Fertilizing Queen palms in winter months?

[Ben F.]

Thought I’d circle back around on this topic.. last time I asked it seems like most people were saying there’s not really a need to fertilize queen palms during the winter months, but maybe just some Langbeinite is preferred. I’ve got 20 foot + Queen palms in north SD county. Most of them seems fine, I used PalmPlus last year, which is a 13-5-8 and made by the same producers of Florikan. Fertilized back in late September. I still don’t have as super green of palms on newer fronds as I’d like over the last year of fertilizing. Some of them seem to yellow up more than I’d like on lower fronds during winter.. it’s not that they are below average for the area, it’s just that for whatever reason I see some people around here who have pretty plush and large green Queens throughout the year. 
 

Thought I’d ask if anyone has advice for fertilizing in the winter months with the goal of greening up new palm growth in the spring and keeping them looking green. 

[BayAndroid]

In my opinion, adding more organics to the soil would probably be the best option. Not only will the soil hold moisture better, but the beneficial microbes that provide the bioavailability of the nutrients to the palm will do better. I think of fertilizers like an IV you'd give to a medical patient; they are very direct in the way the plant takes them up. If you stop providing the fertilizer and you don't have a healthy soil, the palm will quickly go anemic. You want the environment that the palm lives to be flourishing so that they can be sustained whether you feed them some fertilizer or not. I recommend organic fertilizer as well, so you don't negatively affect those microbes, which are delicate. 

[Ben F.]

Thank you.. I have a hard time identifying some of the organic products you talk about.. do you mean Langbeinite, or some other product? Seems like people were saying the fertilizing was a must if you want healthy palms… because of the likely lack of micro-nutrients. I’ve done a few soil tests, and the N and K were still low, even after 6 -8 months of fertilizer quarterly. The micronutrients are looking good for me. 
 

it could also be I applied fertilizer and water too spread out. Aiming for 2 feet from outside trunk with a ring of about another 2-3 feet of water and nutrients. So 5 feet out from the trunk. I do 3-4 micro sprinklers per tree. These are large trees, the fronds themselves are anywhere between 6 - 10 feet long. 

[BayAndroid]

1 hour ago, Ben F. said:

Thank you.. I have a hard time identifying some of the organic products you talk about.. do you mean Langbeinite, or some other product? Seems like people were saying the fertilizing was a must if you want healthy palms… because of the likely lack of micro-nutrients. I’ve done a few soil tests, and the N and K were still low, even after 6 -8 months of fertilizer quarterly. The micronutrients are looking good for me. 
 

it could also be I applied fertilizer and water too spread out. Aiming for 2 feet from outside trunk with a ring of about another 2-3 feet of water and nutrients. So 5 feet out from the trunk. I do 3-4 micro sprinklers per tree. These are large trees, the fronds themselves are anywhere between 6 - 10 feet long. 

I'm talking more about top dressing the soil with compost, wood chips or a fully organic based fertilizer blend like this one: https://thetreeplace.com/products/microlife-organic-palm-tropical-fertilizer

[Harry’s Palms]

Agree with adding a good garden topsoil with wood chips for topping. Be sure that the crust of the existing soil is broken up with a claw or similar tool before mixing in garden soil. It sounds like your soil is lacking in some way . Fertilizer will not be very effective this time of year but couldn’t hurt. Out here , they grow nice dark green with no intervention , I add top soil and wood chips to help the soil retain and absorb the water they need. Harry

[Merlyn]

In warm winter temperatures (average soil temps in the 50s and 60s) the microbial activity drops by about 50% compared to summer.  Fallbrook averages about 51F right now, so I say fertilize like normal.  It will be ~50٪ less effective than in the summer, but it's not like rain is going to wash it all away and get wasted.

[sonoranfans]

Sunlight is weak in winter and plants are slower growing.  Queens grow best in heat, be patient root development may take 2 years.  Established palms can feed a lot more than one with transplant roots.  Some fo my palms took 3 yrs to establish.  You should mention your soil type and drainage, and then your watering regimen)how many gals/hr to each tree and how many hours @ x days a week.  That should give people more to go on.  These palms like to be wet and roots can't feed if the soil is mostly dry.

[Ben F.]

@sonoranfans @Merlyn @Harry’s Palms Thanks for the feedback. I'll try some topsoil, and chip up the ground a bit, then add some wood chips on top. My soil type seems somewhat sandy here in north SD county, at least the top couple of inches seems pretty quick draining, it gets a little harder underneath that. It's not clay or anything like that.

I've got 3 micro sprinklers around each tree (one has 4), about 3 feet out from the trunk edge, the water diameter on each sprinkler is probably 2-3 feet. I run them once a week in winter months, for 20 minutes. I'll give you one example of how much water is run on a batch.

One side of my lot the irrigation is on 3 palms (these are large palms, 25 ft+ tall. So I've got around 12 microsprinklers going on that side, and 10 of them are on the 3 palms. That's about 9 gpm total on that line, so that's 180 gallons of water that's running over the course of 20 minutes. 180 / 12, that's 15 gallons per sprinkler, and if I have 3 sprinklers per palms, that's 45 gallons of water on each palm over the course of 20 minutes, once per week during winter months. 

[Palmfarmer]

Even though this thread is about queens I have noticed my Royal is still growing even with nights around 4 Celsius. Looks like winter is over here.