Bottle palms - broken spear

[byuind]

So I’ve got these two bottles, both planted back in May. Identical size and generally same growth pattern in this slow sample size. Both threw new leaves in Late June of this year, about a week apart. Second spears started firing late August.

when Ian came through the first one had already opened by about 2-3 days if I recall correctly. The other one had a beautiful spear that was just starting to open up at the top of the leaf. Then that Bastard known as Ian rolled through and on the last day the spear on the back one snapped about 2/3rds of the way down, hanging by a couple threads. I left it hanging until about a week ago when that hanging part turned crispy brown, indicating there was no function left. The bottom part of that spear still has green leaves so I feel like it is still marginally functional.

 

my concern is that it has not thrown anything resembling a new leaf. You can see that it’s partner is well on its way at about 2 feet in length. I realize that this other one went through a somewhat traumatic experience and there is something to be said for shock, but I also figured that with the same amount of nutrition and water as it’s partner it would be at least attempting to grow. 
 

what’s your opinion? Nothing to worry about? Water is collecting down in the cup after rain or irrigation sometimes, but no sign of fungus as it is in full sun.

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by byuind

[Merlyn]

Looking at the bottom photo, the new broken-off spear has leaves starting about 2-3 inches from the base.  That's a lot shorter than the other 3 fronds, which have maybe a foot of bare petiole.  That might be totally normal, since the older fronds look a little bit stretched out from being grown in a nursery under shade cloth.  Or it could be that the frond wasn't quite done growing when Ian came through, and being whipped around in the storm could have damaged the palm heart so it never finished growing.  If that's the case then the *next* frond might also be somewhat damaged and take longer to grow out.  It's hard to guess. 

You could try doing a splash of hydrogen peroxide in the crown, just to avoid fungus.  After the January freeze defoliated all of my Bottles and Spindles, it took a couple of the smaller ones until summertime for them to actually push a new frond.  I thought a couple of them were dead, but repeated H2O2 + Daconil squirts saved at least 3 or 4 of them.