Wind damaged bismark

[Cracker Red]

Wanted to confirm this one is a goner before I pull it out/to the curb.

 

2 year old (to me) bismark.  Was growing great, just trimmed it.  It seemed to break off at ground level.  Winds peed was around 95mph gusts.  None of my other palms  (queens, bottle, washys) were broken or snapped, just this one (grrrr).

 

 

Why did it break at the ground?  Is the trunk susceptible to rot?  I can move the thing 45 degrees each way.. .might be able to rig something to get it to stand up. ..thought they had big strong roots at this point.

 

Hope?

 

Edited October 8, 2016 by Cracker Red

[Hammer]

Stake it up and wait and see.  

I would avoid wiggling it...Will cause further damage  

[PalmTreeDude]

I agree with Hammer, don't give up on it yet! 

[kurt decker]

It's planted too high. You are moving it on the roots. Think of a bismarck seed, it burrows down a foot or two, it wants the butt of the plant to be anchored underground. Best thing to do at this point is get 3 or 4 ten foot conduits from home depot, and stake the thing so it doesn't move around. As it grows, it will throw new roots and harden up. Maybe take off a few leaves, that will help the plant deal with the root damage. Your tree should recover completely.

[Walt]

I had two bismarckia palms about that size get blown over on a 45 degree angle from Hurricane Jeanne back in 2004. I pulled one of them back up straight as best I could and staked it. The palm was definitely set back but it survived and is healthy today. No way would I dig yours up, at least not yet.

Or, you can just leave it as is and it will eventually turn back up straight by geotropism. But the trunk will be slightly crooked in years to come. I say that as I also had another bismarkia blown over and didn't upright it, and that's how it wound up. However, this palm was attacked shortly after I made the below video by the palmetto weevil, which killed the palm. In the video, that palm is the one on the far right.

I took the below video 17 months ago. In the video I briefly address the fact that one of my bismarckia palms were blown over in a hurricane. The palm I up righted is the one on the far left. The palm immediately to the right was planted at the same time, but it is bigger because it wasn't blown over (having roots severed) and not set back. But the odd thing is, the palm that was set back eventually (many years later) flowered and set seed before my biggest bismarckia. All of the bismarckia palms have grown even more since I took this video in May of 2015.

BTW, I had two queen palms with at least 10 feet of trunk that were blown completely over by Hurricane Jeanne. They lay prostrate on the ground a year and a half. The survived and the growing end turned back up straight. I eventually (with equipment) up righted one of the queen palms and staked it. The crown was now at a 90 degree angle to the trunk, but the new fronds eventually turned back up to normal. The other queen I chain sawed up as it was just too much work up righting it. I planted a small queen in its place, and today it's basically just as tall as all my other queens I have lining my driveway.

 

 

 

[Dave-Vero]

Palmetto weevil is indeed likely to be the main problem.

[Cracker Red]

For the reason the thing tipped over?  What do I do?

[Hammer]

2 hours ago, Cracker Red said:

For the reason the thing tipped over?  What do I do?

For 95 MPH wind speeds?  Pray.

[PalmTreeDude]

Bizzies would probably do good in shelter, for high winds...

[aussiearoids]

Lots of big mature ones had the guts twisted out in Cat 5 Cyclones around here .

Many still stand there 6 years later as a reminder of the power  of nature .

[Alicehunter2000]

You could pile some pure sand around the base to help stabalize as well. But it needs to be something like pure builders sand that has no water holding capacity.