Bottle Palm Concern?

[Florida27]

Just discovered this group. I love landscaping and especially palms and typically am pretty successful but am concerned about this Bottle. I am in the process of trying to revitalize a landscape right now and put this young Bottle Palm in place of an ugly deciduous tree that was there previously earlier this year in the Spring. Located in east central Florida (Brevard County) My question for the group is while this tree appears relatively healthy and has grown slowly, I have not seen a new spear in a couple months. Should I be concerned? 

 

Thanks,

J

[happypalms]

13 hours ago, Florida27 said:

Just discovered this group. I love landscaping and especially palms and typically am pretty successful but am concerned about this Bottle. I am in the process of trying to revitalize a landscape right now and put this young Bottle Palm in place of an ugly deciduous tree that was there previously earlier this year in the Spring. Located in east central Florida (Brevard County) My question for the group is while this tree appears relatively healthy and has grown slowly, I have not seen a new spear in a couple months. Should I be concerned? 

 

Thanks,

J

As they say take a deep breath and relax your palm looks fine to me they are slow well at least for me they are your climate is coming into winter I do believe it will slow down in winter 

[Merlyn]

@Florida27 welcome to PalmTalk!  You'll get more responses in the regular "palms" area of the forum here: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/forum/1-discussing-palm-trees-worldwide/

This particular section is for other plants like bananas, ficus, cycads, agaves, etc. 

Regarding your question, Bottles and Spindles are very slow growing.  It's not unusual to have several weeks to a month between the last frond opening and the new spear coming out of the middle.  If you take a flashlight and look into the small split in the center, you might see the tip of the next frond (the spear) starting to move.  If you do not see the tip of the next spear, try squirting a bit of regular household hydrogen peroxide into the center.  If it bubbles up then there's a crown fungal infection.  If it does not, then no fungus is present.  A couple of things may help your palm grow faster:

• Usually a mulch ring is a good idea, similar to your other mulch islands.  The grass up to the edge will steal nutrients from the palm, and it makes it easy to damage the trunk and roots when weedwhacking around the base.  4-5' diameter is plenty for that size of palm.
• It'll need some fertilizer to grow well.  The "best" fertilizer for palms in Florida is probably Florikan or PalmGain 8-2-12.  A good handful sprinkled under the canopy area (not in a clump near the trunk) 4x per year will work wonders.  Regular 10-10-10 fast release or fast release nitrogen lawn fertilizer is definitely bad for palms.  I tend to use the Vigoro or Sunniland "palm and ixora" types 6-1-8 or 8-4-8.  The yellow ends on the older leaves are a sign of potassium and magnesium deficiencies, so it's definitely hungry!