How to revive palms with spear damage?

[Swolte]

I have a JxB F1 and it didn't quite like this year's winter in College Station Texas despite some protection.

Now, it did appear to sail through the exceptionally long-duration freezes (lower than 20 F for long hours) in January with very little overt cold damage. I was mightily impressed as I planted it in the ground as a 5 gallon not even a year ago in a windy spot (the diameter of base has grown a full inch since I put it in the ground). However, it has been raining ever since and I noticed last week that the spear and another new frond started to turn yellow (see pic). None of the older fronds appear damaged at all.

So, I am in emergency mode. I can't quite pull the spear yet but I assume it will come out in time. I have been reading these forums, and asking around for advice, on what to do in case of spear damage on palms. The weather appears to be warming up. It looks like the options are:
A- Provide nutrients (e.g., Moon juice) 
B- Hydroperoxide down spear.
C- Copper based Anti-fungal down spear
D- Decapitate down to the first green (I guess last resort).

Do you have any recommendations as to how often you would apply ABC (if at all?). Weekly? And in what quantities? (A cup?). For the Hydroperoxide, should I dilute it with water (50/50?) before applying it (I got some 3% at the pharmacy)? 

Thanks!!

Edited March 5, 2018 by Swolte
Wording

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Pour some copper fungicide in there and try to keep rain out of it. Itll push right out of it no problem even without the fungicide, but better safe than sorry. 

[Swolte]

Thanks man, coming from you, that's a relief to hear. 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

 Mark the dead spear if it doesn't pull and you should see it push up.  As long as it is moving the new spear isn't crooked inside of there, which is good.  If you don't see it moving by mid April something isn't right, so please send me a PM ASAP and we can go to Plan B.

[Swolte]

Quick update!

The weeks since the initial post have been interesting.

Shortly after reading the reply from TCH, I diligently poured some copper fungicide down the crown and tried to find a stable measuring point for documenting any progress in growth. The spear hadn't pulled yet and I was fussing around using dead fronds and a stick as a measurement point. A week passed by and daily measurements, despite some more fungicide, didn't indicate much growth. To add to my frustration, my dog ran off with the measurement stick just at the moment I could swear there was some movement!

The second week appeared to spell disaster. One day during my routine checks, I noticed something took a huge bite out of the center of the palm! I bet a wild hog (there were reports of sightings earlier that week) liked the smell/taste of the fungicide as a small Mediterranean fan palm I treated also had it's center bitten off. So much for a gentle spear pull... The beast, however, left most of the green/older fronds alone and appeared to just munch on the dead ones from the center. Had it performed option D for me?

The third and fourth week, the weather really started to heat up (some nights in the 70's). Although 'old' fronds started to turn brown/yellow (see first pic), I began to see some green come out with remarkable speed! You can see that the two fronds it is pushing still have some bite marks in the pictures below!

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Those aren't animal bites it is cold damaged spear. 

[Sandy Loam]

I just found this PalmTalk thread and have found it interesting.  Maybe I should have been taking steps A - D myself back in February when the weather heated up for spring time.  This was my coldest winter in eight years (January brought two back-to-back freezes) and, as a result, two of my fairly mature Archontophoenix Cunninghamiana took quite a hit. Actually two of them are doing fine now (relatively speaking) because they are pushing out new green growth in the bottom of the spear. But two others are not pushing out any new growth at all.  The spears are not loose and I can't pull them out, but when I try to unfold the freeze-damaged spear on the latter two, the tissue looks all nasty and fungus-like on the inside.  I have never poured copper fungicide or peroxide on anything in my life, but maybe this a good time to start --- or maybe it's too late at this point?  (mid-April)

 

What do you suggest?  

Swolte, sorry to highjack your thread. 

 

[kinzyjr]

24 minutes ago, Sandy Loam said:

I just found this PalmTalk thread and have found it interesting.  Maybe I should have been taking steps A - D myself back in February when the weather heated up for spring time.  This was my coldest winter in eight years (January brought two back-to-back freezes) and, as a result, two of my fairly mature Archontophoenix Cunninghamiana took quite a hit. Actually two of them are doing fine now (relatively speaking) because they are pushing out new green growth in the bottom of the spear. But two others are not pushing out any new growth at all.  The spears are not loose and I can't pull them out, but when I try to unfold the freeze-damaged spear on the latter two, the tissue looks all nasty and fungus-like on the inside.  I have never poured copper fungicide or peroxide on anything in my life, but maybe this a good time to start --- or maybe it's too late at this point?  (mid-April)

 

What do you suggest?  

Swolte, sorry to highjack your thread. 

 

My Archontophoenix Alexandrae exhibited similar symptoms after looking fine since January.  Turned out that there was a fungal infection that went unnoticed until the spear began to brown, and the spear did eventually pull.  I used the fungicide on it, and now it's a waiting game to see if it will recover.  I'm 80/20 on it being a goner.

[Swolte]

No hijacking, Loam. Perfectly on topic!

I am pretty sure I did have an animal bite off the dead fronds on palms but it is possible that these particular 'marks' were just caused by freezing. Observation skills: +1. Thanks, Texas!