Archontophoenix cunninghamiana

[redant]

I have two that have emerging spears, not opened that are drooping towards the ground. The palms are extremely healthy looking other then this oddity. They are located in different parts of the yard and the soil is much different in these two locations so I doubt out of the blue they both have some deficiency. There is no sign of rot in the crown area, looks clean as a whistle. the next emerging frond on each so far looks fine. We have had a very wet, warm December so these guys are growing like crazy for this time of year. Anyone ever seen this, reason for concern?

[Jeff Searle]

Doug,

 Is it possible to show us a picture?

Jeff

[redant]

Will do so this afternoon if I make it home before the sun goes down..

[redant]

Pic's, of the droop. The droop was first, now it's opening.

[redant]

closeup

[redant]

the bigger palm with same thing going on.

[Patrick]

Interesting. Could it be the first signs of bud rot? I'm not 100% sure how to positively identify the symptoms as I'm still learning as I go, but it looks like something I've seen before on my kings that I attributed to Phytopthera. Is the ground prety wet?

[Dave-Vero]

I saw that on a very young Archontophoenix in a bed that was plagued by fungal bud problems one summer--I lost a young Serenoa repens of all things.  The Archontophoenix has recovered.

[spockvr6]

The same thing happened to one of my Archontophoenix a few months ago.  The spear looked just like that.  In my case, the spear was so "floppy" it actually broke off before it was able to open.

The good news is that short of that one odd spear, the palm has grown fine and the next spear was normal.

[redant]

"Is the ground pretty wet? "

It's been a very wet December, more rain then our so called rainy month September.

The bud looks clean as can be. I have seen bud rot and IMO these are free of that.

The fronds are full length, not stubby at all.

The palms seem perfectly healthy other then this. I have seen the same thing happen one winter to some ribbon palms I have but over the summer they grew out of it. I also had a Carpentaria palm that every frond was doing this. I dug it up and moved it, a year latter it's starting to look normal. Funny thing is I have about 20 carpies where that one was and none of them have ever done this.

I'll be interested to see what happens to the next spears in line which are already in line and should open and or droop in the next couple of weeks