because they will always grow at different rates and look odd. I've seen posts on the hardy palm board from people with the exact same experience wondering what is wrong with their smaller palms. Eventually the smaller ones might speed up, but they almost never grow at the same rate and some just turn out to be runts.

LeRoy Tomes

Hello, Eric.

I have grown hundreds of Windmill Fan palms and the most important thing is the way you planted them and the soil conditions. You can learn more about them at this link http://www.hookedonpalms.com/hardypa...llfanpalm.html The planting instructions are good for most areas not just the Pacific NW.

Another important thing is the way and with what you feed them. You need to use a good Palm food with all the sub nutrients palms need to green up and grow. You can get more information about feeding Palms at this link HOOKED ON PALMS

Palms grow fairly slow so to have such a differance one of the two things I mentioned above or the possibility that the soil by the stunted palms is contaminated with somthing is a possibility.

You can get a lot more information about the planting and care of your Windmill Fan Palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) at the Hooked On Palms web site at HOOKED ON PALMS.

Have a great day.

LeRoy

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RobG7aChattTN

You might want to re-post your question here:
Hardy Palm and Subtropical Board
There are a lot of people on this site that have grown fields of Trachycarpus. By the way, I've seen those fields and yes, the palms do vary in height by quite a bit.