Any harm in fertilizing a sickly palm in late summer?

[Ben F.]

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on how far out from the trunk to water Queen palms. So my next question is what about fertilizing this time of year and sickly palms (I'm in North East San Diego county). Most of my palms are looking ok and have new growth, but I have one palm that I can't tell what the issue is. It's either palm frizzle or it's severely under watered. It's got several of those elongated pods growing, plus 2 bushels of palm fruits... but no new frond growth for what seems most of this year. The edges on many of the fronds look frizzled. I've done several pH tests this past year, and I've brough the pH up to about 5.5 over the front yard from 4.5 previously, and the nutrients are looking better.. except nitrogen, which is quite low. I'm now using "PalmPlus"  Fertilizer by Simplot. Any thoughts?

 

 

 

[Jim in Los Altos]

Feed now and feed most of the year in your part of California. Queen palms will take up nutrients during the winter in mild climates. 

[Fusca]

7 minutes ago, Ben F. said:

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on how far out from the trunk to water Queen palms. So my next question is what about fertilizing this time of year and sickly palms (I'm in North East San Diego county). Most of my palms are looking ok and have new growth, but I have one palm that I can't tell what the issue is. It's either palm frizzle or it's severely under watered. It's got several of those elongated pods growing, plus 2 bushels of palm fruits... but no new frond growth for what seems most of this year. The edges on many of the fronds look frizzled. I've done several pH tests this past year, and I've brough the pH up to about 5.5 over the front yard from 4.5 previously, and the nutrients are looking better.. except nitrogen, which is quite low. I'm now using "PalmPlus"  Fertilizer by Simplot. Any thoughts?

 

If your palm has frizzle top it's suffering from manganese deficiency.  I wouldn't worry about applying fertilizer now.  

[Ben F.]

@Fusca I've got the manganese nutrients up in the normal range with the soil test.. so I wonder now that the manganese is up in the soil.. what does one do, just wait a while until the tree mends itself? 

[Johnny Palmseed]

You could cut off the seeds if you are not specifically trying to harvest them. They are taking energy from the plant and they are a complete mess when they fall. Without a picture, it’s hard to diagnose the problem. I would guess that you need more water first since you are already using fertilizer and testing the soil.

[Than]

I'd expect summer to last till October in SD!

I personally fertilize till October and haven't had any issues so far. 

[Harry’s Palms]

I don’t fertilize the Queen palms in my yard. They grow pretty fast and look great year round . If you are in eastern San Diego you have a warmer summer than I do and perhaps different soil. I am about 20 miles from the beach up on a hill . I always thought of Fallbrook as the ideal place for growing palms just because when I drove through there all the palm nurseries with huge specimens that were lined up , mostly Queen Palms . Harry

[Fusca]

12 hours ago, Ben F. said:

@Fusca I've got the manganese nutrients up in the normal range with the soil test.. so I wonder now that the manganese is up in the soil.. what does one do, just wait a while until the tree mends itself? 

The fertilizer won't fix the existing fronds showing deficiency but will help the new fronds develop healthy.  So over time the palm will "mend itself".

[MJSanDiego]

4 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I don’t fertilize the Queen palms in my yard. They grow pretty fast and look great year round . If you are in eastern San Diego you have a warmer summer than I do and perhaps different soil. I am about 20 miles from the beach up on a hill . I always thought of Fallbrook as the ideal place for growing palms just because when I drove through there all the palm nurseries with huge specimens that were lined up , mostly Queen Palms . Harry

It's all about land. Most of the nurseries in the coastal plains and coastal mesas sold to developers and the nurseries moved up to North San Diego County areas such as Vista, Fallbrook, San Marcos where land was cheaper. But that does not necessarily mean it's the best  location as far as clinate. Another example. The suburb city of Lemon Grove used to be.... you guessed it.... lemon groves! All the farmers sold to developers in the 40s, 50s and 60s to urbanization and most of the citrus is now in the central valley, whereas Lemon Grove is a more ideal clinate for citrus, and uses far less water

[Ben F.]

I guess I’ll go ahead and apply a new round of the PalmPlus. It’s been about 3 months since the last application. Maybe I should go easy on the tree or just as much as others. I’m not sure why there are seed bushels and the flowering pods (inflorescence pods I guess) but no new fronds. You can see here in this photo how the newest frond that popped up.. who knows when, maybe back in the fall looks completely stunted, like it couldn’t bush itself out.