Royal Palms Dying, Please Help

[RuskinPalmsFL]

I have four royal palms that were installed in April 2023 and were found from a royal Palm breeding facility/nursery… (from what I’m being told) all of the green for several months and through the winter and now into the spring/beginning of summer, the trees have gotten progressively worse, and now all have burnt ends and several frons completely brown.The brown do eventually fall off however, now the majority of the tree looks brown… I don’t know what else to do please help.

I have four royal palms that were installed in April 2023 and were found from a royal Palm breeding facility/nursery… (from what I’m being told) all of the green for several months and through the winter and now into the spring/beginning of summer, the trees have gotten progressively worse, and now all have burnt ends and several frons completely brown.The brown do eventually fall off however, now the majority of the tree looks brown… I don’t know what else to do please help.

 

[Jim in Los Altos]

Did your area experience a freeze last winter? 

[SeanK]

Has the area had storm surge? Low-lying areas may have had sea water incursion.

[Merlyn]

I don't think it was cold damage, the lowest I saw here this winter was 36F with a tiny bit of frost.  I think Ruskin is warmer than my place.  @RuskinPalmsFL what have you been doing for water and fertilizer?  Maybe @ruskinPalms in your area has suggestions?

[timbo22]

I find big royals slow to recover from transplanted field stock. They need more time to regenerate a root system so I trim a third off each leave to reduce transpiration and aid retention of the remaining foliage. 

[Johnny Palmseed]

Agree on the transplant shock and they need more water. Florida spring time conditions are harsh for plants in general. Large recently planted palms are at great risk for failure. Obviously it’s too late but I would never recommend buying royals in this manner as they take forever to recover. They take a long time to reestablish roots and if the foliage is all desiccated, the plant can easily die. Water the hell out of them until the rain starts and they might survive. There’s not much else you can do.

[ruskinPalms]

So I agree with what people above said. Might still be transplant shock although with over a year in the ground already, I would think they would be growing a little better by now. As long as they are pushing out new green fronds, I think they will eventually recover. As far as water and fertilizer, I don’t think you can over water these as they are native to the Everglades. For fertilizer, I just use generic palm fertilizer from the big box stores and put it down once a year in the spring which reminds me that I probably should fertilize my palms now 😄

[RuskinPalmsFL]

Thanks for everyone’s responses… I used miracle grows palm pellets back in February but did not notice much change… And then when I spoke to the arborist, he said I should switch to the attached photo for fertilizer/feed and I’ve been using that now about three weeks ago.

 

I have substantially ramped up the watering again. They were getting watered minimally because it had been a year, but I’ve now gone back to giving them each 5 gallons of water every day.

 

Ruskin/Tampa had a mild winter, we had a few days in the 50s, but nothing major, no major storm surge and no seawater, I’m pretty elevated where I am at… I’m truly out of ideas. I hear everyone regarding the not installing Royal Palms and I can understand why now, but please continue to provide feedback and I will continue to water

[RuskinPalmsFL]

On 5/10/2024 at 9:19 PM, Merlyn said:

I don't think it was cold damage, the lowest I saw here this winter was 36F with a tiny bit of frost.  I think Ruskin is warmer than my place.  @RuskinPalmsFL what have you been doing for water and fertilizer?  Maybe @ruskinPalms in your area has suggestions?

 

On 5/12/2024 at 5:07 AM, timbo22 said:

I find big royals slow to recover from transplanted field stock. They need more time to regenerate a root system so I trim a third off each leave to reduce transpiration and aid retention of the remaining foliage. 

 

On 5/13/2024 at 2:32 PM, ruskinPalms said:

So I agree with what people above said. Might still be transplant shock although with over a year in the ground already, I would think they would be growing a little better by now. As long as they are pushing out new green fronds, I think they will eventually recover. As far as water and fertilizer, I don’t think you can over water these as they are native to the Everglades. For fertilizer, I just use generic palm fertilizer from the big box stores and put it down once a year in the spring which reminds me that I probably should fertilize my palms now 😄

I appreciate everyone’s feedback, I have started watering them every day again 5 gallons each. And switched to a new fertilizer at the beginning of the month on the previous post there was a picture, it just seems like the decay is continuing but to your question and post as well. The palm is still pumping out brand new green fronds, so I’m not sure.

[RuskinPalmsFL]

On 5/12/2024 at 5:07 AM, timbo22 said:

I find big royals slow to recover from transplanted field stock. They need more time to regenerate a root system so I trim a third off each leave to reduce transpiration and aid retention of the remaining foliage. 

Do you think I should go up and cut the dead fronds before they fall off?

[Johnny Palmseed]

Ok so……

5 gallons of water is not nearly enough. It isn’t enough to even get down to where the roots are. Royals can survive your local environment with rain every day. In fact they would probably thrive. I don’t know what conditions Ruskin has had lately but Florida in the spring is the toughest time with the constant unfiltered sun and no rain. Cutting off the dead fronds will not help in any way and if you do cut it, it will tend to hold the boot for a long time. Just let them fall off naturally.