Need help with newly plant royal palm

robsp2000

13 years ago

I planted 4 - 25 gallon royal palms in late January. Not knowing any better, I added fertilizer to the soil around the rootball. I realized this was wrong pretty quickly and within a 4-5 days we dug them back up, rinsed the rootball and dug the holes out larger and added fresh unfertilized soil. 3 of the palms have bounced back well and the new center fronds are growing pretty quickly. About 6 inches a week. One tree however, didn't do as well. It had 4 fronds to begin with and about a 16" new center frond sprouting. The two lowest fronds turned completely brown. The third one turned about 25% brown and the highest frond just has a little brown on the tips of the leaves. All this damage happened within the first 2 weeks. Since then it has not gotten any worse.

The new center frond though has not grown at all. It is still the original size it was when it was planted. Is this tree dying or is it in shock? It's been about 7 weeks now. If it is just shock, how long can this last before it starts to grow again?

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Comments (9)

lzrddr
13 years ago
can't tell yet... and some trees literally take years to die... or to come out of shock.. You can fertilize when you plant buy you have to be judicious... use a 12 month slow release and use a modest amount... or you can use a liquid fertilizer... palms planted with very healthy, solid root balls planted in a warm season can use the fertilizer immediately... but if you disturbed the roots in any way, or it's cold out, then best to wait a good 3-6 months if you are going to use any 'hot' fertilizer (any dry, non-slow release types).
theseventhlegend
13 years ago
Are you watering it the same as the other 3? Have you had any significant rainfall since it was replanted?
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robsp2000
Original Author
13 years ago
Yes, I have been watering them as much as the others. I have been using 5 gallon buckets with some small holes drilled in the bottom so I can tell exactly how much I am giving them. I probably have averaged about 10 to 15 gallons a day per tree. Here are two photos, the one on the left was taken Feb 19th and the other taken today. There has been maybe 1/4 inch growth. The other palms have had around 18 inches of growth in the same time.
theseventhlegend
13 years ago
Give it a little while... I had something similar happen with a Pheonix and I watered often but rainfall helped the most. Not sure exactly where your at but heat & humidity will speed your recovery and it's only March. If your palm isn't doing anything by mid summer than it's not looking good.
garyfla_gw
13 years ago
Hi
What have your temps been like?? You'd have probably been better off waiting until spring. would give them a lot more time to adapt. Where are you in 11 gary
robsp2000
Original Author
13 years ago
I am in Key West. Temps have been bouncing around lately. Around 73 to 80 for highs and 62 to 67 for lows in the last month or so.
garyfla_gw
13 years ago
Hi
Well you can eliminate temp problems for sure.lol I'm in palm beach and they do well here . They do seem to require a lot of time to establish and like all palms are much more sensitive when immature.
Have you checked with Fairchild gdns?? They are the experts on all things palm lol gary
robsp2000
Original Author
13 years ago
We got some growth! About 2 inches in the last week.
theseventhlegend
13 years ago
That's good news. I hope it makes it for you. Temps, humidity and rainfall are increasing. Thanks for the update.