Bottle palm spear damage

[Josh mayfield]

Good morning, I recently added a potassium spike to this bottle palm. (A week ago) came back today and noticed the spear is wilted. The top 6 inches. Any ideas? What should I do?

[Merlyn]

That could be a boron deficiency, which frequently causes distorted new spears.  If the rest of the palm has some similar signs to the below link, I'd add a small amount of borax powder to a gallon of water and pour into the pot.  Keep in mind that borax in large amounts will kill plants, so less is more!    The University of Florida recommendation is 2-4oz in 5 gallons of water per palm.  I'm not sure exactly how much that is, but you could weigh it out or use something like 1/2 tsp per 1 gallon.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/EP264

Potted palms sometimes get deficiencies due to the soil being consistently too wet and mucky.  And the damage might be an older fungal infection and not boron.  To check for this squirt a bit of regular household hydrogen peroxide on the distorted top of the spear.  If it bubbles up you've got a fungal issue.  If there are no bubbles then it's something else.  Hydrogen peroxide is a very common treatment for palm bud infections.  It's cheap and effective!  Another possibility is that the spear just got "stuck" while trying to grow, and couldn't open normally due to lack of water or some other nutrient.  Can you post a photo of the whole palm?

[Josh mayfield]

@Merlyn it has started a new spear that made it a lot further than the last one. However it’s still stunted. 

[JLM]

Boron deficiency. Fertilize that palm.