How far near the trunk of a queen palm do you water?

[Ben F.]

I’ve read conflicting advice on watering queen palms. I have two questions.

1) I’ve installed drip irrigation with micro sprinklers.. the micro sprinklers are 4-6 feet out from the palm trunks. They have about a good 2 foot spray radius that’s adjustable. A Gardner told me they were too far out from the trunks.. really two feet from trunks might be ideal. But I’ve read not to water palms within 2-3 feet of the trunk. What’s ideal for mature queen palms?

2) About watering amount, I can adjust my sprinklers. I’m watering for 30 minutes at a time 2x a week. Each tree has 3-4 micro sprinklers around it. He recommended maybe 15 minutes a time, 4x a week. What’s ideal during warmer months? 
 

I’m in north San Diego county, average upper 80’s during the summer. Not much rain except late fall and winter. Trees average 15 -30 feet high. Average 1 foot diameter trunks. Thank you! 

[Jim in Los Altos]

Don’t worry about water close to Queen palm trunks. They love it. They grow happily in swampy areas in their natural habitat. Just give yours plenty of water and feed with a quality slow release palm fertilizer three to four times per year. 
Queen palm roots spread far and wide from their trunks so it’s best to have emitters close to the trunks AND further out. 

[MJSanDiego]

Based on a 15 to 20 ft tall queen, you should have at least a 3 ft radius of water area around the trunk. That means a 6 ft diameter circle. As Jim said you can water near the trunk too as well as further out on your circle. Another option.  I am in San Diego and I build a dirt moat around. I fill it with water sometimes 3 times a day every other day sometimes every day.  10 gallons each time and its half your palm height. During our dry season it's not possible to overwater a Queen. Most underwater. The reason I like the moat approach is because I know exactly how many gallons of water it's getting. However slow drip is a better watering method for deeper rain like watering but the problem is most underwater and don't run it long enough. I have another Queen with a moat that gets water from a sprinkler system and the moat fills up and like that for 20 minutes flooding the base of the trunk and it looks like too much water and drowning, but it's growing like a weed and green as can be.  Just make sure you give it enough water emwith your drip emitter system, hope this helps

[Ben F.]

@MJSanDiego @Jim in Los Altos Ok, I'm going to move my sprinklers a bit closer in then. I found these little micro sprinklers on Amazon that I'm using. I favored these over drip emitters because I couldn't get the drip heads to spread out enough, and these sprinklers are adjustable and cover a larger area. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CZVBVHN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

I think I'll water 3x a week, maybe for 20 minutes at a time. I did recently pick up Palm Plus fertilizer, I'm due for another spread of it around the beginning of August. 

[Alberto]

Queens or " jerivás" are accustomed to rain the whole year in habitat and they like to grow in riparian forests, near rivers. So it is difficult to drown a queen palm.....

[Tyrone]

I had one grow over my irrigation pipe and basically embalm the emitter into the trunk, so I assume it was being watered internally. It loved it. You can grow these in swamps, as others have said. They are water and fertiliser hogs. 

[Harry’s Palms]

Fallbrook is where palms go when they win the lottery! That is an ideal area for Queens and water with wreckless abandon , or plainly put , generously. I live in a similar environment and don’t fertilize the Queens , just water the heck out of them , trunk and all. They look fantastic year round . I do have them trimmed in the fall because of the Santa Ana winds up here . Harry

[Alberto]

12 hours ago, Tyrone said:

I had one grow over my irrigation pipe and basically embalm the emitter into the trunk, so I assume it was being watered internally. It loved it. You can grow these in swamps, as others have said. They are water and fertiliser hogs. 

Here they do not grow in really swampy soil, but likes tons of water

[Ben F.]

@Harry’s Palms haha.. the palm lottery in Fallbrook?!  I do see a lot of palms that look good, but I feel like the Queen palms that look really good are fussed over. I asked the owner down the street how he got his palms looking so nice. He said fertilizer.. he mentioned a 15-15-15… but I don’t use that, I use Palm Plus, and my soil test shows my N and K are still a bit low, but P is too high, it’s off the chart. I have successfully raised my soil PH a bit too. I guess I’ll give it more time, only been at this location for less than a year.. and I have no idea what the previous owner did or didn’t do. She watered them by hand, that’s all I know. 

[MJSanDiego]

@Harry’s Palms I'm kind of with you, but just wanted to clarify a bit.  Fallbrook gets quite hot and dry in the summer, so you do need tons of supplemental water.  And Fallbrook gets quite cold in the winter on many nights.  And heavy Santa Ana winds. The Queens don't appreciate the cold, but they can handle it for sure.  I would rather state the ideal place for Queens is the coastal plains. Even though Queens can handle salt spray, you will notice NOT too many right along the coastline.  It's a bit cool and damp and less sun with the marine layer, especially April, May and June. I am talking about the South Bay, and starting at one mile off the coast, up to 10 miles inland from downtown San Diego.  That includes areas such as Encanto, College Area, City Heights, National City, Spring Valley, and Lemon Grove.  These areas are always shielded from bad Santa Ana winds too.  Every year, in those areas, you rarely see above 25 MPH gusts of Santa Ana winds, and hardly any winds the rest of the year. And these areas also have the mildest nighttime temperatures in the winter (not as mild as right on the coast though, but close enough).  And Marine layer also burns off by 10AM to noon so Queens get the sun they need, but not the hot and dry days, thanks to the cooling effect and humidity of the marine layer. The humidity is usually right at 50% during the peak heat of everyday, ideal for Queens.  This is further supported as Queens are predominant and ubiquitous in those areas. Therefore, I would argue that those areas are the most ideal climate for the Queens.  And I would safely state in all of the entire USA actually

[Harry’s Palms]

I guess I think of Fallbrook as a palm haven primarily because there are so many palms and nurseries as you drive through on the way to San Diego. It just seems like a great area. I am about 20 miles from the beach with average summer temps in the eighties but down to sixties at night . Winters are mild but we do get very bad Santa Ana winds. Being closer to San Diego and further south I just figured it would be that much better , I guess local knowledge says otherwise. Even here , water is key to healthy Queens and others . Harry

[Merlyn]

@Ben F. generally avoid spraying the trunk directly, as it can eventually cause rot.  Low pressure drip sprayers are probably not a big deal, though.  I have two queens in my nursery area for canopy with drip fan sprayerx.  I put the sprayer-on-a-stick near the trunks and face them outwards.

[Ben F.]

@MerlynOh ok, I try to keep a bout a foot between the edge of the water spray and the trunk edge... figured I don't need to get the trunks wet like that... thanks for that tip. 

[MJSanDiego]

23 minutes ago, Ben F. said:

@MerlynOh ok, I try to keep a bout a foot between the edge of the water spray and the trunk edge... figured I don't need to get the trunks wet like that... thanks for that tip. 

I would not be too concerned about it during our 6 month long dry season. Palms will like water to the trunk just like rain.  You will never rot the trunk. I water to the base.  However, during the rainy cooler season I would adjust and refrain from watering on the trunk as that could cause fungus and or rot

[WaianaeCrider]

I have 3 queens in the ground for about 20 years now.  The very tops are at least 25' from the ground.  I have NOT increased the irrigation since planting.  Somewhere in the mess of the second photo are a few spray heads screwed into 1/2" poly pipe.  They get water twice a week for 35 minutes AT NIGHT.  Don't know where they are getting enough water to survive here in my almost desert.   They were not in a lot of sun until the gained a lot of height.  I average about 25" of rain a year w/at least 4 months in the summer w/ less than 1/2".

2009

2021

[MJSanDiego]

13 hours ago, WaianaeCrider said:

I have 3 queens in the ground for about 20 years now.  The very tops are at least 25' from the ground.  I have NOT increased the irrigation since planting.  Somewhere in the mess of the second photo are a few spray heads screwed into 1/2" poly pipe.  They get water twice a week for 35 minutes AT NIGHT.  Don't know where they are getting enough water to survive here in my almost desert.   They were not in a lot of sun until the gained a lot of height.  I average about 25" of rain a year w/at least 4 months in the summer w/ less than 1/2".

 

 

 

Looks great! Love your pics! You get tons of rain by my standard so that is helping. Here in our semi arid Mediterranean climate we average just 10 inches of rain per year. And we had years with just 3 to 5 inches of rain so we have to do tons of supplemental watering even though temperatures stay mild all summer due to ocean influence with highs upper 70F or around 25C