Newly installed Sylvester palm in shock? Please help

[Efrain Casellas]

I just got a Sylveter palm installed a week ago and i notice upon delivery it had a couple of brown leaves, i didn't think much of it because of the exitement , but now it have more brown leaves to the point of concern, is this normal? is it something that i can do to fix this issue? 

The installer told my wife and i to water it twice a day 15 min in the morning 15 on the afternoon but how do i now if thats enough or may be is to much? 

Here are some pictures i know is dark sorry and the last 2pictures are from when we got it at the nursery , can someone please help me with this? Thanks

Edited April 3, 2022 by Efrain Casellas
forgot to post the last 2 pic

[Reeverse]

Sylvesters tend to lose about 1/3 of their canopy after being dug and diamond cut in my experience. Unless it was a regenerated one there is no need to worry at this point. Looks normal to me. We install a lot of these and have the same result. 

[Merlyn]

It's normal for palms to "eat" the oldest leaves shortly after transplanting.  So don't cut off the old fronds until they are basically completely dead and crispy brown.  It can also be caused by mechanical damage during transportation and planting.  They have to tie up the fronds to put it on the truck, and lay it down on its side.  And then the outer fronds are exposed to really high wind while they are driving, so you can always expect some amount of damage to the oldest fronds.  There really isn't a way to avoid it, and it is mostly cosmetic.

Normally it's recommended to leave the fronds tied up for a few weeks to reduce transpiration loss, but at this time of year it's probably okay to let them open almost immediately.  The watering recommendation seems okay, but make sure you are watering the planted root ball.  Initially you'll want to make sure the root ball stays pretty damp (but not soaking wet), so watering near the trunk is good.  After it is rooted in you'll want to water a root zone area that's roughly the diameter of the canopy.

My only concern with the photo is that it looks like it's about 1 foot too high.  If you are always planning on having a raised bed around it, that's not a big deal.  You'll just need to replenish the mulch every year or so.

[Efrain Casellas]

2 hours ago, Reeverse said:

Sylvesters tend to lose about 1/3 of their canopy after being dug and diamond cut in my experience. Unless it was a regenerated one there is no need to worry at this point. Looks normal to me. We install a lot of these and have the same result. 

Super helpfull thank you much.

[Efrain Casellas]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

It's normal for palms to "eat" the oldest leaves shortly after transplanting.  So don't cut off the old fronds until they are basically completely dead and crispy brown.  It can also be caused by mechanical damage during transportation and planting.  They have to tie up the fronds to put it on the truck, and lay it down on its side.  And then the outer fronds are exposed to really high wind while they are driving, so you can always expect some amount of damage to the oldest fronds.  There really isn't a way to avoid it, and it is mostly cosmetic.

Normally it's recommended to leave the fronds tied up for a few weeks to reduce transpiration loss, but at this time of year it's probably okay to let them open almost immediately.  The watering recommendation seems okay, but make sure you are watering the planted root ball.  Initially you'll want to make sure the root ball stays pretty damp (but not soaking wet), so watering near the trunk is good.  After it is rooted in you'll want to water a root zone area that's roughly the diameter of the canopy.

My only concern with the photo is that it looks like it's about 1 foot too high.  If you are always planning on having a raised bed around it, that's not a big deal.  You'll just need to replenish the mulch every year or so.

Thank you so much for your insight! I thought the same thing about it being a bit too high but since I wasn't home for the installation I guess I have to roll with it now. I hope it doesn't cause any major issues they really didn't give me any choice, I assume they install it like that every single time. The mulch is rubber mulch and it's expected to last 12 yrs so hopefully no issues on that either. 

[Merlyn]

21 minutes ago, Efrain Casellas said:

Thank you so much for your insight! I thought the same thing about it being a bit too high but since I wasn't home for the installation I guess I have to roll with it now. I hope it doesn't cause any major issues they really didn't give me any choice, I assume they install it like that every single time. The mulch is rubber mulch and it's expected to last 12 yrs so hopefully no issues on that either. 

I have planted some palms a bit high with a raised bed around them, and there really isn't a problem as long as you keep the "local" dirt at about the right level.  The big problems come in if its significantly too low (trunk rot) or way too high (exposed roots, poor growth rate, etc).  So just keep the dirt at a reasonable level and it'll be fine.  Here's the best article I've read as a summary: http://www.marriedtoplants.com/palms/palm-tree-growing-tips-mounding/

[Efrain Casellas]

3 hours ago, Merlyn said:

I have planted some palms a bit high with a raised bed around them, and there really isn't a problem as long as you keep the "local" dirt at about the right level.  The big problems come in if its significantly too low (trunk rot) or way too high (exposed roots, poor growth rate, etc).  So just keep the dirt at a reasonable level and it'll be fine.  Here's the best article I've read as a summary: http://www.marriedtoplants.com/palms/palm-tree-growing-tips-mounding/

So i need to cover my riz with mulch in order to protect them from the sun and fungus and also for them to become active again , i though for some reason that they needed to be exposed. 

[Merlyn]

9 hours ago, Efrain Casellas said:

So i need to cover my riz with mulch in order to protect them from the sun and fungus and also for them to become active again , i though for some reason that they needed to be exposed. 

Phoenix are one of those odd palms that grow a LOT of "adventitious roots."  I can't tell from the photo if the lighter colored roots are adventitious (i.e. coming out near the base of the trunk) or directly coming out of the RIZ.  You sort of have to look in there by hand and see if the big roots (about pinky diameter) are coming out from a place above ground level or not.  The fine roots (1/16" diameter or so) are likely to be adventitious roots.  On Phoenix they may start growing from the trunk a foot or more above the ground.  There's a good writeup here, see figure 2 for a crazy palm growing roots 4 or 5 feet above ground level: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/EP344

In your palm I wouldn't be concerned if the tiny roots are growing upward from the original rootball.  That happens in potted or balled-and-bagged palms when they've been in pots for too long.  The roots don't have any more space and they start growing in any direction there's space...including upwards.  *IF* the root initiation zone is above the level of your mulch, then you'll want to cover it.