Double Trunk Pindo half dying... help please

[LeslieD]

Prior to the freeze here in Texas our Pindo palm had beautiful foliage from both of its two trunks.  I went to Great lengths to protect it during the freeze, but still one of the trunks suffered significant damage and despite use of copper fungicide gave up its spear just yesterday.  The bottom of the spear appeared to have a good amount of rot on it and it looked like there were some thin white insects of some sort crawling on it.

I am not optimistic that the damaged side of the Pindo will survive. The other trunk has a significant amount of healthy green foliage and a bright green spear.  

Can anyone share with me if and how these two trunks might be separated from each other so that I can ensure the health of the healthy trunk.

Thank you so much for any information or advice that you can share!

[Fusca]

4 hours ago, LeslieD said:

Can anyone share with me if and how these two trunks might be separated from each other so that I can ensure the health of the healthy trunk.

Thank you so much for any information or advice that you can share!

Hi Leslie, welcome to PalmTalk!  You don't mention what part of Texas you are in although the entire state suffered during the freeze some areas hit harder than others.  You have 2 separate Pindo palms (Butia odorata) and it sounds like only one has the issue.  The healthy one will not suffer because of the condition of the other since they are separate plants and won't need to be separated.  I am assuming that since the spear just pulled recently from the one palm that it has not pushed any new growth since the freeze.  I am having the same issue with a Butia in my side yard that has kept most of its fronds green but has not pushed any new growth since Feb.  One that I had in my backyard had a spear pull almost immediately after the freeze and I ended up doing a trunk cut last month pictured below.  I started with just a few inches and worked my way down to get below the rot and expose live tissue.  Like yours it did not show much frond damage and it was difficult to cut off healthy fronds.  It started showing movement within a day and is now pushing pinnate fronds which are abnormal looking, but it is alive.  Unfortunately it will take a long time for it to look normal again.

[Merlyn]

I had a similarly sized Butia double a couple of years ago.  A tree guy dropped part of an oak on one of the two, and it died in about 2 weeks.  The other one was perfectly fine and is growing normally ~2 years later.  To remove the dead one I brushed away dirt from around the base, then inserted a 12" blade reciprocating saw in between the two palms.  I just sliced the dead one off horizontally at ground level, carefully keeping away from the roots and trunk of the live one.  Don't try to "separate" the two, you'd have to basically rip up all the roots of the healthy one to actually extract the damaged one.

That being said, the damaged one is not necessarily dead...yet.  Butia are pretty tough and they can recover from a spear pull, as Fusca showed in his photo.  Regular household strength hydrogen peroxide is a good anti-fungal treatment, just pour a bunch down the center.  It won't harm live tissue, but will bubble up on fungal infections.  I cured a Euro fan palm (Chamaerops Humilis) that had stopped growing new spears and had screwed up brown leaves...a good squirt every day for a week and it started growing normally again.  If the damaged one still has a couple of good fronds, it might recover!  I haven't tried trunk cutting on palms to help them recover, but I've read about quite a few people succeeding with it!

[LeslieD]

Thank you so much for your input!  As noted, this is a double pindo and not two separate.  Based upon the advice given I find myself torn between what sounds like three options.

1) Make no cuts or alterations, but continue to treat with hydrogen peroxide and hope to see some growth.

2) Make a series of trunk cuts until I cut far enough down the trunk that I remove all dead tissue and then wait to see what happens.

3) Make a horizontal cut at the base of the unhealthy side separating it from the remaining side of the plant that is in good condition.

All of your opinions and advice are so greatly appreciated.  If one of these options sounds like it will have better odds of success to you please let me know or if you think I have misunderstood the options please let me know as well.

Thank you again!  It's a very important plant in our landscape and we are eager to do whatever we can to save it.

[Merlyn]

21 hours ago, LeslieD said:

Thank you so much for your input!  As noted, this is a double pindo and not two separate.  Based upon the advice given I find myself torn between what sounds like three options.

The three options you stated are pretty accurate.  If it were mine, I'd try and save the damaged one with H2O2, copper-based fungicide, and maybe a soil drench of a systemic fungicide like Banrot. 

Regarding the double, it is a 99.999999% chance that it's two separate plants that were grown from seed in 1 pot.  Butia aren't clustering palms, and is is probably a 1-in-a-million (1-in-a-billion?) chance for them to actually split and produce two growing heads.  Most of the time Butia are potted and grown as singles, but I've found doubles at a few local FL nurseries.  I even created my own triple by taking three solo palms, root pruning them, and planting them together:

And then tied them together with rope below the ground and above:

As they grow further the trunks will push each other apart in a neat splay, like yours have done.  If the damaged one does eventually die, you *might* be able to buy a replacement and dig out the dead one.  That may be a "last resort" option if you really like the idea of the double.  Even if you don't get them as close together as the current one is, the trunks grow to 2-3' diameter and will push them apart in a neat Y shape eventually.  Here's a big mature double for an idea of what they eventually look like: