Palm leaves growing short

[maskedmole]

I live in Tennessee. Due to the elevation in my area, I am in zone 6b on the 2012 USDA zone map. Despite this, we usually have zone 7 winters, at least in recent years. Sabal minor palms and needle palms are easy for me to grow here. This year, though, all my sabal minor and needle palms seem to be pushing out these short leaves despite growing normal longer leaves in the years before. Should I be concerned about this and is there anything that I can do? One of the needle palms are flowering and the baby needle palm had a spear pull because last winter we actually had a true 6b winter going 3 below zero and all I did was cover it up with a small pile of leaves during that cold spell and moisture froze inside of the crown but has now pushed up a short leaf. I very rarely fertilize and I'm not really even sure how to or what to fertilize with because it's been so long since I've done it. My longest planted needle palm I think has been planted since about late 2017 and it just started pupping about last year but it hasn't flowered yet. Another needle palm, the one that is flowering, already had pups when I bought it and was of decent size. It has been in the ground a good few years I would say. I don't know if all this information is necessary but I'm trying to provide some details just incase they are needed. My sabal minor is actually about 3 sabal minors growing very close together.

Edited May 28, 2023 by maskedmole

[Allen]

Shorter fronds are common in spring after the plant has been getting less sun and heat during winter/spring.  You might want to remove the grass/weed competition around them (2 ft or so) and fertilize. with palm gain

https://www.seedworldusa.com/products/bgi-palmgain-8-2-12-palm-plant-food-fertilizer-10-lbs?currency=USD&variant=32106136862818&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&utm_campaign=gs-2018-11-14&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw98ujBhCgARIsAD7QeAh64naZuc2kvdJbEmZhdjHfMEYdScmzhptKRtl82R9Zmht2RkUpd8waAlBSEALw_wcB

[L.A.M.]

Covering up the palms may have been counterproductive if the snow/ice could still get in. That would've slowed it thawing. As worried as I was, I chose to do nothing despite being poised for two degrees below zero and twenty-four hours of temperatures not exceeding two above zero. My needle palm ended up being completely fine, even though it got so cold that even parts of nearby Center Hill Lake froze over within days (which didn't even happen in 2018 when Cordell Hull did). My dwarf palmetto did lose half of its leaves, but it didn't get spear pull like I feared it would and still kept half of its leaves - even though I planted it in a floodplain that gets slight temperature inversions to mimic its natural environment. Neither of them put out baby leaves; they grew normally. Same story with my southern magnolia, which also got partial leaf damage like my dwarf palmetto did. The worst was for my Carolina cherry laurels, which got killed to a few inches above the ground but still regrew normally from the living stumps.