Worried about my Sylvester Date Palm-FL

[Art100]

We have a 6 yr Sylvester Date Palm which every yr has had new growth of fronds from the center, nice dark green ones.  This is the first year where I noticed there was no new fronds from the center.  

Over the course of 6 yrs, I have trimmed the bottom row of fronds only where they were either brown or mostly yellow/brown.  Fertilized 3 x a yr with Sunniland Palm fertilizer dropping ~16 cups of fertilizer underneath the crown area staying away from the base directly.  The 16 cups is half of the 32" diameter per Sunniland's instructions.  Is this too much?  16 cups seemed excessive to me for 3x a yr.

See pics - Not sure if I have a deficiency of key minerals or maybe a fungus??  The fronds used to be med to dark green but now look pale green and yellowish.  I tried to take a far away pic and close-ups.IMG_4269.HEICIMG_4269.HEICIMG_4270.HEICIMG_4271.HEICIMG_4276.HEICIMG_4277.HEICIMG_4278.HEIC

We live in Jacksonville, FL so we usually get a 2-3 days of a deep freeze of winter each yr but the palm seemed to have survived ok.

Does the palm look healthy to you palm experts?  Not sure what to do?  

 

 

[Huckfinn]

I wish someone responded. I have the same problem, same locale,with mine for about a year. Went to local nursery, that sells a lot of palms,  6 mos ago and was told to fertilize and add “Essential Elements”. Went back again a few weeks ago and was told it was “beetles” and use tree and shrub drench. 
i see something about “bronzing disease” which is fatal. Jacksonville area palm nurseries are great at selling but lousy at customer service. 
 

 

[PalmatierMeg]

We are currently working a topic about lethal bronzing. See link below:

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/84187-phoenix-sylvestris-dying-after-6-years/#comment-1164974

If you think you have palms infected with this disease, figure on removing them ASAP and sending the remains out with the garbage to be incinerated. LB is untreatable and invariably fatal. Apparently, it loves to attack Phoenix sylvestris.

[kinzyjr]

@Art100 + @Huckfinn

Please see @PalmatierMeg's post above.  Welcome to the forums and wish we had better news to share with you regarding Phoenix sylvestris, but the best way we have to deal with the disease currently is to skip Phoenix species and use Livistona decora as a replacement.

[Merlyn]

@Art100 probably the reason you didn't get replies is that HEIC format pictures are a pain in this forum.  It's better to save them as JPG (a setting in your iPhone) so they display natively inline on the forum.  I opened them up with GIMP, nothing looks too odd on it.

• The yellowing tips on the oldest fronds is a common Magnesium deficiency.  Phoenix palms do this all the time.  Add a couple of handfuls of Magnesium Sulfate sprinkled around under the canopy.  I do this every spring with my Phoenix and Beccariophoenix palms, it's just something that happens.  The extra magnesium won't "fix" the yellow tips, but should keep it from getting worse.
• Keep an eye on the new spear leaves.  I couldn't see them in most of the pictures but only clearly in 4278.  They are curved over to the side, which might be ok but could also be a sign of something like a boron deficiency.  If they open up normally in about a month, then no action is needed.
• For fertilizer the recommendation is 1.5lb of 8-2-12 ratio for every 100sqft of palm canopy, 4x per year.  For a 12' diameter Sylvester that's 6 * 6 * 3.14 = 113sqft, so roughly 1.5lb * 113 / 100 = 1.7lb of 8-2-12.  I also use the Sunniland 6-1-8 ratio, which is about 30-50% lower concentration than 6-1-8, looking at the Nitrogen and Potassium numbers.  So you'd use about 30-50% more 6-1-8 than the 8-2-12 recommendation.  That's roughly 2.2-2.5lb of 6-1-8.  Offhand I don't know how many cups that is, but you could weigh and find out.  This is a "ballpark" recommendation based on Broschat's fertilizer research.

[Art100]

Thanks everyone for the replies. 

I'm hoping I do not have bronzing but will try to treat it with supplemental nutrients. mentioned here  In the meantime, I have reposted the pics in jpeg format for better viewing.  

I certainly hope I didn't over-fertilize.  I used the recommended application based on Sunniland's instructions.  I need to weigh out how much 16 cups of fertilizer is to see if it's more than 2.5 lbs. 

[Merlyn]

@Art100 I don't see any signs of LB.  The first visible sign is usually rapid death of the oldest (lowest) fronds in the canopy.  There's one dead frond that I see.  If you have hard to cut off a whole bunch of dead fronds recently then there could be a bigger problem.  Several diseases can damage or kill a palm, such as Ganoderma, Thielaviopsis, Lethal Bronzing and Phytophthora. 

One possibility on the crown/new spears is a bud rot.  This sometimes happens after winter, even if it hasn't been really cold.  I didn't think of that before.  If you have a tall stepladder try and take some up close photos of the new spears and, if possible, downwards towards the center of the crown.  Two good crown infection treatments are hydrogen peroxide and Daconil.  Pouring a cup of regular H2O2 into the crown may be a good idea.  If it bubbles up there is a fungus infection present.  If so, treat with H2O2 and follow up a few hours later with Daconil.  Repeat twice a week until it stops bubbling.