best compost for palms?

pinkcandyflossprincess

hi -could you advise what type of compost i should use for a palm tree, its a phoenix canary isle palm. Im potting it in a big blue pot for now untill i get patio sorted. I know i need a sandy type mix, can i do this myself or is there a pecial soil and fertilizer i can buy online.
i dont have a car so would prefer to order a bag if possible.
also which is a good one for azaleas and rhodadendrums?
tia
jo xx

pinkcandyflossprincess

bump
anyone?

hostie

just bumping again for you. Hopefully someone can help.

pinkcandyflossprincess

thought i had an answer:rotfl::(
i have planted the azaelias? now in a special compost but not repotted palm as yet, i wondering if i shoild just mix in sand with the compost and buy palm feed?
i dont want it getting soggy and dying...
i have been watering it around edge of pot as i read on another site but goggled palm compost and not found anything really.
ive seen a few palms aboutin gardens but thehuge one up the road looks dead now so wonder if frost got it?:(

gardenroute

Any pernament pots need a soil-based compost such as John Innes number 3. This should also be sandy enough for a palm. Make sure water can drain away from the pot i.e. it doesn't sit in a pool of water when it rains.
Some ericaceous compost could be mixed in to the when planting the azalea.

You can but special palm compost and fertiliser, but it is not essental. It's def. not worth paying extra money for these when the ordinary feed/compost will work just as well.

When watering the palm, try not to keep it wet all the time, so water it less frequently than other plants and out of the rain if poss. in winter.

pinkcandyflossprincess

thankyou GR you are a genius-I will get some of that soil asap:T
I wont bother with the palm feed then unless i see some on special offer, I am going to be planting it in the ground eventually but at the moment im waiting to afford patio tiles for bottom of garden and i want the palms to be planted down there as its the sunniest part of garden. just need some funds now:p

yumyums

I find the RHS website very good for advice (I try to avoid looking at too many different ones now as I kept getting in a tizzy reading 5 different things in 5 different places)

Anyway, I don't know about palms but the RHS echo gardenroute's advice about the John Innes no 3

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=609

alanobrien

I have a dozen or so palms in pots some of them for more than 10 years. I feed with chicken pellets and liquid seaweed once a month in the growing season. Every one of my palms come through winter unscathed and have coped with -12c without a problem. I pot them up in a mixture of circa 60 percent mult purpose compost, 30 percent perlite and 10 percent sharp sand for good drainage.

pinkcandyflossprincess

thanks again:)
with chicken pellets they wont attract rats will they?
ive finally got rid of rats- well they moved away after i got rid of the playhouse they moved into:eek:
i dont want any coming back ever-thats the reason im pebbling and putting in a patio!
drastic measures were required, i never saw a rat in my life till i moved to birmingham:(
the patio tiles im getting are the same as ones i had in devon, they have the option of buying a set of four which have a large cut out circle in the middle, i thought the palm could go in one of these and then i want one of them dickenson? fern palm thingies:rotfl::o
as you can see im pretty clueless, just know what i like the look of but have no notion of what they need .
good news though- my Rhododendron has started to open up its buds finally after i planted it in the compost specifically for them:T
Its turned out to be a purple black type petal from what i can see at the moment but im over the moon as its been there a month with no sign of life, then 2 days ago i repotted it in the new soil and its starting to bloom!