We have had extreme amounts of rainfall lately so I know the Silver Queen is not starved for water. All last week and the week prior, we were getting downpours like what is seen in a tropical rain forest - at least 0.50 to 3 inches a day. I also irrigate with my rain barrel system and PVC pipe with holes by each corn stalk to ensure the water is delivered right to the zone it needs to be. So I think this eliminates a watering issue. I knew that the Sugar Dots corn had the nitrogen problem. That is what is odd - I built that 4 x 20 box this year, filled it with compost from the facility, then tilled it all in good. Yes, the box is only six inches deep and I know I tilled in quite a bit of the clay that was below that - but next year I'll be filling in more compost. However, the Silver Queen corn is growing in compost that is now a year old - but that box was 100% filled with the compost mix and there wasn't any mixing of clay underneath. I have never known sweet corn to get as tall as the Silver Queen this year - or Peaches & Cream last year. Just seems like it is putting all of its energy making huge stalks and none into ear development. Then the pollen comes down and it isn't done "growing" yet. I'm assuming that compost tea would be filled with nitrogen correct? That is the only form of fertilization that I do - and maybe I should actually water some of it into the ground. I even put a layer of mulched leaves over the top of the beds to keep the weeds out - thinking this also would provide some fertilizer as well. Back at another house I owned before this, I grew Sugar Dots corn directly in the ground; just tilled up a grassy area and planted. The Sugar Dots corn did very well there and got to about five feet tall at the most and put on a bumper crop. But now that I have manicured raised beds with compost, they either seem to be deficient or.. I don't know. Just frustrating to see that more than 25% of my garden space this year was used on corn and just like last year, we may not get very much from them at all. Now - the area that the Peaches & Cream corn was last year (same soil as where the Silver Queen is this year) - that is where I have the tomatoes. And as you saw in the pictures, the tomatoes are growing like crazy and are fully loaded with fruit. Never have I had such lush tomato growth before.

I lost all 6 of my Queens last winter. They were all almost a foot in diameter, nice big trees. They had survived lows in the low 20's several times with fronds burning slightly but we had two arctic fronts in early January back to back with more than 24 hours of sub freezing temps. Five died. All 5 had spear pull. I don't think they can ever recover from pull. Only the largest one lived to put out new fronds in the spring but eventually died as well after putting out several stunted fronds. Lots of folks along the Gulf Coast have planted these palms over the last 10 years (during this stretch of mild winters) and thought they were at least zone 9 hardy, but sooner or later, we will have one of those bad winters where temps plunge into the low 20's for extended periods of time and realize these palms don't survive this kind of weather. You either replant them and expect to have to do this from time to time or go on to something else. Sadly, I think yours are gone. Steve

Let me save you a LOT of time... WAIT TILL THEY'RE ORANGE I wasted a lot of time last year trying to germinate green queen palm seeds. Finally I gave up. When they turned orange, I tried again and had a 90% success rate. The insane thing is that the seeds were dropping to the floor as is and I mulched them over by mistake. Now I have 10 accidental palms growing. So, they ARE easy to grow if you wait til they are ripe (orange). If squirrels start eating them, don't worry, there are enough for them too Once they are orange, take off the skin and all the flesh, leaving the bare seed. Scrape off all the hairs you can. The better you scrape, the less chance your seeds will have of rotting. Then I soak them in a glass of water for about 3 days, changing the water every day. After the water, I put them in plastic bags with some humid peat moss. If you want to accelerate the process like I did, put them under a lamp. Try not to burn them though. Your target temperature should be upper 80s, lower 90s (fahrenheit). After that, wait a month or two (more like 2). Hope this helps

What part of the RR/Austin area are you moving to? The winter lows are moderated nearest the downtown area and nearby neighborhoods due to a small urban heating effect on calm, cold nights. I can't say I've seen any ponytail palms in the ground in the Austin area. Without winter protection, I doubt they would last too long in the ground; but one could always try. There are a few good sized Queen palms planted near Taco Cabanas at two locations: south of the lakes downtown & some on highway 79 neat Redbud lane. A cold winter could certainly kill them without protection, but if they are near a building facing south and have some added heat, they can do alright at least for a few years. I have one in front of my home for 3.5 years. I planted it as a 7 gallon palm from HD that was perhaps 6 feet to the tallest frond. I've put C9 Christmas lights (w/o a sheet or tarp to trap the heat) on it to protect the trunk and bud from the winter. The coldest it has seen was 17 degrees for a low temp. Some tips were a little brown on the fronds, but it didn't lose those fronds. It is now about 22 feet tall to the topmost frond and the trunk is about 1.5-2 feet in diameter at the base. Drip irrigation and fertilizer help a lot. I have some smaller ones in my backyard on the north side that were planted as 3 gals 2 years ago, they have handled the cold without any protection and are growing at a good rate. Others in my neighborhood have planted Queens in the past few years and they are doing well. They don't cost very much at these small sizes, and seem to grow pretty well, so you might try them as an experiment. These queen palms might be a slightly different variety compared to those from Florida as the Texas varieties seem more robust, but perhaps that is just due to the soil and nutrients available. If you can find them, there are hybrids between the Butia and Queen (and some other combos as well) that should handle the worst of the cold weather better than a Queen and grow faster than a Butia. As other posters mentioned, if you want trunk forming palms, the California and Mexican Fan palms do well, with the California being much hardier to the cold and ice here. The Butia (Jelly) plams do fairly well except in heavy limestone and are cold tolerant. Sabal palms are also very tough. Windmill palms seem to grow well and are pretty cold hardy. Date palms seem to grow well, but a record cold outbreak cold kill almost any palm, with a trunk, as the all time low is below zero. Good luck.