BUTIA PALMS transplanted into large tubs

Sunday was a great deal of huffing-and-puffing,and a lot of bangin' my face
into foliage, as I extracted 2 large-ish young BUTIA palms, (exact species unknown) bulging from their 20 litre pots
and put them in 2 big plastic tubs I's given recently.
Actually the pots they came out of were made from farm chemical containers
with their tops hacked off, so were about 16 litres total capacity, even
less than 20

Now normally I avoid chemicals as much as possible, anything more than
household detergent, let alone concentrated farm chemicals, but sometimes I
find old "wetting agent" or "marker foam" type containers. These products are required by
farmers to mix with their other chemicals before doing big
sprayjobs, yet these particular chemicals are just "dish-washing detergent"
but in a special extra-biodegradable formula that is harmless to plants

Anyway these "Butia" palms now had some fronds totalling upto about 3 m
length and obviously "floppy" to at least 3 m wide. (as they are growing in
a not-full-sun position, they have very long "petioles" (the frond
leaf-stalk before the frond-leaf itself) At the thickest part of the palms (Their bases) they were not quite the
diameter of a dinnerplate, but still that pretty much entirely filled their containers (if
grown in full sun, the "petiole" part would be almost non-existant, giving a
much more "compact" top of the plant, for any given butt diameter at the base).

I could have cut through these plastic containers and got the palms out easily that way but as I
have other young palms coming on that will soon need bigger pots I wanted to
save them, so I carefully used a wooden scrap of timber to "drift" the pots
off by hitting with a hammer, while lying the palms down on their side
(after having trussed the palms up so they wouldn't be flopping about
everywhere) It was still a bit of a chore, but I got it done eventually. (and, more the miracle, without injury to myself or the palms)

Butia palms do not have the vicious "will-impale-you-thru-to-the-bone" long
spines that Phoenix (Canary and date) palms do, but they do have small blunt "wait-awhile" spines near
the base of the petiole. So during re-potting I often got hung up some then
had to free myself before continuing. Note that spines vary in size between Butias

The 2 large tubs I's using to re-pot them into,are made from cut up old 200 litre thick plastic
drums. These are used by commercial food and industrial places, (for concentrated cordial extracts etc) they had
already been cut down and used as giant pots in the past, but I drilled some
extra drainage holes in them anyway. One tub was over half of it's original height,so somwhat larger than
100 litres and one slightly smaller. But still that meant that both took many many buckets of dirt I had to and
dig up to fill the blighters. (excluding the existing palm root-ball of some 16 litres size) Later they both got good topdressings of several buckets each of
fresh chooky doo-doo which these palms like as fertiliser. (Note fresh chicken manure is very very strong fertiliser, it is NOT suitable for applications to Citrus trees at all, or for many palms and some other plants) Now these Butia palms
can stay in these tubs for probably 5 years at least, certainly until their
trunk at the base reaches full adult size (about 2 feet dia for this type of
palm) Although they'll weigh close to 100 kg, at least if I *do* end up
moving to Perth sometime in future years say, then they could still be wrangled
onto a trolley and taken with me, then later, bust the pots off the bottom and
drop them into a hole in the ground as an instant "advanced palm" that would otherwise cost many hundreds of dollars to buy. However
even while in these big plastic tubs, the palms could easily give full loads
of (edible/yummy) fruits (Butias are able to fruit at a young age, well
before the crown of leaves even acheives full size). Around the palms, I have planted various non-hybrid seeds, of Watermelon and Rockmelon. So long as they sprout and get started ok (they do only get dappled sunlight) They can spill over the edge of the big tubs, then vine away across the nearby ground, into areas of more direct sunlight. Normally hereabouts the problem, in the Summer half of the year anyway, is *too much* Sunlight and heat !

I's Googling for an appropriate BUTIA URL LINK and the first page I came aross was for a North Devon (UK) plant nursery where they have had Butias growing outside for several years Their page includes a small photo of a small potted specimen (I knew that several specimens were growing outside in absolute waterfront locations on England's South coast, ie the UK mainland's least frosted areas. Note that when in NZ this last Winter I saw even seedlings of Butia growing outside with no protection, at a specialist garden centre TEXTURE PLANTS. Although The giant Canary Date palm is sometimes used as a large specimen tree around Christchurch NZ, in the past Butia has not been. Textbooks have indicated that ieven adult palms would not tolerate the Winters there, however if even seedlings survive outside with no protection, clearly a re-think is necessary.

Oh I noticed yesterday while on a brief visit, that petrol in Perth was $1.19 litre for regular unleaded. Last time I bought some locally, last week, it was $1.33 for premium.

cheers



Patsy..... "So, is killing *Not* wrong anymore ?"
Trudy..... "We don't have to worry about Right and Wrong anymore, ZOOT
decides for us"
.....THE TRIBE ep 2:49