Yellowing fronds & losing color

[d1134]

About 3 weeks ago I planted 3 queen palms in my front yard and over the past week and a half, they seem to be losing their dark green color and several of the lower fronds on all 3 have turned yellow. I'm not sure if I'm over watering them, under watering them and/or they're lacking a mineral in the soil. I live in SoCal and my soil is has a lot of clay content. When I planted them, I did a 1/3 mixture of soil, amendment and sand and threw down some B1 before/after planting them. I currently have my sprinklers set to water them 4 times a week for 4 minutes. It's enough time to fill up the wells around them and it takes roughly 15 minutes for the water to drain from the wells.

My question is, if it's over/under watering, how many days should I be watering them and for how long and if it's a element issue, is there a specific one I should target or just a general purpose palm spike would do the trick? (lutz palm spikes?). I read somewhere that you should wait several months before adding palm spikes, but I'm not sure if that is true or not.

After planting pictures:

Yellowing/Losing color:

Any input would be appreciated.

Thank you, Ryan

[d1134]

More pictures:

[palmislandRandy]

The yellowing of the oldest fronds is perfectly normal. When they're brown all the way, snip them off, but leave the leaf base on the tree. I don't know how your drainage is, but you don't want them sitting in wet soil. I usually wait a few months before fertilizing. 15 minutes to drain 4 minutes of watering seems kinda slow drainage to me, but a Californian may have better advice on watering.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

California + Summer + Surrounded with concrete = Man, that has got to be hot! I doubt you are over-watering. The palms look pretty good and are probably just going through a little transplant shock. The older fronds always yellow as the palm translocates nutrients out of it and into younger fronds. If they were planted from a container you can probably fert right now. If they were balled and burlapped, wait a few more weeks for fert. If you use slow release like nutricote, osmocote, or other resin coated fert, you can apply when you plant.

[MattyB]

These palms came from Florida and they've been under shade cloth. They're just getting used to our climate and the full sun. Cut the lower fronds off when they become too unsightly for you, keep them moist, apply some fertilizer as recommended on the label, and they'll adjust and throw new leaves that will be beautiful. They're queen palms and they will thrive in Cypress; practically bullet proof.

[d1134]

Thanks for the information! They came from a palm farm in Orange, but I was told they were field grown at their main farm in Pauma Valley. They were in 15g containers, although they should of been in a 24'inch box much sooner because they were a bit root bound when I took them out of the containers. This is my second attempt at something other than Roebelenii's, my first attempt at 3 Archontophoenix Cunninghamiana's ended pretty badly because they were shade grown.

What type/brand of fertizlier would you recommend? I'm guessing that is different than palm spikes (sorry, I'm new to this)?

[Stevetoad]

most of my plants are newish and they always seem to yellow a bit. once the new leaves start opening they look great. i cant tell you why this is but its just what i notice. even the palms i got that were in full inland sun still yellow on me. give them lots of water and you'll be trimming off 80lbs seed pods in no time