Seedling Jubaea problems

[Harry]

There seems to be a problem with this Jubaea (supposedly a blue variety).

The spear has been growing sideways (to the left of the picture) for some months now and I do not know what is causing it.

It sprouted three years ago and was growing perfectly in a pot receiving half day sun.

I planted it in the ground, in full sun, last spring and since then growth seems to have stalled.

The problem with the leaning spear became noticeable last October so I am sure it hasn’t been caused by cold or winter rains.

It did not receive overhead watering during the summer (only flooding with a hose once every 4 days or so) so I am speculating that this might have been caused by sunburn. Or is it some type of fungus/ rot?

Any advice/ diagnosis would be most welcome.

[Phoenikakias]

Dude, your palm is in great trouble. It has probably stem fungus or got infested by rpw/paysandisia, or both. Poure right now fungicide in to spear tube (aliete is excellent) and after 10 days from former application poure a dolution of 5cc imidacloprid + 15 cc chlorpyriphos/5 lt water. I have already stated in EPS that rpw (aka rynchophorus ferrugineus) has a special appetite for butinae next to CIDP!

[Kostas]

This is no sunburn unfortunately. I agree with Phoenikakias that its mild bud rot or damage from weevils. I am inclined towards mild bud rot fungus. This is easily caused in Parajubaea from heavy overhead watering with cool weather but they are able to deal with it and recover with no intervention. Your Jubaea seems in good enough shape to think it will also recover on its own without any chemicals(you could just pour hydrogen peroxide down the spear a few times to help it if you want but no need for anything harsher)but you need to stop flood watering it. Palms dont like that and most plants as well because it destroys the soil structure,causing the soil to compact more and more with each watering which makes for bad conditions for a Jubaea. I would recommend you to set up a drip irrigation for your palms and other plants as they grow much better with that,or at least hook a rain nozzle to your hose and keep moving it around(avoiding the crown of the palm if possible,especially in winter) when watering to not cause as minimal soil disturbance as possible. You should also mulch,at least around your palms(which will also help minimize soil disturbance during hand watering),to keep the soil cooler and moist and allow the soil organisms to work for you and create a good and porous soil again that your Jubaea will appreciate

After summer passes,you should water much more sparingly,making it only once a week in mid fall and every 9 days or more in winter and only if it doesnt rain enough. This is an arid region palm with little water needs in the ground

About the new leaf growing sideways,this can happen with mild bud rot and will fix as soon as warm weather comes and it grows through this. It may take some months for progress to be seen and a nice and perfect leaf to be formed but you do should see growth with warmer temperatures and as long as there is growth,it will grow through it and look good again by the end of this year

[Phoenikakias]

I completely disagree with the remedy advice of Kostas. Kostas have you encoutered such a problem with your Jubaea, because I did! And it was rpw infestation. Haven't you noticed that previous leaf is already harmed? New unfolding leaf has already rotten on a not yet obvious point inside the tube and is dead!!! Next a spear pull is very probable to happen, Harry try once! And maybe also the previous harmed unfolded leaf will pull. Harry try once! Jubaea is otherwise a hard dier, and since no overhead irrigation has been condunted, it is hardly imaginable how flooding in Cyprus (an island having mid-eastern like arid climate)can cause such problem. Harry just one last question: Have you applied some preventive treatment against rpw and have you seen any other infested palms nearby?

Edited January 24, 2012 by Phoenikakias

[Kostas]

I dont grow Jubaea but i do have encountered this problem with my Parajubaea cocoides in the past and last spring with my Parajubaea torallyi var. microcarpa which had old leaf bruising like the one in Harrys picture and much more severe symptoms in the forming leafs(leaflets cut away from the fungus,malformed,bruised leaflets and a newly opening leaf that pulled away!). Mine had that happen from the winter rains and possibly the very cool spring we had.

Palms can die from rot in arid climates as well just fine,especially when growing in clay soil with no structure and flood watered. But it sure doesnt usually lead to death just growth stunting and sometimes bud rot. I am sure that although he didnt purposely provide overhead irrigation,some times,the hose would do hit the crown or the splashing will...

The reason i think its bud rot more than weevils is because of the small size of the palm which wouldnt allow the palm to even push a single spear much before it would be dead by them....

[Phoenikakias]

The reason i think its bud rot more than weevils is because of the small size of the palm which wouldnt allow the palm to even push a single spear much before it would be dead by them....

[Harry]

Thanks very much for the replies.

I agree that it looks exactly like RPW infestation because 90% the CIDPs in the area look like this.

However, this is only a very small plant so I am thinking that it could be something else (not a lot of "meat" for a caterpillar to munch!). The spear is firmly attached and has not pulled.

I am now panicking because I have lost a lot of seedling Jubaeas at various stages of development (not only are they hard to germinate, they are even harder to keep alive) and this was my pride and joy.

I will blast it with chemicals as soon as possible!

And all these past months I thought it was sunburn!

R.P. Weevils are rampant on the island however I was not too concerned (up until now) because all of my palms are still seedlings. War has now been declared.

[QUINNPALMS]

I had one do that , and in time the palm grew it out , with a full recovery on its own...

Jubaea s are tough palms!

Edited January 24, 2012 by QUINNPALMS

[MattyB]

There's rot in the bud but it looks like most of it has pushed out already. Put some hydrogen peroxide down there and some fungicide and it should be ok.

[Kostas]

Phoenikakias,

I am not using nor agree with the stereotype that ''young palms dont get attacked by RPW'',i am sure that all sizes and palm species can be attacked and they do can be attacked. Personally,i am protecting all my palms,no matter the size or species, against the weevils,the Paysandisia archon and other palm borers(and there do are more that have made their way to Greece!). What i was just saying is that a palm that small and slow growing,if attacked and not briefly treated,is dead before you see a damaged spear emerging.......Thats why i dont think its weevils. Plus,bruising is more commonly seen in spears of bigger palms while holes and cut leaflets are the usual in smaller specimen and also the big ones as well eventually,most of the time.

As for the climate difference of my Pyrgos garden to Harry's in Cyprus,its more than obvious and for this reason,i am not using my experience growing palms in Pyrgos but that of growing palms in Melissia,Athens and also Kefalonia island,both of which are arid areas with clay soil,although both areas do are a little wetter than Cyprus in winter. Otherwise,both are no much for Pyrgos. I have first hand info of how arid Cyprus's climate is so i do know what i am talking about. But just the fact that it doesnt rain,doesnt mean much. The climate is very humid. That means that the ground may not dry out too fast. If it does dry out fast,its also not good as the soil organisms cant work and create some soil texture in the clay soil to help with aeration and root growth. Thus,if a normally dry soil is watered,it doesnt behave as well as when a normally wet soil is watered. That means that soils from more arid areas usually dont have the best drainage,especially if they are mostly clay. I know that first hand as i do have worked and planted palms in such areas and its not pleasant at all,both digging the hole and trying to make the drainage and soil texture better. Usually a pick is needed to dig a good hole and once the hole is dug and the palm planted,try to water it and it all flood for hours........Thats what arid area clay soils usually are...Now add flood watering to this already bad soil texture and drainage,and it gets worse,at least till some months pass and worms maybe find this like a good place to tunnel,then it may improve some but still,its worse than if drip irrigated. This is not just my opinion or personal experience,this is settled for good and backed up by scientific documentation. INIBAP,based on scientific experiments, suggests setting up drip irrigation to banana fields and not flood watering them and it states a more than significant yield increase and disease reduction. Although bananas are more sensitive than some palms to anoxic root conditions,palms and most if not all plants,like this as well and its now suggested for all crops as a significant yield increasing factor. So this is no imagination

As for your garden's similarity to Cyprus,it does is closer than Pyrgos but your soil should be much more rocky than Harry's and rocky soils behave differently than plain clay. Still,they all benefit greatly from drip irrigation.

As for my clay in Pyrgos,its full of soil dwelling organisms and organic material and drains wonderfully,you can dig a big hole real easy in the soft soil,fill it all up with water and in a few minutes there will be no water there...

I agree with Matty,it does seem to be healing on its own already

[Rafael]

Greek fight

[Kostas]

Hehe,no fighting Rafael,no reason for that in the limited circle of Greek palm growers I think we both just try to give the best advise we can but with different experiences and opinions on life. A little disagreement but i think improvement comes from that

[Phoenikakias]

First of all from what I see in the posted pictures, the statement that the plant is healing on its own is ungrounded. What I see in the emerging leaf is intact tip and damages futher down, and above all that this leaf is leaning, meaning that also petiole suffers a serious damage. So where are the indications of self healing? Secondly from the description Harry made (first notice of damage on emerging leaf in October and October in Cyprus is still summer)together with the obvious damage on previous leaf, I conclude that damage set up much earlier in mid summer. The plant lacks any bowl and even if it is right what Kostas claims, this cause is out of question as far as summer in Cyprus is concerned (you can not overwater during summer an outdoors growing palm in Cyprus)Thirdly the assumption that if a seedling got infested by rpw, then it is history by the time the infestation will be realized, however reasonable may sound, has been contradicted by my experience. Fourthly I am not argueing that the problem on this plant is absolutely an rpw infestation. I just claim that such a possibility can and should not be excluded. Fifthly the desiderat is for Harry to save his 'pride'. So based on all above I suggest a broad spectrum therapy. It would be interesting if Harry unfolds manually the emerging leaf to enable a detailed inspection of damages.

[MattyB]

The fact that you can see where the rot was tells me that it's growing and recovering on its own. That rot occured while the leaf was still a spear, down in the growing point. It's since opened 2 leaves and is currently pushing a new spear which looks healthy. Usually if you can see the rot, you're looking at something that was rotting several months ago.

[Harry]

Having read the above discussions I tend to agree that it is some sort of rot.

I have also come up with my own theory as to how this might have been caused.

My garden is now entering its second year. During the first year, I had 24 truckloads of sieved soil brought in to increase the level of the plot by about 80cm. This new soil was completely dry (zero moisture content).

During the 2010-2011 winter season all the rainwater used to collect on the surface and it took days for it to drain away. I also noticed that whenever I dug holes, only the top few inches of soil where moist, the rest was still very dry. So I was thinking that I was probably ripped off by the supplier (i.e. purchased soil with very high clay content).

However, this winter season the soil seems to have come "alive". Even though it has been raining on and off for the past two months, not a single drop of water has pooled on the surface. It seems that capillary suction has finally kicked in (or whatever else this phenomenon is called). I think its time for the MattyB jam jar soil test!

So, although I agree that one cannot over-water here in the summer, it seems that in my case I might have. The water must have been collecting around the root ball of the newly planted palms because the soil was not quite ready.

And yes, it is really humid in the summer (not Alabama humid, but humid enough) as I am only about 300m from the beach. This means that I must be even more careful with my watering regime and my weevil vigilance.

Thanks for the replies everyone.