Is my palm dying?

[Northernpalms]

I have a washingtonia robusta that hasn’t shown much growth as of late.  I’ve only had it about a year and is only a couple of feet tall.  I just noticed today that the trunk doesn’t look good and there is a weird growth coming out the trunk.  Kind of looks like the trunk might be rotting also.  Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.   Thanks

[MJSanDiego]

If that growth on the trunk is a basidiocarp (conk) your palm has a lethal disease called Ganoderma Butt Rot caused by the fungus Ganoderma Zonatum. Once the conk forms it is over and the palm will die. If it is Ganoderma you need to remove the palm. There are no known chemical controls for preventing or curing this disease. The fungus survives in the soil so the soil would need to be treated or removed before planting another palm in the same location.  Some of the other symptoms of this disease before the conk forms or visible trunk rot is general decline, slow or minimal growth and maybe wilting

[SeanK]

4 hours ago, MJSanDiego said:

If that growth on the trunk is a basidiocarp (conk) your palm has a lethal disease called Ganoderma Butt Rot caused by the fungus Ganoderma Zonatum. Once the conk forms it is over and the palm will die. If it is Ganoderma you need to remove the palm. There are no known chemical controls for preventing or curing this disease. The fungus survives in the soil so the soil would need to be treated or removed before planting another palm in the same location.  Some of the other symptoms of this disease before the conk forms or visible trunk rot is general decline, slow or minimal growth and maybe wilting

Can that arrive in store-bought mulches?

[Northernpalms]

Here is a closer look at it, the green part looks like frond branch because it has the spikes on it like they normally do but I’m not sure what the white part is, assuming conk?  I removed the tree anyways because the trunk is definitely not right

[PalmatierMeg]

Looks like a distorted unformed leaf to me = I’’ve never seen a conk with a green sheath before. Washies are solitary palms so it is not “clumping” per se. But maybe some process is going on that is stimulating it to produce this growth. Young Sabals will produce an alternative stem to bypass a blockage of the original stem. But your palm is trunking and looks a bit old to send out an alternative stem.

[MJSanDiego]

It is so hard to tell, I can't be certain it's a conk when I see it closeup either.  Is the trunk rotted, but still firm?  IF the trunk is soft, that would NOT be a sign of Ganoderma Zonatum

[MJSanDiego]

10 hours ago, SeanK said:

Can that arrive in store-bought mulches?

Doubtful.  it's usually spread by spores from the conks, dispersed by wind and water and then infecting open wounds in the lower trunks of the palms

[MJSanDiego]

10 hours ago, SeanK said:

Can that arrive in store-bought mulches?

You know, now that I think about it more, if they are grinding up infected palms for mulch, I would think it could actually be in the soil then.  I know a dirty shovel that was used in infected soil could also cause it to spread.  Scary

[MJSanDiego]

So you already removed the tree.  I would dispose of the surrounding soil to be safe if you are planting something else there, just to be safe because you might not be able to diagnose the cause or disease at this point

[jwitt]

Looks like cold damage and regrowth coming out the side.  Could possibly trunk cut above that growth. 

[MJSanDiego]

Interesting, I just noticed you are in zone 7b.I don't think you can successfully grow a true Washingtonia Robusta (Mexican Fan Palm) in zone 7b.  But you can get a hybrid, Filibusta, it would probably work.  They look like the Robusta but have the cold tolerance of a Filifera.  You could grow a Filifera in zone 7b, but some don't like the fat trunks

[SeanK]

1 hour ago, MJSanDiego said:

You know, now that I think about it more, if they are grinding up infected palms for mulch, I would think it could actually be in the soil then.  I know a dirty shovel that was used in infected soil could also cause it to spread.  Scary

My thought was with store-bought bark

[Northernpalms]

Here is a closer look at it, the green part looks like frond branch because it has the spikes on it like they normally do but I’m not sure what the white part is

[Northernpalms]

That was the only plant with an issue.  I have two other windmill palms with no issue and multiple musa basjoos all in the same mulch.  I already removed the tree and honestly besides that everything else looked ok.  Roots looked good.  I have another washingtonia that I grew from seed that I’ll try planting in the ground next year.  I’ve seen many people successfully grow washingtonia sun my zone and colder using the box method for over wintering, shouldn’t be an issue. 

[MJSanDiego]

I got confused, I think another member is in zone 7a, not the OP.  Are you in MA?  What zone are you in? I am curious what is the box method, and how does it work when the palm gets tall?

[MJSanDiego]

1 hour ago, SeanK said:

My thought was with store-bought bark

Yep, who knows what they put in there and where it is from. Kind of scary.  I love the Gromulch they sell at Home Depot, it also has pieces of wood bark in it

[Looking Glass]

Ganoderma is a disease of more mature palms with woody trunks.  The fungus feeds on solid wood trunk.  It doesn’t normally attack trunkless palms.   I agree like Meg said, it looks like an alternative growth point.  

[MJSanDiego]

Palm trees do not have woody trunks no matter how mature.  They are made of fibrous material that never gets hard like wood. Palm trees are monocots. This fungus does in fact feed on certain palms only, which are monocots.  This particular one surely could be an alternative growth point though, but still undetermined

[Merlyn]

@Northernpalms as Meg and Looking Glass said, it is a new frond that for some reason is pushing out sideways from the trunk.  Sometimes the main growth direction(straight up the middle) gets constricted or stuck.  The growing frond has to go somewhere, and sometimes that's out sideways.  And sometimes the main growing point dies due to fungal infection or physical damage.  Usually if the main growing point dies then the palm dies too.  But I'd guess in this case the new frond couldn't go up, so it's going sideways.

[MJSanDiego]

I don't know you guys grow a Mexican Fan Palm  (robusta) in zone 7b. 15 years ago I couldn't even grow one successfully in zone 8a. Every winter it would defoliate around 22 degrees and I'd have an entire crown of crispy brown potato chip fronds until a new spear finally emerged in spring. There was no way to cover it as it's too tall so I don't know how you can do it especially when it gets 6 feet taller and up. I would love to hear how it's done! Curious!

[Northernpalms]

@MJSanDiego I am in Massachusetts 7a.  Box method is building a wooden box frame around the palm then covering with foam insulation board.  Inside the box the palm is wrapped with Christmas lights as a small heat source.  The lights are connected to a thermocube which is essentially a thermostat that will turn the lights on and off to maintain a temperature above freezing allowing the palm to survive the winter.   As the palm grows the box is extended to accommodate its size. 

[Northernpalms]

There are guys using the method successfully as far north as Canada 

[MJSanDiego]

3 minutes ago, Northernpalms said:

@MJSanDiego I am in Massachusetts 7a.  Box method is building a wooden box frame around the palm then covering with foam insulation board.  Inside the box the palm is wrapped with Christmas lights as a small heat source.  The lights are connected to a thermocube which is essentially a thermostat that will turn the lights on and off to maintain a temperature above freezing allowing the palm to survive the winter.   As the palm grows the box is extended to accommodate its size. 

Thanks, this is very interesting and have not heard if this. This can be done when the palm is 20 ft up to 100 ft tall? 

[Northernpalms]

Growing season up here isn’t nearly long enough each year to worry about it getting that tall.  15-20feet max and that’s going to take a really long time.  Check out jamespalms on YouTube 

[MJSanDiego]

Interesting.... thanks 

[JLM]

My potted foxtail did this once, and then it rained and rotted it anyways
 

Not saying that’s what’s going to happen here, just affirming that it is a new growth point. I’m definitely interesting in hearing how this goes in about 2-3 months time

[Patrick]

Looks like new growth coming out the side to me.... Not a fungus. 

[Looking Glass]

11 hours ago, MJSanDiego said:

Palm trees do not have woody trunks no matter how mature.  They are made of fibrous material that never gets hard like wood. Palm trees are monocots. This fungus does in fact feed on certain palms only, which are monocots.  This particular one surely could be an alternative growth point though, but still undetermined

Ganoderma zonatum is the species of Ganoderma that infects palm trees.  
It is ubiquitous here in Florida, but has been detected as far north as the Carolinas, and in California, presumably from transported palm material. 
It does seem to only infect mature palms with woody trunks.  
Other species of Gandoderma infect other types of hardwood trees in other areas. 
Palms don’t produce “true wood”, but do produce what is commonly described as “woody stems/trunks” which corresponds to the hard trunk portion of the tree.  This is the area that the fungus feeds on.  
I don’t believe there are any documented infections of trunkless palms, and as far as I know,  the only palms thought to be unsusceptible to it are those that don’t form woody trunks.   
 

(see article below for info)

 https://palms.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/vol45n2p62-72.pdf

[Merlyn]

@Northernpalms about 8 years or so ago, MattyB coined the term "doinker" to describe palms doing this weird behavior.  You can see some sequence photos of BS Man's palm doing it here:

This is fairly common on some clustering species of Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus.  In that case they are just growing a new trunk that happens to emerge partway up the side of an existing trunk.  Most of the time clustering palms put up new shoots from the underside and shoot out below and just off to the side of the existing trunks...but not always!  Here's some doinkers in Dypsis in my yard and others:

In your case I'd guess the new frond will come out really distorted, and no new fronds will grow out the top.  Given your description of your wrapping method, I'd guess you had it wrapped too tight last winter and it restricted the normal path out the top.  It'll probably fix itself, but look weird in the process.