Unhappy Mule Palm

[T B]

New to the forum and did not want to hijack anybody else’s thread so started a new one for my issue.  I have a Mule that was placed on my site about a year ago. The tree has never really flourished regularly (has shown spurts of growth and then stops.) Tree was sourced and planted by a palm person. Early on I reported concerns and the vendor recommended adding 6 lb of fertilizer which I purchased from him, this seemed to help some back in end of 2023. No fertilizer during winter months. Beginning March of 2024 have applied palm specific fertilizer every other month. Tree sprouted a couple new branches around May but these turned brown within a couple of weeks. Again reported back to the vendor in early August, he is of the opinion there is a fungus, had me perform a drench with a multi purpose product (Fungicide, insecticide, miteicide) which I did. Currently the tree has only a short top of which most is brown. The drench has been applied several weeks now and have just applied this month’s fertilizer. Have attached pics for review, any opinions are welcome, is there hope?

 Pic4008 taken in April 2024

Pics4302 and 4305 taken August 22, 2024 (4305 is looking down into crown of tree) and looks mostly like this today.

[aztropic]

It's done... Looks to have been field grown,and probably not root pruned before moving to your site.  Add to that, it's location in South Carolina is probably borderline for survivability anyways, plus going through winter may very well have gotten a crown rot going with the cold temps and any rain over the dormant period. Give those center 'branches' a light tug. If they pull out easily,the tree is already dead 

 

aztropic 

Mesa, Arizona 

[T B]

Thanks for the feedback. The tree, as I understand it, was one removed from another customer yard and the vendor took to his lot and saved it for future use. As for tugging on the top, I did do that when I applied the drench and it seemed pretty secure at that time (Aug 22)

As for pruning I tend to agree with you, is there any benefit to removing all the boots as there is a lot of fibrous material between them to collect water, bugs, rot?