Jubaea Species, Chilean Wine Palm, Chile Coco Palm

As noted below, this is a VERY slow growing variety. It prefers partial shade in low latitude locations when young and it can be picky a...Read Morebout humidity. If you are looking for a hardy very large palm, the Sabal causiarum (Puerto Rican hat palm) would be a better selection. It's faster growing but it has palmate (fan shaped) rather than pinnate fronds. Both varieties can benefit from careful side dressings of potassium (potassium is a salt that can burn if improperly applied). Symptoms of potassium deficiency are spotted yellowing of older fronds that spreads until the frond is almost solid yellow. Manganese, magnesium, and boron deficiencies can cause similar symptoms. Use a balanced fertilizer with as close to a 3:1:3 ratio that you can find and make sure that it includes magnesium, manganese, iron and trace minerals such as boron and zinc. Also work to increase soil acidity in alkaline soils. Alkaline soils can make vital minerals unavailable to the tree by binding them to the soil. Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) is safe and beneficial for this purpose but tends to wash out of the soil fairly quickly.

Planted a very small Chilean Wine Palm in autumn 2009 in my garden in Krapets, Bulgaria, zone 8a. The seedling had just two leaves and it...Read Mores growing tip and could not have been older than two years. This past winter, temperatures dropped to -3 degrees F, there were severe cold winds, though snow cover was substantial. Well, my Chilean Wine Palm is very much alive, with only the top half of its leaves burnt! Has not managed to rot, though this winter has been extraordinarily wet. This has positively been a huge surprise for me.

love these trees; have hundreds, have Ben collimating them for 25 years have starters form some old girls of some 300 years or it seems, ...Read Morethey were that old when I met them;think they pre date America in California that is. the bay area. I've Been collecting and propagating them since I fell in love, every sept.each year. let me know; just want to see the forest again, don't mater where in the world besides Chile. love these trees. contact info: sarahandmarky@aol.com did not know they were so far reaching. just seems wondrously OK, like the world is in good hands(the garden that is)thank you: Mark

The seedlings get sun burn easily. I got 3 strong seedlings, there is only one survived. I should have tried the Buitia X Jubaea.
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After I moved to Orange County in California, I bought a 15 Gallon
size Jubaea. It is so easy to take care of and good looking palm.

There're some facts to add to this marvelous specimen:
- Total height: 30m
- Diameter: 2m
- Oldest specimen: 1600 ye...Read Morears
- It can live in zone 8a too.
- Soil Ph: Neutral and Acidic

A Jubaea seedling with two strap leaves survived -2 F in Bellevue WA, with its only protection being that it was sbmerged in one foot of ...Read Moresnow. The palm is still alive today, but hasn't grown in 2 years.

Though slow growing, this is one of the prize palms for most collectors in the South Western States. It is the world's most massive palm...Read More and is native to Chile. It is also one of the most cold hardy palms easily handly frost, and some degree of freezing. Locally here in Los Angeles this tree, once a trunk has formed (up to 20 years for that to occur) is one of the most expensive palms you can buy. A large one will easily fetch thousands. They transplant fairly well, though a large crane and many workers are needed. It is also one of the few palms that does better in a Temperate environment than a tropical one. Though many in Florida and Hawaii may try to grow Jubaeas, most do not succeed. It prefers a dry (low humidity) climate.

This palm is one of the most susceptible to crown rot from overhead watering, so be careful how you water young plants... do not recommend watering with lawn sprinklers as rotting the bud is very easy to do this way, particularly in spring... but all year long even. Water with a hose or drip or some other method. It doesn't need much water as an adult, but seedlings can dessicate and die from lack of water.

Young palms do OK in full sun, but many find they do better in part day sun, at least while very young.

Adult palms can sometimes be confused with large Phoenix canariensis, and will sometimes be planted side by side to them in parks. But it is a much slower growing palm and tends to have slightly fatter trunk and fuller, more bluish crown of leaves. THis palm develops a smooth trunk with no leaf-base scars other than subtle flattened triangular shapes visible on the trunk, while the other more common plant has large, ornamental leaf scars. Also this palm has reduplicate leaflets (up side down 'V', while Phoenix have induplicate (upright 'V') leaflets. This characteristic can help tell apart seedlings as they do tend to look a lot alike. This palm does NOT have the horrible, deadly spines at the leaf bases, though, that Phoenix have.