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Palms & Cycads
johnnieb_dc

Waggie damage

17 years ago

I posted this in response to a question on another board (the Hardy Palm & Subtropical Board) but thought it might be of interest here since I've posted a lot about my waggies (Trachycarpus wagnerianus) and have posted photos over the years.

My waggies are not doing well at all. They took a major hit and I'm still not certain why as this was not the coldest winter they've experienced. I did fertilize them a little more heavily than usual and rather late last year so who knows, maybe that's the culprit. This year I will fertilize them VERY lightly in the next week or two, and that's probably it for the year. I had spear pull on all 3 of my established waggies, NONE of which had ever had spear pull previously. You can see the waggies in this closeup of my upper garden--this is from a few weeks ago but the waggies still look about the same, or if anything a bit browner:

Here's a closeup of the damage, which started showing up almost immediately after the 8 degree night--both this spear and this leaf pulled a few days after this photo was taken:

Here's the waggie in context, next to T. "takil" a.k.a. "Nainital"--note that the latter is virtually untouched! It is already opening a new leaf and pushing out two new spears, whereas the waggies are showing no sign of growth at all. Since this photo was taken, all the leaves have folded down and are resting on the ground, even the green ones.

Here they were as of last December, before we had any substantial cold weather: (cry)

Having seen how regular T. fortunei can recover from spear pull and partial to almost total defoliation I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but even if they recover it will be quite some time before they look this good again...

Oh well, I can take comfort in knowing that in a few weeks my garden will look more like this:

Comments (9)

  • 17 years ago

    sorry to hear about the cold damage to your palms, but wow look at that last photo of your garden!! I imagine that was at it's peak late last summer? What kind of banana specimen do you have?

  • 17 years ago

    Johnnieb,are the spears not recovering at all?

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  • 17 years ago

    Thanks desertgardener, yes that photo was taken in August of last year. The banana is Musa basjoo, which is completely hardy here.

    Jimhardy, no sign of spear recovery yet. I've seen T. fortunei recover from worse, so I'm remaining hopeful but they may not show new growth until well into June. I am just so bummed because these palms sailed through previous winters with so little damage.

  • 17 years ago

    A waggie which was wrapped and heated (a few nights) isn't in perfect condition. Another waggie is probably dead. The only unprotected waggie around this area in good condition is this one on a South-facing wall in a courtyard. It hasn't changed since the pic on 2/25/09.

    {{gwi:1134428}}

  • 17 years ago

    Wow! Sorry to hear/ see that JohnnieB. I wonder what exactly caused it. It was a hard winter at times for sure, but we have had much worse winters here I think, but not in the last 10 years.

    I have not posted my spring palm survival write up just yet, but I think I did post last nov/dec that I had left my Windmill (Fortunei) outdoors, unprotected for the most part, in a pot, that was sitting on the ground, and it survived OK. It has some leaf damage, but mostly just to one fan. The spear was fine all winter, and undamaged, never pulled, and has now pushed up one entire new fan, with the one that was behind it set to start to open shortly. Its really started growing fast in the last 3-4 weeks. I have to say, I am fairly amazed that it survived, esp given that it saw 9F several times, and was covered in 1/2" of ICE a couple times, and snow several times. It looks rattier than it did for sure, but its doing very very well.

    Have yours started regrowing yet? I hope yours make it!

  • 17 years ago

    I just checked tonight and the least damaged one is just starting to push out a new spear, although it looks like it will be damaged. No sign on the others yet, but now I know that at least one of them will make it.

  • 17 years ago

    Do you have pictures of the Damage? my michigan trachy is making a slow comeback.

  • 17 years ago

    Great news Johnnieb,hopefully they will all come through,I lost 1 palm to spear pull this past fall(it never really did get established,the other 2 have pushed out 2 new(damaged) leaves but they should be back in buisness now with warmer days and milder nights,I think the nightime lows getting above 50F really gets these Trachys moving,shouldn't be long now before we no whats staying and whats going-Good luck!

  • 17 years ago

    Poor waggies :'(

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