Hi! This thread will be a bit long....and I understand we dont like reading long things, but I really dont know how to summarize it better... Shortest Summary: Palms grow optimally in grow tent. Palms slow down TOO MUCH (85%) outside the tent. I have been baffled by this for a few months, and have no idea what causes this. This Washingtonian and phoenix seedlings seem to thrive inside a grow tent I have, they grow actively and I guess, at their optimal rate. However, I have tried many times putting them outside of the grow tent for a certain period of time, still with a grow light to make sure they get the light they want, but their growth rate slows down astronomically, so much that they are not even able to make one full frond and a half in one month like they do in the tent, they make like one third of a front, literally almost nothing. I have placed them next to the grow tent outside of it, like I said, with the grow light on them. I have also put them directly outside the home where they get some shade and some sun, still in their pots, same slow behavior. Now, the room I put them in when I get them out of the grow tent, goes down to 15° C to 18° C at night, mostly 16.5°. In the day, it goes up to 27° C, usually 24.5° C. The RH is usually always above 50%, and when it is cool after 2 AM at night, when it drops down to 16°C, RH is usually between 70 and 80%. I live in a subtropical climate at 8,360 feet above sea level, I see many phoenix canariensis thriving outside, of course in the ground, so I do not know what the issue here I am having with the phoenix and washingtonias is... The coconuts I have in there behave the same, I just never put them out the tent because they like it above 20° C and humid most of the time, so they just thrive in the tent. I am wondering now what would happen if I put some of these Washingotnias and Phoenix in the ground outside...would they adapt after a few days and start growing normally even with the cool nights? I have described the temps in the room the grow tent is in and where I put the plants. Now, the temps outside in the environment are usually between 20° and 10° C, mostly 19° C in the day. Temps in the grow tent, from 10 AM to 12 PM 30°C, then peaks at 35° C until 6 PM and then it gradually goes down to 19° C until 10 PM. It remains at 19°C until 12 AM, then a system turns on and it is able to raise it gradually to 25° C so it remains tropical during the coldest portion of the night which is after 1 AM until 7 AM, and then the cycle repeats. Also, it is always humid in the tent, above 80% RH and I know not even the coconuts need that much humidity 24/7, but they like it humid anyway. These Phoenix palms are about 9 months old and they are starting to make their third little pinnate leaves, so are the Washingtonians with their much faster growth..and well, all thanks to the grow tent. So..yeah...that is what I have "studied", and I dont get it haaha. Maybe someone here with more experience may know what could be happening... Again, there are phoenix outside, the difference is, in the ground, not in pots, in public places, and they are much bigger aahaha..... If they needed a 100% tropical environment, I guess I would not see these palms outside.........so..........again....do not get it. Putting the palms next to the tent with the grow light 11 hours per day is a waste and inefficient as I am not getting not even close the growth I get when both the light and palms are inside the tent. How long have I left them outside the grow tent? about one month, with exmtrely slow poor growth, then I put them back in the tent, and just in ONE week, they are able to do what they could not in 30 days.............
I wonder if it would help the folks who might answer this if you could reply with some photos. See Attach photos and files.
Umm.. I wish I had documented this better with better photos. I still took a few. I can use two as examples for P. canariensis. So in all three photos we have the same plant, they are behaving equally. From the oldest photo June 5th, to July 20th, in that month and a half, in the tent, it made 3 first pinnate fronds to a decent size considering its age, and they would be somewhat longer If I had not taken it out of the tent. Now, from July 20th, to today August 1st, I do see that the little frond has been trying to grow, but it has not grown something significant in these over 10 days, in the tent I am sure it would have done a lot more than that.
Yeah.. in the photo it cant really be seen that it has about 3 pinnate little fronds, only one is seen among all those leaves ahahahah. Now, it is not impatience on my part, they do grow boringly slow if I put them out of that tent, in the tent, still slow as it is slow per se, but not all that slow.
