Large Ponytail with Large Soft Area

[Alicehunter2000]

Need help....my ponytail has a very large soft area. As many of you know we had a brutal winter up here. This plant barely survived. What do I need to do? Cut off the soft tissue? Do I leave it because the outer layer is in pretty good condition?

The wet area is the side that is soft. The two little sprouts just started coming back a couple of weeks ago

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

The soft spot looks like a bacterial infection. With a giant soft spot and that huge open wound, I would be very concerned. I would spray hydrogen peroxide liberally all over the cut off stump. If the wet spot remains soft and wet, cut it out and spray copiously there too. You might try a beach umbrella or similar to keep the rain off it and see if it dries a little.

[Alicehunter2000]

The soft area is under the bark, it is very large maybe 1/4 of the stump. If I cut, it will open up the entire side.....this thing should harden up and callous over if I get down to good tissue right?

Btw....that Ombu died to the ground this winter but is now about 5 ft. Tall.

[Ken Johnson]

No callous

[Alicehunter2000]

So what do I do?

[Alicehunter2000]

I read on a website to cut all damaged tissue and apply concrete to act as a bandaid to keep water from getting in. Supposidly this works. Hmm....may have to play Dr. Frankenstein.

[Dypsisdean]

You may find this of interest.

http://www.palmpedia.net/forum/index.php?threads/help-for-beaucarnea-recurvata.4212/

[_Keith]

Wasn't there a post a while back about using expanding foam in a palm cavity. Seems like I remember that.

http://tcia.org/PDFs/Press%20Release%20Archive/PR_Don't%20Fill%20Tree%20Cavities.pdf

Forum keeps goobering up the link. Just paste the whole line above into your browsers.

[OB Burt]

Bondo?

[rick]

Wasn't there a post a while back about using expanding foam in a palm cavity. Seems like I remember that.

http://tcia.org/PDFs/Press%20Release%20Archive/PR_Don't%20Fill%20Tree%20Cavities.pdf

Forum keeps goobering up the link. Just paste the whole line above into your browsers.

Here are two posts on it. I think the first one is the one you are thinking of keith.

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/41546-royal-cavity/

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/20162-major-crack-in-favorite-palmhelp/

[Walt]

Back in 1999 or 2000 I bought two small ponytail palms. One I planted next to the covered entryway to the house. The other I planted farther out in my side yard, totally in the open. As I recall, these ponytails were no larger than a 3 gallon size. I got them from Walmart, in the nursery section..

On January 5, 2001, we had a very severe radiational freeze. In fact, Archbold Biological Station, 8 miles to my south, tied their all-time record low at 13 degrees. I only had one thermometer out that night near the south side of my house and I recorded 22 degrees.

The ponytail up by the house entryway escaped damage, but the one in the open yard was turned to mush. The bolbous base was very mushy on top. Having no experience with ponytail palms at the time, I thought it was a gonner. I didn't to anything to it, just left it on its own. Lo and behold it started coming back and formed five new trunks, all growing at different rates. So I think your ponytail palm should recover with probably multiple trunks.

Since that freeze my ponytail has never been hurt. I just recently noticed a small new trunk starting to develop off one of the existing trunks.

By taller ponytail palm by my entryway started forming lots of small trunks off the main trunk about two years ago. One day I'm going to have to do something with this ponytail palm as it will be interfering with the house.

Below are two photos of my multiple trunked ponytail palm out in the yard, the one that was once mush.

[Walt]

The below photo shows my taller ponytail palm next to the entryway of my house. I should have never planted it there. Or, I should have moved it years ago when I still could.

Above photo: My ponytail palm next to 12 feet high (ceiling) entryway. About two years ago it started making about a dozen small branches off the main trunk. That Cerus peruvianus behind the adonidia palm just came up on its own, and so far I'm leaving it there.

[Alicehunter2000]

That is interesting Walt. It makes me wonder if cutting the soft tissue is the right thing to do. Maybe the soft area acts as a bandaid of sorts for the living tissue below. What if the "rot" does not actually spread beyond what was killed outright by the cold. I got a small one that is doing the same thing as yours. The only thing I cut was the main stem down to the base. It is still soft over much of the top....but the thing is coming back strong.

[Walt]

I can't answer your question due to lack of experience and knowledge. I agree with others about applying a fungicide. The soft spot is small compared to what my ponytail looked like after that bad freeze. The entire top was a mushy, gooey mess. I don't recall now if I just left it like it was, drenched it with hydrogen peroxide or copper fungicide, etc. In any event, I'm lucky it came back. I would say if the soft spot doesn't get larger and/or deeper, your ponytail will be okay.

[_Keith]

The below photo shows my taller ponytail palm next to the entryway of my house. I should have never planted it there. Or, I should have moved it years ago when I still could.

Above photo: My ponytail palm next to 12 feet high (ceiling) entryway. About two years ago it started making about a dozen small branches off the main trunk. That Cerus peruvianus behind the adonidia palm just came up on its own, and so far I'm leaving it there.

I remember a few years back you posting a photo of yours one of my threads and encouraging me to plant out my Ponytail. Who knew at the time, it would be the winter of 2010 coming up, a 15 year record freeze. Well, both of those puppies are dead as a hammer, lol. I have some more, still in pots, lol.

[Walt]

Yes, both January and then again in December of 2010 were cold ones. In fact, December of 2010 I had more nights (11) below 40 degrees than any month since I moved here in 1997. I had about six nights below 30 degrees, with three of those nights below 25 degrees. My lowest night I recorded 20.8 degrees. But I believe it may have even been in the upper teens on the lowest part of my property. The official low for the county was 15 degrees the night I had 20.8 degrees (in the open). Also, December of 2010 I had my earliest frost/freeze. I think my first freeze was around December 7th. Normally, I don't get my first light frost until the end of December, sometimes early January.

My multi trunked ponytail wasn't hurt during that 20.8 degree low. I think that was because it was totally surrounded and covered with Brazilian tall bananas (which all got fried and killed). This spring I dug all of them out because I'm tired of cleaning them up every spring. I missed some small corms (there were so many) and some came up, which you can see in my photo. I just let them grow.

[Alicehunter2000]

Did some cutting......all firm tissue....ignore the discoloration. .....gonna try and keep it dry