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Hmmm Sometimes desert situations really get bad nutrient deficiencies too; I don’t know a lot about that.

I will and it’s most likely a mutation as the only cycads around were Z. Integrifolia where I found the seeds

Not to bury the update above, but I noticed its nearest neighboring palm about 20 feet away, has a leaning center with some abnormal yellow and at least one frond is opening strange. Its hard to show in pictures, but the key point is that all the spears are acting a bit floppy. And lean. Nothing like the top hill but also not normal for this palm in the past. Its in a very different situation (a bit more standing water when irrigated, block wall right next to it) versus original palm of this post which is on a solo hill. Water just runs away. Could it still be related? Are these both just somehow deficient because of some random soil difference on this side of my yard?

None of them will budge. They are every bit as anchored as the healthy fronds. I pulled as hard as I could with leather gloves until I ripped them with the armor, and it will not move. To clarify, the center-most spear is green. Whether it will stay that way remains to be seen. But its solid and I cannot pull them at all. More images attached here.

Yesterday, I spoke with the owner and manager of the garden. He is a Chilean man living on the island; his wife is a native of the island, and it is their private garden. He explained to me that, during a trip to Tahiti (French Polynesia), he was able to bring back palm seeds. We are going to propagate seeds *in vitro* and clone palms in the laboratory. I want to help him with exotic palms. I hope everything goes well. 🌴🌴🦜

Thank you for the feedback. To clarify, these have been there 3 years. They are pretty established with a foot of trunk growth since planting. We have had zero rain since March, until 3 days ago. How would fungus appear in the heart with no moisture? I will go try and tug on the dead fronds.

The idea that it is one of several washies and the only one to have this issue says its likely a site problem. THe newer parts of the crown drying up like that are consistent with a fungal infection as Dave said. THe spear may pull with a tug,dont be afraid to tug on it repeatedly, thge center is dead. Need to get peroxide and fungicide down the spear hole ASAP with no delay.

Looks like a lot of dry climate species. You should have some luck if they were stored well. I ended up with a Brahea 'Super Silver' coming up in some potting mix that looked like it had gotten too wet and rotted all of the contents, so there is always hope.

no palm without established roots is drought resistant compared with an established one. Alfredii is drought tolerant once it establishes deep roots. Planted in march 2026 this one has another 2 years to get those roots established.

These are very tough palms! Make sure it has adequate water to get it established (10 gallons at a time, twice a week). Keep the faith - it will recover. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Ouch! Sorry to hear and see the pictures! Give a tug on the browned leaves; if they pull out, get some hydrogen peroxide and dump it straight into the hole, repeat and pray. It looks like you might have a fungus in the growing point.

I'm not sure if I've done something wrong, but I'm really surprised to see zero feedback. These fronds are now completely dead. I ordered in Southern Ag Palm Nutritional Spray ( manganese, iron etc) in hopes of helping the palm. Administered about 5 days ago as a soil drench. Center spear has some green but unsure if it will stay that way. It didn't help the spears that were starting to yellow - they kept dying. I would still really appreciate advice.

I have a seed bank at the house and some of the seeds have been here a while in some cases ten years or close. Including Nanorrhops among others that include Braheas, Jubaea. Gonna plant some and see how it goes! Anyone have experiences to share? Give ‘em to me bay bay as Rick James would have said….

Floribunda Palms & Exotics has one gallons for $30.00.

Huge 15g ready for pickup…full sun grown and asking $275. DM and come get it

Here are my thoughts. It is always possible that this is as you described, an aberrant leaflet that the plant will grow out of. If it persists, I wouldn't rule out that it could be a hybrid, even though it came from the same cone. If two sets of pollen were used on the same female cone, you could get different seeds. The last possibility is some sort of genetic mutation. I would rate the liklihoods of what is transpiring in the same order I listed them. It will be fun to see what happens with it over time. Keep the post updated as it grows.

Here are a couple of Encephalartos kisambo that I have growing in Carlsbad. I tend to agree with Dale although there is a fair amount of variation in Encephalartos sclavoi. Some sclavoi will flush with a bronze color to the new leaflets while others will flush green.

Bizmarkia= gopher candy! Ask me how I know . They are the roots to mine right to the trunk. Harry

Very nice garden , good ju-ju with the tiki! Harry

This summer is proving to be exceptionally warm and dry again. Consistently warm/hot (mostly in the 28-32C range) and also extremely dry. It is full blown warm-summer Med (Csb) here nowadays. Like there is no question about it. 30C / 86F average max this July in London with absolutely zero rainfall. The last time it rained here for me was 33 days ago now back on 16th June. So there hasn't been a drop of rain for going on 5 weeks. The post below is 4 days old now... There isn't any rain coming any time soon. I might go 50+ days without any rain. The latest GFS has absolutely nothing coming down here. EURO AI (AIFS) The rainfall signal for August looks pretty worrying. Some places in southern England are only on 10mm / 0.4 inches this summer from the opening 2 days of June. About a quarter of England is under water restrictions right now, with more inevitably coming in due to the ongoing drought. If last winter wasn't so wet, things would be far worse right now after a dry 3-4 months in general... On top of this, there is a marine heatwave ongoing as well with sea temperatures up to 24C / 75F in parts of southeast England... Still plenty of 40's C on the charts going towards August. I suspect the August record will fall this summer... Fires have been breaking out everywhere over the past few weeks... The 4 main fires at the time of writing this... The worst right now is the Cairngorms one in Scotland, which has been getting attacked by helicopters for days... The webcams around the Cairngorms are just completely smoked out...

Yikes, this is a drought tolerant palm so you may need to look at other possibilities like gophers eating the roots. I’m in Rancho Cucamonga and I have both triple digit heat and low humidity. I water mine daily in summer and I let the hose run. But the amount of water I give overall is less than I give to my Roystonea or Archontophoenix. I had a 7 foot tall Bismarckia taken out by gophers. I’d keep giving it a robust amount of water to see if it is able to power through. Once happy and healthy they are always throwing 3 spears at a time and will regrow the crown within a year.

What kind of soil is in the raised bed and under it? Did you amend the soil with organics or perlite? The area appears sloped and raised so it should drain away, but if its not penetrating deep it will just runoff. A bar that goes through mucky surface soil will come out with muck on it, the last soil it touches on the way out, even if the depth is dry. Drainage tests are highly recommended in heavy clay to determine if extensive site preparation is needed. Could be you have low drainage soil and the water is wetting the top 4-5 inches but leaving underneath dry, sloped ground can be tricky with low drainage clay soil. I would dig the garden area near the rootball, closest to the wall facing the street(downhill from the palm) and see if it really is wet at depth, say 15"). The crisping of the leaf tips doesnt look like overwatering to me. Yellowing without crinkled leaf tips would be more the expected overwatering issue. I am thinking its clay soil because its sloped int he general area. This would have to be heavily amended with perlite and some organics to ensure fast drainage. Half an hour is not going to penetrate deeply int he soil if it has a good amount of clay. I grew palms in clay desert for 10 years. 1) must determine soil drainage by digging a hole and adding water to the hole to 18" by at least a foot wide and seeing how long it takes to drain after filling it up. 2) drip irrigation is really a big advantage in drier climates in clay soil if you don't want to constantly be attending to your palm 3) Never water during daytime heat, evaporative losses are potentially massive in a dry climate 4) Small gravel is a loser in drier climates as it allows more evaporation, larger size 3/4" granite or other stone rock does much better at retaining moisture.

Firmiana simplex? Is the stem/trunk green and smooth? The new red leaves are not typical of Firmiana so I might be wrong.

Just noticed these this morning. The other seedlings from the same cone are perfectly normal