Tampa, FL Queen Palm Not Doing Well; I Welcome Your Evaluation and Ideas (with pics)

[Michael Dourney]

Hi, everyone. I value this forum immensely -- you all helped me save a very sick canary island date palm, which is now thriving!

Unfortunately, I now have a queen palm that is showing quick deterioration. I wanted to see if anyone here could help me evaluate what is going on and offer any guidance on how to help (if the palm has a chance).

This is one of 8 palms surrounding my lanai, here in Tampa, FL. 7 of the palms seem just fine. The remaining one has many brown fronds, with only one or two new fronds of light green coming from the center. I noticed that the bottom of the fronds seem almost black, and there are some black patches on the upper part of the trunk. There is nothing to note on the bottom of the trunk (no visible fungus or the like).

Thanks in advance for any ideas. I am hopeful that the palm can be saved and/or that the other trees are not at risk.

Warm Regards,

Mike

 

 

[SeanK]

Lethal Bronzing

[Michael Dourney]

Ugh. I assume there is nothing to be done. How high are the chances that this spreads to the other palms, best guess?

[Merlyn]

A common killer of Queens and Washies in Florida is Fusarium.  It's hard to say from the photos, but do any of the fronds have the "one-sided death" symptoms?  Basically the left (or right) side of a frond will turn red-brown and dessicate and die, while the opposite side of the same frond will stay pretty normal green.  Eventually both halves of the frond will die, but the one-sided death look is very distinctive.  I had one queen die from that, and cut it down immediately.  I treated my other queens with Banrot and it did not spread.  I might have just lucked out, since the other queens were on the other side of the house.

If it did *not* show the one-sided frond death appearance, can you say if it died from the bottom up, or top down?  I.e. did the oldest (lowest) fronds die first?  Are any spots on the lower or upper trunk soft or squishy?  Are there any flat shelf-shaped growths in the lower couple of feet of trunk?  Are there any "weeping" spots on the trunk?  Ganoderma and Thielaviopsis are common diseases that can cause rapid death.

Unfortunately I'd guess this one is already dead, and removing it asap is a good way to reduce the risk of spreading.  It could be a number of different diseases.  Honestly I'd be surprised if it was Lethal Bronzing, I've seen clumps of Phoenix Sylvestris and Queens together.  All the Sylvesters died of apparent LB and the queens were unaffected.

[Michael Dourney]

Hey, Merlyn. Thanks for the quick response. The fronds seemingly browned fairly quickly. None of them seemed to have the "one sided" symptom that is characteristic of Fusarium wilt.

They did brown seemingly from the bottom, up. There are no conchs or growths on the bottom of the trunk. I did check that. I didn't see any weeping spots, but I will check the darker spots on the top 1/3 of the trunk to see if they are soft. Will look first thing tomorrow morning and respond back here.

I certainly appreciate the help and any other suggestions.

Mike

[Michael Dourney]

So, I cut down a few of the brown fronds to get a closer look, and I used a ladder to get closer to the top of the palm.

I took a look at the roots…they didn’t look dead, per se, to me. There was some white, moist tissue within. Arguably, they may have seemed dryer than a neighboring queen palm that I checked as well. I tried to include a picture of the roots, as well as cross section of the fronds, and the bottom and top side so people can get a better look. They were certainly dried out.

 

I also cut down some of the dead fronds to allow for a closer look, and I climbed up to check the trunk, by the top of the palm. I could not get high enough to check the bud. On the trunk, it seemed like there was some darker areas that seemed slightly flaky or damaged (woodpecker?), but there was definitely nothing “squishy” or collapsed in. Trunk felt pretty solid to me.

 

Also, I did not see any insects climbing around the fronds or adjacent to the bud or on the trunk.

 

It seems as if this palm is on its last legs, but if anyone has any hail mary save tips, please chime in. More importantly, any other thoughts on cause (or agreement with the evaluations above, which I appreciate very much!) is appreciated.

 

Anyway, here are some more pics from my morning adventure. Open to your hypotheses and any guidance. Thank you so much!

 

Warm Regards,

 

Mike

[Harry’s Palms]

So sorry to see that. We don't seem to have that here in Southern California , our queens do well. I did have two that did not seem to be happy even though others planted near by were thriving. They were yellow looking and the fronds were shrinking in size . One of them is coming around after about 5 years and the other one I had cut down , it just did not show signs of recovery. The only good news is that they are fast growers and readily available . Harry

[Michael Dourney]

Thanks for the info Harry. At this point I’m just trying to see what the root cause is (and trying to make sure other plants will be ok). We will see!

[PalmatierMeg]

Definitely a goner. My condolences.

Get rid of it ASAP. Cut into pieces and send it out to be incinerated with other garbage. I suggest you do not replant with another queen. Queens are Class II invasives in FL. They hate our sandy, alkaline soil, are water and fertilizer hogs and are prone to fatal diseases. They have almost no upsides here. I just spent nearly 2 months living in Tampa. All the queens I saw looked wretched. There must be better palm choices in your area. You may have to check out specialty nurseries in Tampa and St. Pete or even down to Homestead but avoid BB garden centers which sell "usual suspect" palms.

We are heading into Season now so start researching upcoming Garden Fests and plant bazaars such as Edison Ford Estate Tropical Plant Sales or FTBG's sales. There will be scads of them for the next 3-4 months. BTW, in case you don't already know, USF Tampa has its own botanical garden just off the campus of Moffitt Cancer Center.

[SeanK]

2 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Definitely a goner. My condolences.

Get rid of it ASAP. Cut into pieces and send it out to be incinerated with other garbage. I suggest you do not replant with another queen. Queens are Class II invasives in FL. They hate our sandy, alkaline soil, are water and fertilizer hogs and are prone to fatal diseases. They have almost no upsides here. I just spent nearly 2 months living in Tampa. All the queens I saw looked wretched. There must be better palm choices in your area. You may have to check out specialty nurseries in Tampa and St. Pete or even down to Homestead but avoid BB garden centers which sell "usual suspect" palms.

We are heading into Season now so start researching upcoming Garden Fests and plant bazaars such as Edison Ford Estate Tropical Plant Sales or FTBG's sales. There will be scads of them for the next 3-4 months. BTW, in case you don't already know, USF Tampa has its own botanical garden just off the campus of Moffitt Cancer Center.

Every cloud has a silver lining. The loss of a Queen or Washingtonia should be viewed as an opportunity to plant something more interesting, unique, maybe exotic. In addition to some local resources, plan to attend a CFPACS meeting, posted on this site.

[Merlyn]

@Michael Dourney I don't see anything that screa,ms a specific cause, but I really hope you didn't trim fronds off the dying (dead) queen and then trim off anything from the healthy ones!  That's a great way to spread diseases.  Always clean tools between palms, even if you think they are healthy.  

I agree with Meg's advice.  The palm is certainly d-e-d by now, and leaving it will only increase the chances of your other queens getting whatever disease killed it.  If I had to guess, it could be Thielaviopsis getting in through the woodpecker holes.  But that's only a SWAG.  Cut and bag it up for disposal, and dig out the stump too.