Coconut Palm in Rapid Decline

[rozpalm]

I have this one Malayan Coco that has gone into rapid decline in the last four weeks. It has accelerated in the last two days that I fear this tree will be gone by Monday or Tuesday at the current rate it is dying now. I really don't care if the tree can be saved or not, I just want to know what it is so that I can save the other ones I have planted around this one. There are about 9 others of similar size around this tree that currently show no signs of disease.

It started by dropping its oldest fronds while they were still green. Originally I thought it was the Iguana's running up and down the leaves like they do. I just cut off the leaf an noticed that the petiole meat was nice and white, so I didn't give it a second thought until yesterday when I noticed more drooping leaves. It appears that the leaf base can no longer support the branch and it buckles under the weight. Today it dropped almost all of its larger coconuts and four more leaves. When I picked up one of the seeds it was very small and mushy around the center. I also noticed that they were much smaller then normal and very wrinkled.

Here are some pictures that might help:

Found this on an unopened inflorescence near the top of the crown:

Typical mature seed on this tree (not wrinkles which are mushy to the touch):

More seeds that fell today:

Here is a seed that I split:

This is one of the fallen leafs:

[Jeff in St Pete]

I currently have a coconut doing the same thing and I'm worried it's LY. Why do you say it's not LY? I was told that one of the first symptons of LY is that the palm drops it's fruit prematurely before the the crown dies.

I'm hoping that mine is just infected with a palm beetle, but I'm keeping an eye out for more signs of LY.

[rozpalm]

I say its not LY because it does not have any of the symptoms of LY. The seeds that dropped were perfectly green but deformed. When the branches droop they are still green and they remain firmly attached to the tree. The only reason they drooped was that the branch buckled at the base of the frond. I also beleive that LY takes many months to kill a tree, this tree has been in decline for no more then 4 weeks. I fully expect the bud to fall over in the next few days. One thing that came to mind was the red palm mite. I believe it is very quick at killing palms. I have a horticulturist from my spray company coming out on Monday.

The weird part is that the seeds are mushy when you squeeze them in the middle. Its as if the tree is turning to mush.

[bubba]

Could be LY but it could also be that Red Bug thing.However,the Red Bug thing just causes them to look bad but not die. Do you innoculate your coconut? If not,my guess is LY.

[rozpalm]

Thanks for your reply Bubba. Just curious why you think its LY? It has none of the classic symptoms other then it appears headed for the wood chipper. I have seen LY when it was really bad 20 or so years ago and all of our trees got the classic symptoms and it certainly didn't kill the tree overnight. This tree is in rapid decline. Perfectly healthy green fronds simply buckle at the base or somewhere along the petiole. The fruit that dropped has no black marks and the inflorescence on the tree is still healthy (or at least looks that way). Its as if the tree is being rapdly eaten from the inside. Hopefully, when the hortoculturist shows up on Monday I'll have the answer.

BTW, congrats to your Gators!

[bubba]

Roz, I will be interested and please keep us posted.If it is not LY then it is something weird.It would be great to know!

[Mark Heath]

Roz, I'm sorry to see you losing such a beautifull palm! Did you check for Ganoderma conchs? The symptoms sound like Ganoderma, buy i'm not sure if it acts that quickly.

Bubba,,,, HOW BOUT THEM GATORS!!!!!!

[rozpalm]

Thanks for your feedback Mark. I have not seen any conchs. One thing that comes to mind was that about 6 weeks ago I had an oil burning Tiki torch fall over about 5' from the tree and dump about a 3qts of lamp oil onto the ground. I can't imagine that, that small amount of oil would do anything to harm a tree that size. My guess right now is that its some kind of fungus.

[ricky]

having looked at your pictures i would say your palm seems to be suffering from some sort of water stress is the palm irrigated or have you done any landscaping around the palm which could have damaged the root zone probably less likely but have you had any cold snaps which could have up sett the palm I'm figuring any one of these would be better than ly

[rozpalm]

About 8 weeks ago I installed the rocks around my lagoon. We used a large skid steer to move 2-3klb rocks in place. We had to drive past this tree with every rock we installed but we never hit the tree or got closer then 3' to it. This would coincide with the decline which started about 4 weeks ago and has accelerated rapidly over the past week. Because my yard is on a lake we have water at about 4-5' which I assume all my coco's have tapped into. They do get irrigation water too. Thanks for your input.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Rozpalm, please keep us updated on your coconut. I am interested in learning everything I can about bugs/diseases/damage to Cocos nucifera.

[amazon exotics]

rozpalm, I don't think it is root damage as cocos are pretty root hardy. As mark mentioned, sounds like some ganoderma symptoms and sometimes the tree die before a conch appears.

[rozpalm]

The tech came out today from A&L Southern Ag Labs and looked at the tree. I was equally happy hat the guy was also a palm nut too and was familiar with a lot of the exotics. Anyhow, the palm tree is suffering from root rot and has lost a good many of its feeder roots due to the rot. The tech said that the rot (caused by a fungus) usually comes from over watering the coco. While I don't water them any more then the two days we are allowed, there was a sprinkler head that was busted off near it and I have no idea for how long it was that way. So my guess is that it was getting soaked for months by this sprinkler. My soil also has a lot of bio-material in it which keeps the tree even wetter.

Thanks to everyone that gave me input on this.

[Mark Heath]

Thanks for telling us what happened! Are you gonna try and save it??? It would be a shame to lose it!!! Cut off the water and hit it w/ Subdue!!! The Cocos is by far my favorite palm!!! I hope you can save it!!! Did the guy tell you how to save the palm?????? I would like to know! Please tell!!!

[rozpalm]

Thanks for telling us what happened! Are you gonna try and save it??? It would be a shame to lose it!!! Cut off the water and hit it w/ Subdue!!! The Cocos is by far my favorite palm!!! I hope you can save it!!! Did the guy tell you how to save the palm?????? I would like to know! Please tell!!!

He recommended cutting away all the collapsed fronds and inflorescence on the tree and then to drench the roots with a fungicide. He thinks it will probably survive if we don't get hit with a bad cold front. He recommended a product called Heritage Fungicide. This guy was a wealth of knowledge about palm diseases and nutrition requirements. This guy was a palm nut so he spent extra time going through some of my other palms and id'ing some of their minor ailments. Definitely money well spent on having this guy come out.

Edited: I just looked at his rec sheet and he listed two other products as well. One called Subdue Maxx and Cleary's 3336. He recommended Heritage as the preferred product in this case.

[kahili]

Did he say specifically what the fungus was? My guess is either rhizoctonia or a pythium sp. The reason that I ask is that the 3 fungicides that he told you to use don't make sense if he is sure it is one or the other. Clearys will not treat pythium, Subdue doesn't treat rhizoctonia, but Hertitage will treat both. Pythium is known as a "root rot" and rhizoctonia is known as a "crown rot"-where the stem generally "melts". In the interest of saving you money when buying the fungicides (all 3 are pretty expensive, Clearys being the cheapest) , they do sell Banrot, which is a combo of Clearys and Truban (Truban will effectly treat Pythium probably as well as Subdue-I always alternate them anyway when treating pythium or phytopthera)

[rozpalm]

Heritage is what he recommended and put down in the comments section of the form. Off to the side he listed the two others. I thought he was listing them as alternatives but maybe not since we talked about several things while he was there. I'll call him tomorrow to find out what he meant by the other two. I have a spray guy that I have used for years that I had him call while I was there. My spray guy apparently uses Heritage so that is what is going to be applied. I did look up the price of Heritage and all I can say is ouch! Pythium was the name of the fungus.

Thank you very much for the add'l info kahili.

[kahili]

If it is pythium, forget the Clearys, but since you have a spray guy, I would have him come back out a week later ( after he treats with Heritage) and treat it with either Subdue or Truban. Hope it works!

With the palm showing such advanced signs of decline-did he say what he thought the chances were of pulling the palm out of it? Pythium is a hard one to treat successfully once the plant is showing these signs. Also did he talk about the fact that you now have pythium in the ground and that it is very hard to get rid -i.e. that if the coconut dies, that you have to be careful what you plant there? I wonder if it would be a good idea to lay some heavy duty weed block over the root system to prevent more rain from wetting the area? Or plastic, to help dry out the soil, and keep it on the dry side to slow down the pythium

[Coloradoboi]

I'm not an expert in this subject, but can't pythium spread to other palms close by?

I would be careful.