Green Fronds Falling

[jaybo]

In West Palm Beach we had 8 out of nine nights in the 30s. PBI registered 32F one night. I was surprised how little browning was observed compared to the Christmas 89 freeze. Now that we have been warm for a week, more palms are showing some browning of the fronds. But more interestingly, I have notice a few palms that appear damage free started dropping green fronds. Especially the Adonidia merrillii, Heterospathe elata, and Veitchia macdanielsii. This is a new cold damage outcome for me.

[Licuala]

I am use to seeing green leaves fall off dicots, but green leves falling off palms from cold is also a new experience for me. Saturday I woke up to find 8 perfectly good looking leaves having fallen off my Latania loddegesii. It is an old tree with over 8 feet of wood. To see over half the crown laying on the ground was quite a shock. One more leaf has fallen since.

Paul

[Tala]

same thing goin on here, never seen this before. It has to be a result of the prolonged cold, the Hyphaene coriacea below will normally develop spotting, then brown leaves but never this kind of bending in the petioles. The very new fronds appear to be OK, will have to wait & see.

[gsn]

Another thing I have noticed at least here after 24.4F is the premature opening of new spear fronds.

A good example is my triangle about 16 feet OA, it is opening 3 fronds at the same time. This has never happened before even in last years cold of 28F. This palm always opens one frond at a time,the spear growing until it splits from the other spears ,then starts to open,then about a 5 to 7 weeks later the next spear splits away and begins to open,continuning the same process over. The palm is completely bronzed, all fronds,except for the premature opening fronds.

The same is happening on alot of other crown shafted palms, my foxylady about 22 feet OA has a spear less than 2 feet long and it is trying to open, it usually opens after getting about 6 to 7 feet long. Naturally the spear that opened just before the freeze of course is completely fried...

Does this sound good or bad?

Edited January 25, 2010 by gsn

[Mark@PalmBeach]

I did a search for "Green Fronds Falling" prior to posting a new topic and much to my surprise this exact topic came up. I am also in the West Palm Beach area so it may be just the right cold conditions for this strange thing to be happening. I have had Triangle, Foxtail, Veitchia, Red Latan and Bottle palms all shed green fronds. Quite a larhe clean-up this weekend. The newest fronds look to be okay more or less with some spotting. My Pritchardia Pacifica on the other had is about 80% burned. I hope it recovers. Some of my evergreen fruits trees are also doing this. My wax jambu, star apple, and malay apple are completely defoliated, but the wood appears to be still alive with green just underneath the bark.

For the palms that are dropping green fronds, should they be treated with fungicide? Reaching the crown would be another matter.

[Tala]

Scott if you look at the 2nd pic of my Hyphaene you will see a couple of new leaves (which appear to be fine so far). Despite the cold most maybe all palms in our climate never really go dormant. They continue to pull up water & nutrients from the soil, and after some rain that stuff has to go somewhere, so ... since it cannot go into the now dead leaves it is pumped into the meristem which forces open spear(s). I have a few other palms doing this as well. I have a completely defoliated Corypha utan with nine huge dead fronds. The petioles are thick and have retained their color. As soon as I trim those fronds off, that palm will almost immediately open the three spears it has formed one right after the other. It won't matter if its 80f outside or another cold front, it does it every time.

[freakypalmguy]

My Hyphaene coriacea both defoliate every year, then come back with a vengeance. It's surprising considering how tough these palms look. Knock on wood, this winter has been mild for me so far, so maybe I'll finally get a year without defoliation.

Matt