Crown lean on freshly transplanted palm...

[ahosey01]

I just planted this Phoenix sylvestris like three days ago.  I noticed that starting yesterday - when it was hot - the crown started to lean.  Photo below.

It's almost certainly a reaction to transplanting, but I just find it a little odd.  Normally, in my own experience, transplant-shocked palms will have fronds that brown from the outside-in.  I've never really seen one look otherwise totally fine and just start to fall over kind of.  I planted it high on purpose because that area is a thick, nasty clay soil, but I mounded soil around the base to the level it had been planted previously.  It was in a 45G pot but it had shot roots out of the pot and into the ground, and those were broken in transplant so I'd expect there's at least a little shock here.  It also got winched up by the crown to get it to stand up when we were planting it.

These are tough palms so I'm not terribly worried about it, but I am curious if a.) anyone has had this experience and b.) if there was any remedy other than time to regrow roots.  Would it make sense to water with some root stimulator?  I already cut all the fruit off so it didn't expend any energy fruiting.  Should I trim some lower leaves?

Let me know!

[Merlyn]

I've seen this on a cycad that had been rooted through the pot and into the ground for several years.  PT member ChuckG had a Spinulosum in a shady spot and was moving everything.  More or less overnight all the fronds collapsed down 30 or so degrees.  We attributed it to a "loss of hydrostatic pressure."  The plant recovered and is doing great in my yard now, but it really looked like it was about to die.  So if it had a ton of roots through the 45g pot into the ground, it might be just a sudden loss of root mass and water uptake.  Cutting a couple of the oldest fronds might help reduce the daily leaf water loss, thus balancing the loss of water uptake.  Adding some extra water could help too.

Winching it up by the crown might not be the greatest choice on a small-ish palm.  I've seen people do it with cranes but generally lifting by the base of the trunk.  There's always the chance it damaged the growing point or ripped the baseplate off the trunk at the RIZ (root initiation zone). 

[ahosey01]

11 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

I've seen this on a cycad that had been rooted through the pot and into the ground for several years.  PT member ChuckG had a Spinulosum in a shady spot and was moving everything.  More or less overnight all the fronds collapsed down 30 or so degrees.  We attributed it to a "loss of hydrostatic pressure."  The plant recovered and is doing great in my yard now, but it really looked like it was about to die.  So if it had a ton of roots through the 45g pot into the ground, it might be just a sudden loss of root mass and water uptake.  Cutting a couple of the oldest fronds might help reduce the daily leaf water loss, thus balancing the loss of water uptake.  Adding some extra water could help too.

Winching it up by the crown might not be the greatest choice on a small-ish palm.  I've seen people do it with cranes but generally lifting by the base of the trunk.  There's always the chance it damaged the growing point or ripped the baseplate off the trunk at the RIZ (root initiation zone). 

I don't suspect it damaged the growing point because I grabbed all the fronds at once and stood it up vertically from a horizontal position.  It was not actually lifted vertically that way - only tilted, really. I think the palm is big enough (500lbs ish) that its frond mass should have been sturdy and strong enough to handle it, but small enough (only 500lbs) that I don't think it would have been enough weight to damage all 40 fronds at once.  I would also expect that mechanical damage would have manifested immediately, not a few days later.

The loss of hydrostatic pressure thing is a brilliant explanation though.  That makes perfect sense.  Been giving it a shit ton of water since then, so I expect it will bounce back easy.  Especially cause I see no dead or dying older fronds.

[Harry’s Palms]

I sure hope it will pull out . That is a nice looking palm. The fronds have good color  so there are positive signs it will come through. Harry

[ahosey01]

The lean continues to get worse, but strangely - no frond browning of any description.  Spear is still securely in place, and cannot be tugged out.

Day one:

 

Day five: