Fallen palm tree, advice on next steps?

[PalmTalker293847]

Tried to stake palm tree for many years because it leaned but now it's fallen.
Advice on next steps?
Is it a goner?
Can it be stood upright as is and staked?
Will it need full replanting?
Think a landscaping crew could do it or need an excavator?
Thanks for any advice folks!

[Silas_Sancona]

28 minutes ago, PalmTalker293847 said:

Tried to stake palm tree for many years because it leaned but now it's fallen.
Advice on next steps?
Is it a goner?
Can it be stood upright as is and staked?
Will it need full replanting?
Think a landscaping crew could do it or need an excavator?
Thanks for any advice folks!

Palmtalker293847, Welcome to the forum,

Unfortunately, imo, i don't think bracing it will save it. ..Just doesn't seem to be enough root mass.  Might be better to remove ( ..Maybe save the trunk and have it carved into a Tiki ) and start over.

Being a Queen ( ..looks like one in the picture, ) i might replace w/ a Mule  ( Cross between a Queen and a Pindo Palm ) which handle our heat much better than Queens. 

[Halsten]

26 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Palmtalker293847, Welcome to the forum,

Unfortunately, imo, i don't think bracing it will save it. ..Just doesn't seem to be enough root mass.  Might be better to remove ( ..Maybe save the trunk and have it carved into a Tiki ) and start over.

Being a Queen ( ..looks like one in the picture, ) i might replace w/ a Mule  ( Cross between a Queen and a Pindo Palm ) which handle our heat much better than Queens. 

do you by any chance know where i could get a mule palm or mule palm seeds?

[Silas_Sancona]

Just now, Halsten said:

do you by any chance know where i could get a mule palm or mule palm seeds?

Not over there in Europe.  Maybe RPS offers seed occasionally??

Could be wrong,  but don't think anyone here in the U.S. that might sell them at a smaller, ship-able size can ship overseas unfortunately.

[Halsten]

13 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Not over there in Europe.  Maybe RPS offers seed occasionally??

Could be wrong,  but don't think anyone here in the U.S. that might sell them at a smaller, ship-able size can ship overseas unfortunately.

by any chance do you have or know anyone that can sell mule palm seeds?

[Silas_Sancona]

3 minutes ago, Halsten said:

by any chance do you have or know anyone that can sell mule palm seeds?

 
Would post your request in the " Plants / Seeds wanted / requests " section of the forum.   Pretty sure there is already -at least- one such thread regarding Mules there. 

Only place you'll likely find such offers..  Good luck

[Merlyn]

@PalmTalker293847 as Silas said, that one's D-E-D dead.  The brown powdery stuff around the edge makes me think that termites got to the trunk.  But it could also be a different fungal rot.  It's hard to guess.

As far as removal, the trunk is about as heavy and tough as a typical oak tree.  Any tree crew could easily cut it up with a chainsaw and remove it.  If you want to plant in the same spot I'd dig a huge hole (maybe 3' diameter and 2' deep) to get all the dense roots out of there.  I use a reciprocating saw with a 12" Diablo 3TPI pruning blade for stuff like that.  You could have the tree crew stump grind it and remove all the grindings, since they *might* be infected with whatever killed the palm.

[Darold Petty]

1 hour ago, Halsten said:

by any chance do you have or know anyone that can sell mule palm seeds?

Halsten, Sorry, but there are no mule palm seeds.  This is an F1 hybrid between Syagrus romanzoffiana and Butia odorata.  This is accomplished by hand pollination.  The resulting cross is sterile.  It does produce seed occasionally, but they are not viable and will not sprout.   

[SeanK]

23 minutes ago, Darold Petty said:

Halsten, Sorry, but there are no mule palm seeds.  This is an F1 hybrid between Syagrus romanzoffiana and Butia odorata.  This is accomplished by hand pollination.  The resulting cross is sterile.  It does produce seed occasionally, but they are not viable and will not sprout.   

Yes, but the F0 produce seed that is hybrid.

[Darold Petty]

SeanK, can you elaborate?   What I wrote was information given to me a long time ago, thanks !

[Jim in Los Altos]

From the looks of that very small diameter root structure at the base of the trunk, the palm was either planted too high or soil eroded away from the trunk preventing roots from the widening trunk from reaching the ground and anchoring the palm. If soil had been mounded up to the palm!s base a while back, your Queen Palm would likely not have fallen. It looks like too much damage to recover but if you want to try, get the palm upright and supported and add lots of soil right up to the palm’s trunk, mounded, and out several feet and keep very moist. 

[SeanK]

On 7/6/2024 at 6:10 PM, Darold Petty said:

SeanK, can you elaborate?   What I wrote was information given to me a long time ago, thanks !

By F0, I mean the Syagrus and Butia parents. The female will yield seed. You're correct, the F1 is sterile (or 99.5% sterile).

[Darold Petty]

Thanks !   

[Patrick]

On 7/6/2024 at 3:19 PM, Jim in Los Altos said:

From the looks of that very small diameter root structure at the base of the trunk, the palm was either planted too high or soil eroded away from the trunk preventing roots from the widening trunk from reaching the ground and anchoring the palm. If soil had been mounded up to the palm!s base a while back, your Queen Palm would likely not have fallen. It looks like too much damage to recover but if you want to try, get the palm upright and supported and add lots of soil right up to the palm’s trunk, mounded, and out several feet and keep very moist. 

I concur with Jim. I see all these areas all around the base there that are roots that tried to grow but then hardened off from air exposure; or whatever happens when a palm is planted too high. Since you're in AZ I think you have a height/ dryness problem and the roots never grew rather than a fungal issue. Just a guess though....

 

You could probably upright it and if you got soil up high enough the roots would probably grow in the zones mentioned, but its gotta be wet and covered with dirt. 

 

The reality is that a new queen is $40 at a big box store so it would probably be the most efficient to start over with a replacement planted at the correct height. It would probably take at least a season or 2 for your existing queen to recover and get roots established; but then you still have a planting height issue on the existing palm...

 

This is a small job to remove. The queen palm can be cut into smaller more manageable logs.