Post-Freeze Care

[mbeavers1]

Hi all, I live in Houston and we have had two major freezes the last two years.  The first wiped my palms (and everyone elses!) out.  

The one this year didnt kill my Mule palms (pindo and queen cross) but I am left with many partially dead fronds.  A few questions:

 

1)  Do I remove all partially dead fronds?  Only the 'stems' are still green and even then, only part of it.

2)  The new fronds shooting up seem to be very bound up by very tough, fibrous material that prevent the fronds from spreading.  Will this eventually release or should I cut it to free the fronds?

[Merlyn]

Palms will "eat" the older fronds to power new growth, so cutting off anything green is probably not a good idea.  As a general rule you don't want to cut green tissue, because of the risk of fungal infection.  That's probably more important on a recovering palm.  Cutting anything green will deprive the palm of photosynthesis.  So I'd think just leave it as is to recover, and chop off old fronds when they are fully dried out/dessicated.

As far as the fibers go, that's normal.  Sometimes new spears get "stuck" in that area.  That seems to happen more frequently after severe freezes.  It probably wouldn't hurt the palm to snip away some fibers with scissors, but it might not make a difference.  If there's a visible spear mark it horizontally with a sharpie.  That way you can see if it's growing or not.