Ponytail Palm Problem

[jwf1983]

Hello, I’m hoping someone may be able to identify the issue with our Ponytail Palm.  We keep this guy outside about 10 months, and move inside sometime in December through February.  It’s grown very much over the last year and a half that we’ve had it, and we repotted it in April of this year.  Everything had looked great until we noticed something  looking like yellow and brown burning on the leaves. See photos below… I can’t figure out what is wrong here. We have had quite a bit of rain in our part of town the last 40 days or so. It’s weird, because areas around us have not been too far above normal rainfall, but we’ve had close to or over 20 inches of rain during that time. That said, we otherwise never water unless it’s been a long while, and it’s very dry soil. These were all pop up downpours, and other than those short intense storms, we’ve had normal summer average temps and sun, around 90-93 during the day, and 74-77 degrees at night during that time.  Today when we went to inspect the Ponytail Palm we noticed what you see in the pictures, but the soil was completely dry down about two inches to three inches at least. The caudex is NOT soft to the touch, so I’m not sure if it’s root rot at all, and the burns/yellow/brown on the leaves all appear to be on new growth. Any idea what this could be?

[Tom in Tucson]

Looks light bud rot. Something like insects or chemicals can lead to fungus infection. Pour some hydrogen peroxide in the infected area. Once all bubbling has ceased, rinse it out with clean water. Keep it dry after that for a few days. Pour more hydrogen peroxide in to see if it bubbles again. Repeat the process as needed. It should recover in a few days.

Hi 80˚, Lo 72˚ cloudy with light rain

 

[jwf1983]

Do we need the 30% hydrogen peroxide, or will the diluted 3% suffice? 

[JLM]

6 hours ago, jwf1983 said:

Do we need the 30% hydrogen peroxide, or will the diluted 3% suffice? 

Any percentage should work, just remember that hydrogen peroxide turns into water, so dry out in between applications.