Help with Palo Verde

[MsWhipplei]

Seeking advice:

I bought a 'Desert Museum' Palo Verde at Lowes a few weeks back, because I love them and it looks great and was real cheap. It's 7 or 8 feet tall at the moment. Because I rent, I can't put it in the ground, so... into a big wooden planter it will go. I'm hoping it will be as happy as possible and provide some nice, filtered shade on a small, hot inland patio. Any advice on potting soil/pumice/mulch/watering (or anything else) for my new tree?

Thanks for any advice on planting and care!

[Agavemonger]

Hi, Luisa!

It might be better to use more of a "dirt" type of mix than a potting soil. That way you can start to adapt the tree to your eventual in-the-ground planting scenario. About 1/2 Decomposed granite to 1/2 mulch would be about ideal. Fertilize regularly with a 20-20-20 liquid with trace elements at 1/2 recommended strength, and your new tree should be quite happy. A 24" box would solve the problem of up-potting for the next couple of years or so. That would also help to avoid the tree easily blowing over in a storm as it grows invariably larger. Unfortunately, with a 24" box and this mix your tree will be very, very heavy.

Make sure that it can't root into the ground. Best to put a sheet of thick, solid plastic underneath to make sure, unless it is on solid concrete. "Potting Soil" in your scenario would be too light and also dry out too fast. The tree could also easily blow over.

Make sure that you can eventually wheel a large, wide tree out of the side of the yard with a dolly, so that you can move it to a new home someday, as Palo Verdes would prefer not to be "bare-rooted"! Perhaps you could use a slightly smaller box as a planter and still be able to move it with a small dolly that way. You could put heavy plants on top of the box to help weight it down, or pin it to the ground with pegs. But beware: Palo Verdes can be quite fast growing, and will invariably get much larger!

The Monger

[mcvansoest]

I think the Monger gives good advice, but you should be aware that this is a hybrid and it has hybrid vigor. The box may stop it from growing overly large, so that may help but with the Monger's feeding regime I can easily see it outgrow its box in no time and still attain significant size. I had three of these monsters in my front yard and while they are stunning when in full bloom, they are an absolute pain to maintain, aside from the incredible amount of flower and leaf debris, if not regularly pruned back rigorously you will have a giant on your hands in no time which becomes exceptionally prone to suffering severe storm damage. I am down to one now, two came down in the big storms of September of 2014 and we have decided not to let them grow back. The last one was under control, I thought, but again in September but of this year we lost a big chunk of it in one of the storms that came through - it probably helped the tree balance out some, but even at absolutely no extra water it just keeps growing and growing and growing...

As said beautiful trees, and the box may help slow it down some, but be aware of what you are getting into with a tree like this.

[Agavemonger]

Yeah, Luisa;

I meant to mention that, for sure, you will have to keep the tree "laced out" (thinned and pruned to spec) so that it grows in the direction you wish and doesn't get altogether too big. Basically, Thijs is right, in that these guys want to get big, so you will have to really stay on it as far as the lacing and pruning goes. And at some point, the tree will just get too big for it's box and start to "burn out" and just want to go into the ground. Perhaps that will be in 2-3 years, or perhaps with judicious pruning you will be able to "Bonsai" the tree and stall off the inevitable for a few years more.

It will be interesting to observe your success (or at least your results) with this "experiment".

Please post your results!!

The Monger

[MsWhipplei]

Kent and Thijs, I can't thank you enough for this info. I have a 24" redwood box waiting for it, and the tree will indeed be laced out and kept patio-sized with the help of a local arborist. Tree was cheap enough that I won't cry too hard if it burns out in a few years, as long as it provides nice, filtered shade in the meantime. And if it's still healthy and I move to a place where I can put it in the ground, so much the better Thanks again for the sage advice