Dead twin palm, worried about the one still alive.

[NoelAD]

As I mentioned in my other post, I just moved in to my home and there are many palm trees in the back yard. My other post is about one with a soft spot but there is a different type of palm that I am very worried about. It is a pair and one of the palms just died over the past 3-6 month and was previously very healthy looking. I’m noticing that the other palm is starting to have the same brown, dead look fronds as the one that completely died. If anyone has any suggestions on how to keep it from dying too I would be very appreciative. Thank You!

[96720]

I don’t know how much water you give them but these are VERY thirsty palms!!!

[JLM]

First, you need to clear the weeds at least 2-3 feet away from the trunks, maybe more. Those weeds will take up any nutrients you put down. As said above, more water! Also, fertilize them, they could use it! For the dead trunk, cut the dead trunk off at an angle to keep from affecting the other palm.



The way your yard is already set up, it has an exceptional amount of potential! You could probably fit quite a bit of new plants in there im sure if you ever wanted to.

[aztropic]

Pygmy date palm. They are 2 separate trees. Remove the dead one,trim up the live one,and water more...

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona 

[Johnny Palmseed]

It appears that these palms are in the shadow of a large Royal palm. That is also a very thirsty palm and is likely taking most of the available water. I also think you could water this area to possibly save that last Roebelenii. But if it doesn’t make it, don’t worry about it. They are easily replaced and not expensive or rare.

[Merlyn]

I'd agree with chopping off the dead one at an angle, use a hand saw or reciprocating saw.  Take a photo of the cut trunk and post it here, that'll help diagnose the reason it died.  Just make sure that you take the photo immediately after the cut, as they'll start to turn blotchy brown really fast after cutting. 

As far as the reason it died, it looks like it has been unhealthy for a long time, based on the frond size.  Usually they are 6' long fronds, not 2' long.  So it probably hasn't been fertilized or watered properly for years.  Also sometimes the "healthy" palm in a Roebellini double/triple just eventually chokes out the "unhealthy" one, since they are separate palms and competing for nutrients.  This happens a lot with doubles/triples/etc grown really tight together.  Roebellini frequently do ok, but not always!  If you are in Florida or Texas it's possible it caught "Lethal Bronzing" that causes that reddish-brown color and relatively rapid death.  Hopefully that's not it, because it is incurable and 100% fatal.  But at the moment the left one looks like it just needs some "palm special" fertilizer similar to PalmGain 8-2-12, and it should do okay.

[NoelAD]

Thank You everyone for the helpful responses. I’ve cut off the dead tree and attached a photo here. Working on clearing the base of the tree and going to increase slow watering all my palms. 

[Merlyn]

It doesn't look like the trunk had a Thielaviopsis or Ganoderma infection, which would normally show some dark and squishy areas in that cut.  As long as it doesn't smell like rotting garbage in a dumpster on a hot summer day, then it probably did not die from a fungal rot.  That doesn't rule out Lethal Bronzing aka Texas Phoenix Palm Decline.  Hopefully the other one responds well to a bit of fertilizer and regular watering.  If you don't feel like spending a ton on fertilizer, I have had good luck with Home Depot's Vigoro 8-4-8 Palm & Ixora on my ~325 palms in the ground.  Lowe's Sunniland 6-1-8 Palm is also a decent value in the 40lb bags.  A good sized handful sprinkled under the canopy diameter should be about right.  For bigger palms 1.5lb of 8-2-12 for every 100sqft of palm canopy area is about right.  Just don't chuck the handful at the trunk base, sprinkle it evenly around like chicken feed.