Manganese deficiency?

[Phoenikakias]

I put the questionmark in the topic's title just out of a slight reservation, since I do not wish to sound like some kind of authority in the palms. But I am quite confident that I had pinned down the problem on some of my palms and solved it for the time being. First the symptoms on my plants; take notice please that those poor plants have this look AFTER the measures I have taken to correct a supposed manganese deficiency. Preciously their condition had been worse and the prediction pretty bad, as they had stopped entirely to produce new leaves and old ones had been dying successively and in a fast mode.

Wodyetia bifurcata, five seedlings in a community pot.

[Phoenikakias]

Wodyetia bifurcata further pictures

[Phoenikakias]

Butia stricta

Butia eriospatha; it had been producing initially only petiole stabs and then nothing before treatment.

Edited September 2, 2018 by Phoenikakias

[Phoenikakias]

Butia catarinensis or paguayensis; note that I have not fixed the issue in the radical way I will describe below, but I did add manganese sulphate, as I will also describe.

Trachycarpus martianus; this one had been very chlorotic before treatment.

[Phoenikakias]

Common on all those plants is that they like acidic soil, were fertilized by organic fertilizer albeit not enriched with t.e. and finally that in their original potting mix had been added a good amount of zeolite. Latter ingredient has proven excellent for soil aeration and withholding moisture, thus being a candidate improver for heavier soils and a substitute for coarse river sand, which is rare and very expensive here. This kind of organic fertilizer I apply is  slow releasing with an ideal K - Mg ratio (3 to 1 ) and most importantly it suits well to plants prone to potassium deficiency because of the alkalinity of soil and water. Spp like Butia, Acoelorrhaphe, Parajubaea, Arecastrum, Sabal a.o. will do fine on long term only with this fertilizer. Sorry to say it, but the extremely rare and expensive here osmocote does not work this well with this kind of palms, in all available compositions, which b.t.w. are far from the ideal N-P-K-Mg ratio for palms. Zeolite is also supposed to enhance cation exchange and contains also from nature manganese. But I fear, that if additional manganese is not provided regularly to plants, the zeolite tends to bind this t.e. Only after I hadchanged potting soil of all those plants and added manganese sulphate  I did notice some improvement. I followed the advice of an Argentinian nurserist given in f/b, namely to drench soil of affected palms with such a solution at a rate of two tb spoons of manganese sulphate in two lt water. I do really think that this method helps. I have applied it it on a chlorotic Allagoptera gaudescens, which after the treatment it  is greening up gradually.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

I don't know.  You have, what appears to be, several different deficiencies, from N to K and maybe Mg and Mn that I am inclined to believe something else is going on.

 

You may have inadvertently included something toxic in your soil or perhaps some item that binds up several elements at once.  Like I said, it may be Mn deficiency but something else is going on.

[LJG]

I agree with Jerry. You have something else going on as a root cause to have all these different palms affected the same way. 

[Pal Meir]

I too do not think that it is a problem of Mn deficiency, but a general matter of your soil (too alkaline?). Maybe the sulphate helped to lower the pH. Generally speaking I would not recommend organic fertilizer for potted palms; it is much easier to measure out the right amount of fert with liquid mineral fertilizers.

[Kris]

How is your water ? Is it ground water or chlorinated municipal water that you use ? They look burnt due to excess fertz dosage or water problem or they close to a Ac outdoor unit.

 

 

[Phoenikakias]

39 minutes ago, Kris said:

How is your water ? Is it ground water or chlorinated municipal water that you use ? They look burnt due to excess fertz dosage or water problem or they close to a Ac outdoor unit.

 

 

Tap water has been used all the time. I keep many palms in pots, not only palms from mediterranean climate, but also from tropical and subtropical regions. None of the rest, but a Calamus, presented similar problems.

Edited September 2, 2018 by Phoenikakias

[Tomas]

My two cents of worth

 

Our winters are quite similar, cold and long.

I also have the problem of manganese on my palms and have to solve them otherwise the palms could die.

But as not only the high pH value prevents the uptake of manganese, but also the cold soil does, I spray the leaves with chelated manganese sulphate. And it works.

Tomas