RE: Fw: Butia capitata, Trachecarpus fortunei, Washingtonia robusta

I thought group might benefit from information sent to me from Judith Finn of UC Berkeley Botanical garden .
regarding the above palms.  Bridget from Seattle suggested I contact Judith.  Thank you Bridget.  In addition to what Judith has reported regarding Butia, I spoke with a gentleman in Texas who planted a 15 gallon Butia and he said his Butia fruited in 5 years and he made jelly too.  Please see Judith's comments below.  thanks.
 
Linda Starr
Springville Gardens
 
Dear Linda,
The good news is that all of these are easy to grow.  They all will take
quite a lot of abuse once they are established--too much water, drought,
heat , cold.  The Trachecarpus drops its seeds and they freely
germinate.  They are considered short lived--about 50 + years.  The Butia
has male and female flowers on the same plant.  I don't remember how long
it took to first produce seeds but I will guess10-15 years?  They are
viable but I have had only one seedling come up on its own over many
years-so it is not weedy like the Trachecarpus.  They taste kind of like a
loquat.  I have to work to get them before the squirrels do.  I have never
really noticed our Washingtonia bloom here.
Fertilize during the growing season--Spring and Summer.  Use a well rounded
fertilizer with trace elements.  Palms love Phosphorous, Magnesium,
Manganese and Iron.  Because I usually put out a slow release fertilizer in
April and then get too lazy to do followup sprayings, some of them will get
spots on the leaves which is usually a Phosphorous deficiency.  The present
wisdom is not to cut the old fronds until they are brown or poking someone
in the eye.  They recycle their nutrients from the old leaves to the new
ones and by cutting off the older green leaves you will get deficiencies on
the new ones.
Lethal yellowing in hot climates and fusarium in ours is usually caused by
dirty contaminated chainsaws and too aggressive pruning and nicking the
roots near the trunk--so keep weed whips away from the trunk and spray your
saws with Lysol.  Never spray herbicides around the base.  Their roots are
right close to the trunk.  I have to go..  Good luck
Judith
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