if you ignored it.. and it returned... one might suggest.. you keep ignoring it .. rather than try to love it to death ...

as such ... though spraying water might rid you of the white stuff ... it might not be good for the plant ...

just leave it alone ... if it dies.. it dies.. and good riddance ...

and if it doesnt.. well... you learn it doesnt need you ... my kind of plant.. lol

ken

Water is bad for plants?

Who knew?

A pressurized spray directed into the crown of the plant might injure some tissue allowing the fungus (if that's what it is) to penetrate deeper. I know nothing of sago palms however.

My cold fronts are not as long or as cold as yours in VA. I am 8b. The Temperatures do drop in a very short time without plants being hardened off. I am now cutting all the fronds off before the cold front. I am talking the ones that get into the mid teens. I mound the fronds around it and pile on a blanket . My SP is much larger than yours and I have found that the larger they are the more cold tolerant they are. They grow back the fronds in spades next spring. I have never had white mold. I would try fungicide of a sort. Have you asked over at the palm forum?

I posted on the palm forum but didn't get any response.

Last winter was mostly pretty mild, but then we had about 2 weeks of snow! It was crazy for around here. We usually have a few nights in the teens but not many.

So you put the blanket and other "insulation" on it for the whole winter? Or just for the really cold times? At what temperature do you think it needs it?

My husband was talking about some kind of mulch and wrap it in plastic. He said he's seen that. But that seems strange and not quite right to me?

I was thinking of painting on some fungicide with a paint brush, just on those spots.

Thanks much.

I do it just for the cold times. The thing that needs the most protection is the stalk and meristem growth point. Usually when it gets around 20F I start it worry. We are usually only cold for three days. I would look for palms in your area because you have a different kind of cold for longer wetter durations. You might send a query to Plant Delights or a palm nursery. PD grow them a similar situation. I was in DC and it was 12F. We only made it to 21. I get more serious as things get colder.I don't think I cut the fronds off till spring and I threw on a towel over the meristem. My palm is 6' across so it is impossible to cover it. I am reading that you will be on the northern edge of the part of the country with the largest snow anomaly this year.

Looks awfully like an outbreak of mealybugs to me - treatment is complex and involves IPM using a mixture of biological (expensive) and chemical (targeted pesticide) controls, along with rigorous plant hygiene. I confess to giving up the ghost when a phormium came under mealybug attack, ripping the whole thing out and burning it...but with the slow-growing (long-lived) cycads, I might be inclined to take a punt on treatment.

Mealybugs??? How would I know for sure? I don't see any actual insects. Do they come out at night?

Thanks campanula.

I would not wrap them with plastic but something breathable. I think when one wraps things in plastic for awhile, one is asking for trouble. I leave things under plastic only temporarily. BUT , I don't know about protecting things all winter.

_OH god don't say mealies. I have been dealing with a root mealy in my succulent collection. Much dunking in hot soapy water and spraying with alcohol . Boiling pots and decorative rocks. SHEESH.

Plastic isn't a good insulator - it prevents air exchange but allows heat to radiate out through it. (In a plastic covered greenhouse there is usually more than one layer with air trapped between the layers.) You'd do better to use something like a spun-bond row cover doubled up - one layer will keep things a few degrees warmer than ambient temps (how much depends on the thickness) so more than one layer will add to the insulating value.

I googled Treating sago palms for mealybugs and got lots of information. There is a new asian scale that is whiping out a lot of the Floridian population. It is worth a perusal. Lots of talk about hitting things with safer insecticidal soap . And a coffee cure . I perused just a few articles while working on restoration of a small stone sculpture.

coffee cure

Mealy management

Soap and alcohol spray