Hi Ken,

Could you be a little more specific about the 'brown fuzz'? Has this effected the new spear only or all of the leaves? If it has affected all of the leaves then it sounds like some kind of fungal attack.

That said, if it has only affected the newest, emerging spear, then give it a little tug and see if it pulls out. If it does then unfortunately the palm has spear rot. Depending on the size of your palm/palms, it may still be possible to save them by squirting hydrogen peroxide into the crown once a week until you start to see new growth emerging. I personally use a 5% solution.

Nick

Which Parajubaea do you have, and how long have you had it? When those were being popularized 15 years ago (ish) by Martin Gibbons et al, thinking at the the time was they would need cool summer climates to survive. And certainly, no where in TX fits that description except maybe the peaks of the Guadalupe mountains.
Mind you it's proving that not every high-elevation plant requires high-elevation conditions, but it would be interesting to know this one is also an exception. The exceptions are probably more common with monocots. For example my Thamnocalamus tesselatus only experiences relatively comfortable summers in its native environment but it has no trouble growing for me in the humid Chesapeake Bay country. (even the lowlands of Kwa-Zulu Natal are not as hot in summer as you might expect...it can essentially be considered a maritime-subtropical hybrid climate)

Ok, in googling now it seems P. sunkha survives in Florida, albeit not growing much during the summer.

The brown fuz is a little bit like the fuz on kiwi. Its mostly on the stems, and up the leaves slightly. I planted it this spring, and tried to water sparingly (about once a week midsummer) as it is getting established. I read the palm doesn't do well in heat with humidity. Now that we have had some dry weather, the fuz didn't get worse, but its still there, and growth has slowed. I scrape some fuz off with my fingernail however. I have two in pots in the backyard and one in the ground in the front yard. They all have the same thing with the fuz on each stem and half of the leaf. Would peroxide help any fungus? I used fungicide, which didn't seem to help.

The variety is torallyi. It grew well over the summer though. Thanks, Ken