Stunted Fronds on Date Palm

[mxcolin]

When my date palm was installed it had a number of what I assume are stunted fronds. The palm is doing well otherwise, it's around 12' in height and has new growth coming and the dates are even maturing however these fronds remain the same as they were on day 1. What should I do with them? Cut them off? Leave them and they will eventually grow out?

[GottmitAlex]

4 minutes ago, mxcolin said:

When my date palm was installed it had a number of what I assume are stunted fronds. The palm is doing well otherwise, it's around 12' in height and has new growth coming and the dates are even maturing however these fronds remain the same as they were on day 1. What should I do with them? Cut them off? Leave them and they will eventually grow out?

I doubt they will grow out. I would leave 'em. The palm is looking good.

[kinzyjr]

@mxcolin

Welcome to PalmTalk.  The stunted fronds look like the suckers that develop on a few of mine.  Yours might be starting to sucker.

[mxcolin]

Should I remove them?

[gilles06]

They are suckers, it's better to take them off (pull strongly) to favorise main stipe growth.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Only remove them if you want to keep the palm single trunked. You can let a couple of them grow if you like the idea of a three trunked Palm with trunks curving out from each other. 

[Fusca]

My Phoenix theophrasti is also beginning to sucker and they look just like that and roughly the same size.  I asked in another thread if anyone has tried to remove a sucker from a Phoenix and attempted to root the sucker, but never saw any replies.  It may not be a pleasant activity with a theophrasti, but I might try it anyway.  Has anyone out there done this?  Any tips? 

[kinzyjr]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

My Phoenix theophrasti is also beginning to sucker and they look just like that and roughly the same size.  I asked in another thread if anyone has tried to remove a sucker from a Phoenix and attempted to root the sucker, but never saw any replies.  It may not be a pleasant activity with a theophrasti, but I might try it anyway.  Has anyone out there done this?  Any tips? 

In my experience, definitely not a fun.  Doing this on dactylifera is bad enough.  It seems I trim, pull, them, etc. more just grow out in their place.  Cutting them out or pulling them out gets me about a month or two of sanity before the whole mess starts over.

Tips: Find some leather clothing and wear safety glasses.  @gilles06 suggested pulling them out.  Typically, if you want to root them it is easier if you get the suckers near the base with a good amount of roots.  That said, aerial layering has been done but not by me.

I apologize for missing your question somehow.  

[Fusca]

3 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

In my experience, definitely not a fun.  Doing this on dactylifera is bad enough.  It seems I trim, pull, them, etc. more just grow out in their place.  Cutting them out or pulling them out gets me about a month or two of sanity before the whole mess starts over.

Tips: Find some leather clothing and wear safety glasses.  @gilles06 suggested pulling them out.  Typically, if you want to root them it is easier if you get the suckers near the base with a good amount of roots.  That said, aerial layering has been done but not by me.

I apologize for missing your question somehow.  

Thanks - I agree and never go near my theo without leather gloves!  Every sucker I've ever seen on P. dactylifera have been near the base so the P. theo with its suckers a foot or so off of the ground is to say the least quite interesting!  I've tried to root Chamaerops suckers like Cycas revoluta suckers without success so not sure if that's the right method.  I've not been able to get any roots from even large Chamaerops suckers near the base of the plant and these theo suckers aren't going to have any roots either.  Hopefully someone who's done this before will chime in.   

[mxcolin]

I definitely only want a single trunk so I'll try to pull them out. Wish me luck.

[Estlander]

3 hours ago, Fusca said:

I've tried to root Chamaerops suckers like Cycas revoluta suckers without success so not sure if that's the right method.  I've not been able to get any roots from even large Chamaerops suckers near the base of the plant and these theo suckers aren't going to have any roots either.  Hopefully someone who's done this before will chime in.   

Sago pups root very easily. Sagos, in general, transplant very easily, but it helps if you cut off all fronds when doing that, so very surprised you haven't had any luck with them.

As with Chamaerops, I have a sucker I removed that is doing great. I removed it from a Chamaerops that wasn't doing so good. It was getting soaked from an above ground sprinkler every day and the main trunk had rotted out about half way. One of the suckers it had was very loose and barely connected to the main plant. I basically tore it off from the main plant. It had absolutely no roots except one very short one coming off the side of the trunk.

My hope was the when I put it in good soil and keep it moist, trim off some of the fronds to reduce evaporation, then hopefully new roots would emerge from the side of the trunk. I kept checking it every now and then and very shortly new roots started coming out of the trunk. It's now planted in ground and actively growing new fronds.

Maybe the reason it was able to survive is because it already had quite a bit of trunk on it and enough energy stored in it for root regeneration.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Estlander

[Fusca]

29 minutes ago, Estlander said:

Sago pups root very easily. Sagos, in general, transplant very easily, but it helps if you cut off all fronds when doing that, so very surprised you haven't had any luck with them.

As with Chamaerops, I have a sucker I removed that is doing great. I removed it from a Chamaerops that wasn't doing so good. It was getting soaked from an above ground sprinkler every day and the main trunk had rotted out about half way. One of the suckers it had was very loose and barely connected to the main plant. I basically tore it off from the main plant. It had absolutely no roots except one very short one coming off the side of the trunk.

My hope was the when I put it in good soil and keep it moist, trim off some of the fronds to reduce evaporation, then hopefully new roots would emerge from the side of the trunk. I kept checking it every now and then and very shortly new roots started coming out of the trunk. It's now planted in ground and actively growing new fronds.

Maybe the reason it was able to survive is because it already had quite a bit of trunk on it and enough energy stored in it for root regeneration.

Wow, your Chamaerops sucker wasn't much bigger than the one I tried and I did basically what you did.  Oh well, I'll have to try again.  And yes, sago pups root quite easily - I've had success with these so I figured I'd try the same basic technique with Chamaerops.  I guess I can try this with the Phoenix sucker as well once it gets a little bigger.

[GottmitAlex]

18 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

@mxcolin

Welcome to PalmTalk.  The stunted fronds look like the suckers that develop on a few of mine.  Yours might be starting to sucker.

I had no idea those were suckers.

 

[Steve Mac]

When we used to have armed palms, we used to cut the spikes off at the base up to wherever we felt safe. I know that some palm purists consider this akin to cutting ears of dogs but it worked well for us and we were surprised how few people even palm people didn't notice them missing.

Even cutting a bit off the end of a spike often rendered them safe. 

[GottmitAlex]

1 minute ago, gtsteve said:

When we used to have armed palms, we used to cut the spikes off at the base up to wherever we felt safe. I know that some palm purists consider this akin to cutting ears of dogs but it worked well for us and we were surprised how few people even palm people didn't notice them missing.

Even cutting a bit off the end of a spike often rendered them safe. 

I agree. Seems some Phoenix sp. spikes can go through bears.

 

[Steve Mac]

Crikey!

[mxcolin]

I removed the suckers as best I could, it wasn't easy or pretty, sprayed some fungicide and tidied it up. Let's see how it makes out.