Help!! Young Queen palm spear shriveled up

[TropicsEnjoyer]

it came to my attention recently that the spear of my palm has looked shriveled up. I assumed it was a watering issue so I watered it about 3 days ago but today it does not look any better. In the pic I sent the soil does look very dry but it has moisture about an inch down so it’s  not dehydrated completely. Any help appreciated I grew this from seed and would not want to lose it. 

 

[Harry’s Palms]

They like water , for sure. Sorry , I can’t see much wrong with that palm . Maybe I’m missing something. Harry

[TropicsEnjoyer]

I’ve watered again right now. I’ll check back tomorrow to see for improvement. Did peroxide just in case too. 

[Jim in Los Altos]

As Harry mentioned, nothing earth shattering to see here. Area around palm looks very dry however. Queen palms like moist/wet soil. They’ll grow happily in a swamp. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Gave it a day and nothing changed. It got watered yesterday and sprinklers went off last night as well. I know the soil still looks dry but that’s just the surface, and the soil around the palm is visibly damp. Should I just be patient and hope it grows out of this?

My front yard queen seedling is just as big and is doing perfectly fine (newest leaf wide open).

[PalmatierMeg]

You should remove grass/weeds in a 2’diameter circle around the seedling, then spread 2-3” of mulch around it.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Newest spear is starting to brown 😟

Water is not helping.

[Tomas]

15 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Newest spear is starting to brown 😟

Water is not helping.

Try to pull on it, some rot would be the most obvious reason

[TropicsEnjoyer]

5 hours ago, Tomas said:

Try to pull on it, some rot would be the most obvious reason

i did. it’s solidly attached.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Anyone got any other ideas??? It’s been a month and nothing has changed. The spear is still shriveled. Any specific deficiencies that might cause this? Or disease? I’ve used copper fungicide already, I fertilized not too long ago, I tried giving it heavy amounts of water for like 2 weeks. I don’t really know what to do now. It’s not dying but it’s not making progress either. Today I marked the spear, hopefully it shows movement soon.

[Fusca]

 

2 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Anyone got any other ideas??? It’s been a month and nothing has changed. The spear is still shriveled. Any specific deficiencies that might cause this? Or disease? I’ve used copper fungicide already, I fertilized not too long ago, I tried giving it heavy amounts of water for like 2 weeks. I don’t really know what to do now. It’s not dying but it’s not making progress either. Today I marked the spear, hopefully it shows movement soon.

I've grown several species of Syagrus from seed and I've experienced problems with funky spears in almost all of them while in pots.  Not sure why it happens but the problem spear won't improve.  It should grow out of it just fine and fairly quickly in romanzoffiana.  I added some chelated iron to mine when the immerging spear displayed an accordion pattern and it seemed to help.  I don't know if this is the case with yours or not.  When did you plant in the ground?  Has it experienced a freeze? 

[PindoPalm]

5 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Anyone got any other ideas??? It’s been a month and nothing has changed. The spear is still shriveled. Any specific deficiencies that might cause this? Or disease? I’ve used copper fungicide already, I fertilized not too long ago, I tried giving it heavy amounts of water for like 2 weeks. I don’t really know what to do now. It’s not dying but it’s not making progress either. Today I marked the spear, hopefully it shows movement soon.

Can you provide an updated image. From the images i see from Late January to Early February, I don’t see anything too bad. Is it just spotting or is the entire spear brown? Is the soil good? If it’s not draining too well you might want to check that. Other than maybe some sort of deficiency or an issue with sunlight, watering, or soil i don’t know what is wrong. You might want to speak to an expert if you can find one

[TropicsEnjoyer]

7 hours ago, Fusca said:

When did you plant in the ground?  Has it experienced a freeze? 

It’s been in ground for probably 6 months by now, had plenty of time to establish and was doing well until recently. And to be honest all my problems started after a cold spell. There was a day of rain and temps were like 30s. I kept a bag over it for a few days at most. Soon after I uncovered it problems started. 

I can take pictures tomorrow of how it looks now. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Ok so the bigger spear has moved, which is promising. Also sorry but 2nd pic upside down i can’t seem to fix it.

[Fusca]

3 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Ok so the bigger spear has moved, which is promising. 

Good news, looks like it's coming back.  Probably just cold damage from a recent freeze.  Seedings are more vulnerable.  I forgot about protecting this Acrocomia totai seedling at 27°F in January and it completely burned with just a hint of green.  In a few years it should handle 20°F or colder without issue but not yet.  Now it's coming back strong.  And the St. Augustine grass is invading it's space again.