Butia yellowing

[chevsen]

I have a few 25 gallon butia capitata that are showing significant yellow new growth. The old growth looks great. I bought these about a month ago and have not been able to get them all in the ground until yesterday. While in their containers, all showed slight to moderate yellowing on new growth, which I assumed was due to a nutrient deficiency (manganese perhaps?). Anyway, these palms were subsequently stressed with approximately 14" of wet snow on December 17th, followed by a 21F night and several mid-20's nights thereafter. Because of the recent cold weather in the high desert of Southern California, they have been in average temps < 40F since the snow (this is a "cold" zone 9a). The buds have been subjected to multi thawing/freezing cycles since the snow day. So, I assume I have two problems, the pre-existing yellowing (which has gotten worse after the snow) and freeze damage? Here is a pic of the worst damage--is this palm a goner? Fortunately, all of the spears remained intact yesterday after a pull attempt, but I know that may change. I gave each of them a heavy dose of Daconil. I am too much of a palm newbie to determine a proper course of action beyond that--all advice is greatly appreciated. Incidentally, the other butias that are at my place look fantastic and handled the snow with no issues.

-Mark

[Tala]

try to find a copper based fungicide, Kocide is one brand name. This the only product proven to work on bacterial fungi.

It could be Mn., most likely a K (potassium) def. as well. Try to drench the bud w/ copper and mix in some Mn. sulfate. Then put some extra K down in granular form. Even if the palm comes out of it it will take 6 months to a yr for good growth to emerge. Make sure they are not planted too deep as well, this can slowly "suffocate" them.

[chevsen]

Thanks Tala, I will try the copper fungicide and manganese sulfate. In light of the yellow, I applied some fertilizer yesterday as well (don't have the exact content handy at the moment, but it was close to a 2:1:2 ratio).

Here is a pic of one of the palms that fared a bit better than the one in my original post. No freeze damage (I hope..?), just a well-developed nutrient problem that has really taken off since I brought the plants home. You can see that they appear to have been healthy until recently.

It has been a rough December--brutal freezes, snow and wind gusts of 60mph+. I returned from Christmas vacation to find the largest of the 25 gallon palms had blown over (while still in its container), but escaped any petiole damage. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?

[NBTX11]

Wow, wherever you are sounds cold! I've had 0 frosts and 1 light freeze at 30F here in "cold" TX.

[chevsen]

Wow, wherever you are sounds cold! I've had 0 frosts and 1 light freeze at 30F here in "cold" TX.

Yeah, December has been cold and relatively wet for Yucca Valley (3400' elev. with approx. 5" annual rainfall). The average annual minimum is around 25F, similar to your area. What has been unusual is the below average daily temps for the past 2 weeks. The high on December 17th was only 38F--that is really unusual. Average high/low this time of year is approx. 60F/34F.

[NBTX11]

Wow, wherever you are sounds cold! I've had 0 frosts and 1 light freeze at 30F here in "cold" TX.

Yeah, December has been cold and relatively wet for Yucca Valley (3400' elev. with approx. 5" annual rainfall). The average annual minimum is around 25F, similar to your area. What has been unusual is the below average daily temps for the past 2 weeks. The high on December 17th was only 38F--that is really unusual. Average high/low this time of year is approx. 60F/34F.

Our avg hi/low temp this time of year is 62/39, which is as cold as it gets, starts warming back up in Jan with Avg high back in 70s by late Feb, and near 80 by end of March. Not familiar with Cal geography too much so not exactly sure where Yucca Valley is, I'll have to look it up...

[chevsen]

Yucca Valley is about 35 miles north of Palm Springs, but almost a full USDA zone colder due to about 3000' gain in elevation. This is Mojave joshua tree woodland. There is generally an 8 or 9 degree difference in temperature between the Palm Springs low desert and this place. Palms here are washingtonias with an occasional phoenix. I probably have the only butias in the area--I think they will love the climate once established. I am also going to try a jubaea or two.

[NBTX11]

Yucca Valley is about 35 miles north of Palm Springs, but almost a full USDA zone colder due to about 3000' gain in elevation. This is Mojave joshua tree woodland. There is generally an 8 or 9 degree difference in temperature between the Palm Springs low desert and this place. Palms here are washingtonias with an occasional phoenix. I probably have the only butias in the area--I think they will love the climate once established. I am also going to try a jubaea or two.

Sounds almost like here. The main LONG term palms (decades old big freeze survivors) here are Washingtonias, Sabals, Phoenix Canariensis, and Trachys. Butias don't do that good here due to soils, so you see few of them - nothing to do with cold. Queens are planted en masse in newer developments, but all have been planted since the last big freeze (approx 1989/90). Even see a few fotxtails pop up here and there due to warmer winters lately.

[iamjv]

Agree with you Jim that Butia's don't do well here (or at least not long term), yet they continue to be sold at our local chain stores.... I've had two in the ground for a number of years now and will be pulling them out of the landscape as I am tired of fighting the nutrient (iron) deficiencies. Jv