Washingtonia what happened?

[HernanMc]

Hello! Thank you for your attention in advance. I have three washingtonias. I was out for a week and when I came back one of them was not looking right. Something I had never seen before. The new/growing leaves kinda fell, something happened that I can’t figure out. I don’t know if it’s a disease or what. I have pictures. For the record I live in northern Buenos Aires and it’s summer right now.

https://ibb.co/vhwxXmB
https://ibb.co/cwbXLY3
https://ibb.co/12btPPc

One picture is from the center of the palm, the next one is the palm tree itself (doesn’t look unhealthy) and the last one is from a leaf that fell off.

Can you help us? Thank you!

[HernanMc]

Update: I have just found a huge awful moth on the palm tree next to this one. I couldn’t take a picture because I’m lepidopterophobic, so I ran away as soon as I saw it. Could that monster be the reason of that damage? I also noticed that this other palm tree also has similar damage but barely noticeable.

[Merlyn]

@HernanMcI would guess it's a crown fungal infection, maybe as a result of cold weather.  The rest of the palm looks pretty normal, but the crown looks distorted.  Sometimes the distorted fronds are due to a boron deficiency, but I'd think something like a Phytophthora fungus is attacking the crown and bud.  You can confirm this by squirting some regular 3% household hydrogen peroxide into the center.  If it bubbles and foams up then it's definitely a fungus.  My preferred crown treatment is 4tsp of Daconil mixed into 32oz of hydrogen peroxide, and squirted into the crown every couple of weeks. 

If it does NOT bubble up then it's probably something nutritional (like boron) or maybe a root rot.

Here's the photos for reference:

 

[Patrick]

How was last winter? A little on the cold side? Just trying to figure out what might have been a contributor to the damage. On the bright side, the palm has grown out of this damage as you can see the newest growth coming out of the growth point looks to be healthy. I highly doubt the moth would be the issue. Bottom line, I think something happened last winter and the palm is growing out of that damage. The tree will be fine. They are tough. Think of them as difficult to eliminate as the Argentinean team in World Cup  

Edited February 3, 2023 by Patrick

[HernanMc]

Thank you Merlyn and Patrick!

As Patrick said it seems that the palm tree is growing out of the damage because the newest growth looks healthy. That’s why I thought that maybe that specific area was attacked by something. It doesn’t look like there’s something spreading or dying. My first suspects were hares as I can’t have flowers or tomatoes because they eat them all, or an opossum (I know they wouldn’t eat a palm tree but who knows) or some bird like an owl or a nightjar. Until I saw that monster moth…

Winters here are not extremely cold, temperatures rarely fall below 26 F, and that’s between June and August. But it could have been that. Frost is very common in this area.

I hope my palm trees perform as the soccer national team  XD. 

[Patrick]

Do you have down there what we call earwigs here in the US? I had them eat the heck out of a Jubaeopsis one winter. Looked the same, the spring growth. Basically, SOME bug decided to spend the winter in your palm. Which bug, I cannot even begin to guess. 26F is no problem for a Washy...

Edited February 4, 2023 by Patrick

[HernanMc]

Yes we have earwigs here… I had no idea they could attack a palm tree like this… I guess that must be what happened then… Those bugs… Because it really looks like the leaves were damaged purposely by something, not like a disease, not like they just grew like that, but like attacked by an animal.

And do you know if it will grow out of it if it were earwigs? Or are they like living inside or something like that right now?

Thank you!

[Rivera]

I have lots of earwigs in my yard, and generally they leave the plants alone. However, once some plant tissue is compromised by rot, they'll go after it. I think earwigs prefer plant tissue in some state of decomposition. 

They've never attacked my palms that I know of, but they've devoured dudleya brittonii with rot damage as well as salvia apiana, which had a damaged stem that had gone rotten. In my case, the dudleya was lost but the salvia was saved by cutting away the compromised part of the plant.

Could have been both a fungal infection and a pest?🤷🏼‍♂️

[Merlyn]

The stem of the new spears looks clean, so whatever happened is probably months in the past.  I'd take a peek down into the center of the crown and make sure there are new spears growing up.  I didn't see any in the photos, but that could be just because the three distorted ones just recently grew out.  I'd guess the next spears will grow out normal.  26F with frost isn't too cold for a Washie, but cold+wet+fungus nearby sometimes = fungus in the crown.