Removal of ganoderma infected queen palm

[Walt]

Lost another queen palm to ganoderma butt rot. No great loss at all to me, just the hassle of cutting down and removing the palm.

 

[NOT A TA]

Looks to me like Thielaviopsis paradoxa actually caused the death and Ganoderma was a secondary infection. The lower fronds dying off, trunk bleeding,  and discoloration of the woody tissue seen on the upper trunk sections in the stacked trunk sections pic are the clues to me.   https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PP143  In the pic of the tree when dropped it appears the palm had been trimmed in the past. Your mention of other Syagrus in a row dying makes me wonder if the Thielaviopsis is being transferred from tree to tree over the years by pruning tools as I've seen in other cases.

[ZPalms]

I really wish their was research on ganoderma and preventative chemicals and or serum to inject into infected trees, It's so sad when mature palms get infected

[miamicuse]

3 hours ago, ZPalms said:

I really wish their was research on ganoderma and preventative chemicals and or serum to inject into infected trees, It's so sad when mature palms get infected

I wish to find out more too.

I had to cut down a 50' tall royal last year.

By the time I noticed the white conk at the base the palm is already half past dead.  The palm itself looked normal but when I cut it down a week later, the base is already "mushy" from the center all the way out to the edge, the entire 24" diameter trunk was visibly damaged when compared to a relatively section of the same trunk cut 20 feet higher.  I don't think it can be rescued once the conk forms.  However preventative would be nice.

[NOT A TA]

33 minutes ago, miamicuse said:

I don't think it can be rescued once the conk forms. 

Correct, the palm is already a goner by the time a basidiocarp forms.

[Walt]

23 hours ago, NOT A TA said:

Looks to me like Thielaviopsis paradoxa actually caused the death and Ganoderma was a secondary infection. The lower fronds dying off, trunk bleeding,  and discoloration of the woody tissue seen on the upper trunk sections in the stacked trunk sections pic are the clues to me.   https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PP143  In the pic of the tree when dropped it appears the palm had been trimmed in the past. Your mention of other Syagrus in a row dying makes me wonder if the Thielaviopsis is being transferred from tree to tree over the years by pruning tools as I've seen in other cases.

Actually, even the lower portion of the trunk was fairly solid, but it was softer and easier to cut (with chainsaw) than the upper portion of the trunk. I don't think this palm was infected with trunk rot. However, I just lost a spindle palm with four feet of trunk (about one month ago), and it had some kind of trunk rot. The upper section was all mushy and collapsing. 

A year or so ago I lost a nice Butiagrus palm to some kind of trunk rot. This palm had been blown over on a 45 degree angle by Hurricane Irma (I left it on that angle). It grew well for another two years or so, then I noticed the trunk starting to shrivel up, and the palm died. 

I have another Butiagrus (19 years in the ground from a 15 gallon size) that is now almost dead. It hasn't produced a new spear in six months. The last spear it did produce collapsed. The remaining fronds are all but dead. I plan on cutting the palm down in the next few days. This Butiagrus in question is referred to in the below video.

 

[Merlyn]

3 hours ago, Walt said:

Actually, even the lower portion of the trunk was fairly solid, but it was softer and easier to cut (with chainsaw) than the upper portion of the trunk. I don't think this palm was infected with trunk rot. However, I just lost a spindle palm with four feet of trunk (about one month ago), and it had some kind of trunk rot. The upper section was all mushy and collapsing. 

A year or so ago I lost a nice Butiagrus palm to some kind of trunk rot. This palm had been blown over on a 45 degree angle by Hurricane Irma (I left it on that angle). It grew well for another two years or so, then I noticed the trunk starting to shrivel up, and the palm died. 

I have another Butiagrus (19 years in the ground from a 15 gallon size) that is now almost dead. It hasn't produced a new spear in six months. The last spear it did produce collapsed. The remaining fronds are all but dead. I plan on cutting the palm down in the next few days. This Butiagrus in question is referred to in the below vide

From my reading, Ganoderma eats the tough lignin fiber, and tends to be on the lower part of the trunk.  Thielaviopsis attacks the softer tissue and tends to be in the upper parts of the palm.  So a mushy top that falls over is probaly Thielaviopsis, as @NOT A TA mentioned.  You could try Banrot (etradizole + thiophanate-methyl) as it's "claimed" to work on Thielaviopsis.  I have no clue if it actually does, but in the 14 months since I cut down this Adonidia, no other nearby treated palms appear to be infected:

If it's a crown rot like Phytophthora, that could also explain the crown collapse and dying spears.  That is what appears to be killing a whole bunch of queens at a local hotel.  They lose 1-4 per year, and leave the dead ones with no spear for months before cutting them down.  I'm sure the trimmers are just spreading it from palm to palm, eventually all of them will die...

[Walt]

Some days ago I cut down a butiagrus palm (died from some kind of trunk rot) I'd been growing since the spring of 2002. This makes the second butiagrus palm I've lost to trunk rot in less than two years. The palms were planted approximately 75-80 feet from each other. The trunk was a bear to cut through with my chainsaw, fiber clogging the links of my cutter links. I cut off all the fronds and boots to expose a completely bare trunk. I decided not to fight the dead palm any further and am getting my tree/palm trimmer to finish cutting the trunk up into sections, cutting down the stump and grinding it, and hauling everything away. 

I'm in the process of making a YouTube video showing my butiagrus palm when first planted, as it was dying, and then cutting it down. I should be posting the video soon here at Palmtalk.

[KDubU]

Walt, Tks for the video on this as a newbie to palms it’s good learning material. Hope it does not spread to any more of your beautiful palms.