King palm under duress

[Ben in Norcal]

Take a look at this thing. Fronds started dying off way too quickly and collapsing over the last couple weeks. Root fungus? It’s not cold as we haven’t even hit freezing this year. I’ve applied a systemic...any chance of this thing coming back or am I cutting it out? It’s down to the spear and maybe one other healthy frond.

 

[Pip]

How dry has it been?

Unfortunately they do look like this from time to time in Mediterranean climates.

[Ben in Norcal]

1 minute ago, Pip said:

How dry has it been?

Unfortunately they do look like this from time to time in Mediterranean climates.

It was very dry over the summer - and I had irrigation issues in this part of the yard.

[Merlyn]

It's a little tough to tell from the picture, but if it's browned tips on the leaftlets that is a common sign of insufficient water.  You might even see that on the tip of the new spear if the water deficiency is high enough or long enough in duration.  That could be from a long period with low water, or a few weeks really hot without water, or overwatering and root rot, or something else.  If the brown frond on the upper right is the oldest, that could be a "normal" kill-off-the-oldest-frond reaction to a lack of resources.

[Ben in Norcal]

1 minute ago, Merlyn2220 said:

It's a little tough to tell from the picture, but if it's browned tips on the leaftlets that is a common sign of insufficient water.  You might even see that on the tip of the new spear if the water deficiency is high enough or long enough in duration.  That could be from a long period with low water, or a few weeks really hot without water, or overwatering and root rot, or something else.  If the brown frond on the upper right is the oldest, that could be a "normal" kill-off-the-oldest-frond reaction to a lack of resources.

Thanks.  A couple of the green fronds have collapsed/bent in on themselves - is that at all instructive?

I guess I will mark the spear and see what happens as we move into spring, but just trying to figure out what my prognosis is here.

[enigma99]

I have a smaller one that has similar leafs, it is also a dry spot. Maybe it’s just stress from the lack of water?

[Ben in Norcal]

4 minutes ago, enigma99 said:

I have a smaller one that has similar leafs, it is also a dry spot. Maybe it’s just stress from the lack of water?

I'm hopeful that's it, Derrick, as I think it has a better chance of coming back then...

[Merlyn]

I looked up the historical temperature on Weather.com for Clayton, it shows lows of 35F for several days in December and 32F on the 29th.  I'm only guessing, but if those were dry windy nights I suppose it could be dessication.  In FL Kings show damage around freezing, maybe a few degrees lower depending on shelter/canopy.  I recall reading that dry CA winds were horrible on some palms, but I don't have any direct experience.

I'd mark the spear anyway, to see if it's actively growing.  I noticed on my "nursery pots" area that most of the palm (of ~10 species) stopped spear growth below 60F/40F H/L.  When highs went back above 70F most of the spears starting moving again. So you might not see much change unless it warms up a bit.

[Ben in Norcal]

4 minutes ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I looked up the historical temperature on Weather.com for Clayton, it shows lows of 35F for several days in December and 32F on the 29th.  I'm only guessing, but if those were dry windy nights I suppose it could be dessication.  In FL Kings show damage around freezing, maybe a few degrees lower depending on shelter/canopy.  I recall reading that dry CA winds were horrible on some palms, but I don't have any direct experience.

I'd mark the spear anyway, to see if it's actively growing.  I noticed on my "nursery pots" area that most of the palm (of ~10 species) stopped spear growth below 60F/40F H/L.  When highs went back above 70F most of the spears starting moving again. So you might not see much change unless it warms up a bit.

I have some elevation, so not quite that cold here...and my yard is choc full of kings, with only this one (in a sheltered spot/under canopy) showing stress.  I'm leaning towards drought stress or fungus...so I guess we'll see if it can hold on and starts growing again in spring.

[Jim in Los Altos]

3 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I looked up the historical temperature on Weather.com for Clayton, it shows lows of 35F for several days in December and 32F on the 29th.  I'm only guessing, but if those were dry windy nights I suppose it could be dessication.  In FL Kings show damage around freezing, maybe a few degrees lower depending on shelter/canopy.  I recall reading that dry CA winds were horrible on some palms, but I don't have any direct experience.

I'd mark the spear anyway, to see if it's actively growing.  I noticed on my "nursery pots" area that most of the palm (of ~10 species) stopped spear growth below 60F/40F H/L.  When highs went back above 70F most of the spears starting moving again. So you might not see much change unless it warms up a bit.

Todd, Here in California, cold nights occur primarily on very still, clear, quiet nights in lower humidity. Hilly areas are always warmer higher up and colder down in the valleys. Wind increases the temperatures as does higher humidity so coldest nights are windless or nearly windless with dry air. 

I think Ben’s King palm suffered some drought stress before our rainy season started almost two months ago. Soils here in the Bay Area are moist right now. 

Edited January 3, 2019 by Jim in Los Altos

[Merlyn]

Jim and Ben, that makes sense to me.  Here in central FL our coldest nights are typically windy from the NW, as we get the remnants of a big cold front pushing through.  Usually that makes our cold nights much worse for palms, which is why I planted a sweet viburnum hedge on the NW side of my "cold-sensitive" planting area.