Ailing Kentiopsis

[JimR]

I have had this K oliviformis in the ground growing happily if slowly for 3 or 4 years. This past winter included a very bad week long cold event, during which it simply failed to warm up during the day although lows probably only reached 29 or 30. This palm showed some leaf burn, but otherwise appeared ok. It had put out a new, apparently healthy spear. As recently as 2 weeks ago, the new spear looked perfect. However, over the last 2 weeks the new frond has turned a much lighter green and the spine has become much less stiff and sort of flopped over. It has been very hot and humid lately, even for the Texas coast. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I will post a picture as soon as I can get the image file fixed.

[JimR]

[Hammer]

11 minutes ago, JimR said:

Jim, ouch man!  KOs are grateful palms.  I wish I had more.

Process of elimination here...

Pour hydrogen peroxide down the crown immediately! 

How much water does it get? 

How much sun?

Could be a nutrient deficiency, although diagnosis of this is not my strong suit. ...perhaps apply some SulPoMag and/or Ironite.

[JimR]

My first thought was to hit it with some fungicide. It gets about 30 minutes of water once a week plus whatever rain we get. I increased the water about 2 weeks ago because of the heat. About a half day morning sun, some dappled.

[RedRabbit]

I'm no expert, but I'm guessing the cold didn't do that. The foliage doesn't look like it was burnt too bad and they're pretty hardy so 29f shouldn't hurt it anyway. 

[foxtail]

The weed control cloth?

[JimR]

RedRabbit, I tend to agree. It had a little leaf burn, but nothing serious. And this is the new spear that came up after the freeze.  It appeared strong and healthy as recently as two weeks ago.

Foxtail, interesting thought. The cloth has been down for about a year. Hmm?

[sonoranfans]

Mine have seen sub 30 for 12 hrs 2 days consecitively, no problem.  Looks like a fungal infection, I use peroxide and then daconilaround the spear area.  I would also advise checking that the heel is not buried.  These have grown great for me, but they are slow initially and never become fast.  2 of mine have set seed.

[JimR]

Well, a week and a lot of fungicide later, it appears no better and no worse. The floppiness of the stem is just plain weird.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Looks like some kind of bud rot to me.  Might be related to the cold...but hard to know for sure.  Sometimes tropicals don't cark until it gets hot.  Thats happened to many of my tropical species here in subtropical FL.  I know KO is supposed to have some cold tolerance, but long duration cold may have caused injury that wasn't evident until it got hot and the disease causing organism went bonkers.  The peroxide is a good idea.  Daconil/Chlorothalonil...well maybe so.  Just follow the directions closely.  It can cause serious eye damage.  But its a great, broad spectrum fungicide.

[sonoranfans]

San antonio is probably too cold in winter for this palm long term.  the length of the cold can also matter, often we just blame ultimate lows.