Quadruple King Palm Help

[Panamajack]

Hey there, I planted this quadruple King 4 years ago. It's been growing fine, but now it is getting very slender and not producing the big fronds that it once was, plus the frond production is very slow. I am afraid it's declining. I hand water it for about 6-8 minutes every 4-5 days. It's on clay soil, but drainage is not an issue. Each palm is currently holding around 6 fronds. It just seems like it takes forever for the emerging frond to grow and open up.

My other Kings are all singles and they are all growing nicely. 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Panamajack

[Jeff985]

That doesn’t sound like enough water to me. Kings like a lot of water. I water mine every other day. It’s pretty much impossible to over water them. I would suspect as they get bigger they will require more water, which would explain why your watering schedule used to work, but now it doesn’t. I’m no expert, so hopefully someone else will chime in, but I’d definitely start giving it more water. Even if that’s not the problem, it can’t hurt. 

[joe_OC]

Would agree that water schedule is not sufficient.  Also the color of the fronds suggest that they need to be fertilized.

No penciling, so it can be reversed.

[Kim]

Beautiful garden! You cannot overwater King palms -- give them a good soaking.

[Jim in Los Altos]

I confer with everyone so far. Water, water, water. I have groves of them and even some growing in my pond. Good drainage is actually not a plus with these. The wetter and muckier the soil the better especially if you have hot dry summers. You should be getting several new leaves during the warmest months and a new leaf or two during the winter on each King palm. 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Jim in Los Altos

[redant]

Yep water and some fert too. They love water, the more the merrier. 

[James B]

I love Archontophoenix. Especially being out here in Inland Empire CA where we don’t get any rain for 7 months straight. It’s one of the few crown shafted Palms that thrive with the high dry summer heat and cold wet winters. I have 3 different subspecies of Kings: Maxima, Alexandrae, and Cunninghamiana. The common King Palm in my experience does not need as much water as Alex or Maxima unless it is in full sun especially afternoon sun in a dry climate. The other 2 do much better in full sun they just don’t grow as fast. All of my Kings get watered in one of my sprinkler zones 3 times a week but some are in zones where they get sprayed and half are in a zone where they get drip from bubblers. In addition I hand water with a hose my Kings 3x a week for 15-30 min a day. The more water you give the fastest they grow. You appear to have Cunninghamiana in your pics, if you have a similar climate to me they will be thinner and less attractive in full sun unless they are the robust King form which has a huge bulbous crown shaft. This type seems to be less common in my area that the Illawarra form which is skinnier with a thinner crown shaft and looks worse in full sun.

Edited August 29, 2019 by James B

[Tyrone]

Agree with everyone above. To grow a grouping of deep green robust Bangalows requires the soil to never dry out and a ton of soil nutrition. In Australia we can buy pelletised chicken manure. I use that almost like a thin mulch around my Archontophoenix and they just lap it up. I reapply every couple of months in the warm weather. To get strong fast growth they need to eat and drink a lot.

[Panamajack]

Water it is! Thank you all. I really appreciate your help.