Sorry to hear about your trachy's Jim. I will keep my fingers crossed!

Sorry to hear about them. Unfortunately I really doubt they will recover, but at least you still have lots of amazing plants that are healthy and ready to grow for you. Still you can never replace the first palm tree planted in the ground.

Good luck, I hope they make it!

What a bummer. Your pindos pulled thru well. What did you do differently for them?

Was your winter worse than usual?

It was how quickly it shifted into winter-
well above normal in Nov and as warm as 78f-
then 61f Dec 1.
From there it went straight into winter,the next 10 days were basically below freezing as far as the mean temp goes,
the palms were shocked and you know how the rest of the winter went.

I am not going to say anything about this yet,except that there may be a happy ending to the story.

I had a few VERY small palms(Trachys with only strap leaves)that I provided NO HEAT for,only styrofoam covers-

They were both cut back almost to the ground to remove rot-
they are both pushing up new spears 0^:

My oldest pindo hasent had spear pull yet.It's fronds were all brown,so I trimed them off.Jim frist off im sorry to hear about your palms.What did you use to cut your palms down,till you dident find anymore rot?Did you cut a little at a time,say an inch at a time till you got to where you dident see anymore rot?My pindo as I said dident have spear pull but looking down in the trunk at what's left of the fronds I cut off are all brown.How do you know how far down from the top of the trunk to start cutting?Do you think I should do this to my palm,or just wait and see what happens?I respect your opinion jim,I know you know alot about palms.Thanks, Randy(AKA)butiaman.

Jim, I have a question. Can you actually cut a palms trunk down at all with out it killing it? I thought that it was pretty much over when a palms trunk was cut down because palms only grow from the center.

Thanks and wish you luck.

I had my 3rd casualty from the Great 2010 Florida Freeze, one of my single Foxtail Palms. So, I dug it up and planted a new one in it's place, all in under 2 hours.

Randy
It's a tough call,mine basically whispered to me when I walked by it.
Here's an easier way to put that,the leaves were sagging a sure sign of a problem,also one was shriveling up.

So yea,I did cut a few inches first( the spear was long gone)rotted and stinking,cut again same thing.
I cut it within 10" or so from the bottom,left it for a while and then decided it was still not healthy tissue in there.
The final cut is the one pictured and definitely healthy tissue-this brings us to T7's question.
How low can you go?

I went as far as I needed to,I mean there is no spear there,if you look at the pics of the smaller palms you can see the hollowed out middles.

There is no more rot,the Q is,how low can you cut a plam?

I don't think there is a set answer to that,obviously if you remove the apical meristem it's done-unless it has bent out the side and you missed it,
I have seen pics of that where people thought their palm was suckering.

As I mentioned I did see spears pushing up out of 2 Trachys I cut down just as far,they are maybe a quarter inch around!
Amazing!

Jim-

I'm also curious about cutting the trunk. I'm debating trying it with one of mine but don't have any experience in that area. I've been knocking on wood for a while because of not experiencing spear pull. I would occasionally tug on the spears just to be sure. I had given it some peroxide solution to be safe a while back. Well low and behold the second shortest spear pulled out yesterday. It was not green though, rather pretty dry and crispy. I treated it again with peroxide and am now pondering what to do next. If a spear pulls, is it certain there is rot? I wonder if I should just get out the ole saw...

The thing is,if you do cut it....

It's not going to hurt it,with what happened with your Trachy it seems odd that it is pulling.

I will say that I wish I would have done this sooner.

Try it-go down like 3" if the tissue is all one color and healthy it's probably fine,if not,go a little further until it is all healthy tissue.
If you get to that point,treat it and put a cover over it if it rains to keep it dry,if there is healthy tissue in there it will start pushing up fast,like bananas do-maybe a little slower(-;

Good luck Kory

Jim, that is tree-surgery. I noticed you cut her down with the spear visible at the lowest point of a cross-section and that was wise to see if will come back. You say she is pushing up new growth and my guess is that this will work.

I can see you were surgically strategic when cutting. You avioded at "true trunk cut" people here need to know or they may cut their palms thinking they can come back from a real truck cut.

Send some pics on how they are progressing. With it 81 today they are still pushing up I bet.

Thanks Jim. What kind of saw did you use? Something with very fine teeth like a hacksaw or something? I'm thinking something with the finest teeth as to not rip it up too much.

Another thing I noticed about the spear that did pull, it was protruding about 18" up from the crown, it was open 8" wide at the tips (partially open), and the overall length including what was inside the trunk was close to 3 feet. The end that was in the trunk was soft/moist but pale yellow. It had a small area of whitish fuzz about half way down the part which was hidden in the trunk. This is a very hairy tree and it is very difficult to dig in and find the actual point where it goes inside. Any of this make sense to you?

Also I wonder about the pressure used in pulling on spears to determine if they will pull. I did not pull hard but it's not like it just slid right out either. Maybe 10 pounds of force was used. I'm afraid to pull on the other spears now...

Speaking of spears, the tree put up 4 new spears over the winter (4 in addition to the 2 or 3 which were existing when it was covered). It is obvious the ground heat mistake fooled it into trying to keep growing at a summer pace. One more thing, how would you describe "healthy tissue" once the trunk is cut into?

I used a regular wood hand saw-
Kory you will need to go on your instincts,I pulled another spear from my -2 Trachy yesterday,it had a yellowish color like you are talking about-
I thought it was growing but it did have rot inside-it just doesn't have the strength to grow out of it!

Greg
The palms I was referring to(sorry if this wasn't clear)are 2 that I did not heat,they were small with only strap leaves
the trunks are less than a 1/2 inch around,they had strap leaves(-; they fried off this winter.

I cut the trunks a little at a time and look at the innards,if they are still rotted I cut again-inch or two at a time,
I also cut at an angle facing the sun so they are hit with as much light as possible,also to encourage water to drain off.

Seems like cutting the trunk is pretty much the last resort (which is pretty much the stage those palms are at right now).
Good luck and I hope they do come back, keep us updated!

Sometimes we have to resort to drastic measures-

I have definitely been quick to pull the plug on young specimens such as Sabals,
I started with some that were to young(only strap leaves)and they were very hard to protect
as they are more sensitive then more mature plants.
There is something to be said for starting with larger sized plants,
can't beat the bling factor and they do tend get a foothold fast.

My plan was always to do as many as I could(cactus and palms,etc) at once and use different protection
strategies to learn as much about all of them as I can.
I have used about 7-8 different methods so far and I think they all can work.
Tree ferns will be a challenge this winter,I am looking forward to it!

We have had a VERY warm spring averaging 10+ (F) over avg-this has caused many banana plants
to be working on their second leaf already when normally I would be lucky to have them in the ground
this early!

ANYWAY- here are some pics of what's been going on lately

Washys-
one in front was overwintered and is working on a second leaf.
One in back was planted April 1-or so

TETRAPANEX-
opening up for business :D

ORINOCO-
overwintered in basement,cut down from about 5'
as it was mushy on top-busting loose!

ARUNDO DONAX-
putting on some speedy growth,it will have to
for it to stay ahead of the Itineran banana planted in front of it.

Basjoos enjoying the warm weather and getting ready to open some more serious leafage

{{gwi:407714}}

One of the wagxforts(maybe hard to see in a picture but.....)
pushing some green spear material up out of the center

My beloved Fortunei-maybe not out of it just yet!

First is after cutting it-second is 4 days later

Looks promising! Everything is looking great! The weather here is a little cooler right now (not too much below average), but at least no frost or even 30s for the whole month so far (hopefully it stays that way).

Good luck!

I'll be damned Jim! The trachies look like they might just pull though after all. I know it's quite early to know for sure but that sure looks promising...

Your bananas look great too for this time of year. I need to get mine back in the ground. I've had most of them out in pots getting used to partial sun for a while. I think this weekend they will go in. And yes it is so early to have this great weather. By my records we have not had a frost since way back in March. Accuweather 15-day shows nothing even close to a low in the 30s. We have not had any days at or below average since Feb. Wait, I take that back, one day in Mid March was just about "average" and that was the last frost! I think it's time...

Talk about making by the skin of your teeth Jim, the palms that are pushing certainly look alive and trying.

Dang near the skin of their toes Greg(-;

Yea guys/gals
The patient does seem to be recovering his head back-
if that even makes sense!?

Either way better than when I cut it(-:

Keep you posted

Thanks Kory
it does seem about time,I just hope this May doesn't turn around and bite us,it was in the 80s here for 4 days and over a weeks worth this month sure helps!

Things have never been this far along so soon-
The last few years I have been lucky to get a leaf out of the Bananas by May-some are working on their 2nd or 3rd.

The forecast is all upper 60s(Fri-Sat) and back to the upper 70s at least by early next week-just can't beat this April 2010 weather!