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Ganoderma hell


TikiRick

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This fungi is native to most Florida soils. Unfortunately it attacks the roots and lower 4' - 5' of Palm trunks.  Also called butt rot, it essentially kills off the cells which carry water and essential nutrients to the crown of the palm.

I inadvertently sparked this cancerous pathogen when I trimmed a thicket of Dypsis lutescens down to a neat and tidy 12 heads. This opened pores of cut trunks allowing the airborn spores to get in. Now, all but three heads are gone.

After numerous storms, other clustering palms had broken trunks which had to be cut and removed. Ptychosperma is prime. Many of my clustering Ptychosperma are gone.

For those of you unfamiliar with ganoderma, this is a conch growing on another Dypsis lutescens. You clearly can not trim away any suckering trunks without inviting ganoderma. 

There is no known cure. 

I'm pretty much screwed. Look for me over on Rose Talk! Lol! 

A quarter is used for scale. 

Last photo showing how the oldest fronds exhibit necrosis eventually moving to all fronds. Then, the entire trunk snap and fall.

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Rick Leitner

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

26.07N/80.15W

Zone 10B

Average Annual Low 67 F

Average Annual High 84 F

Average Annual Rainfall 62"

 

Riverfront exposure, 1 mile from Atlantic Ocean

Part time in the western mountains of North Carolina

Gratefully, the best of both worlds!

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That really sucks.....how about fire....blowtorch all affected areas.....has it spread throughout the entire garden?

David Simms zone 9a on Highway 30a

200 steps from the Gulf in NW Florida

30 ft. elevation and sandy soil

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It's in the entire garden, but limited only to clustering palms....now. I don't want a 50' royal crashing down! :blink:

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Rick Leitner

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

26.07N/80.15W

Zone 10B

Average Annual Low 67 F

Average Annual High 84 F

Average Annual Rainfall 62"

 

Riverfront exposure, 1 mile from Atlantic Ocean

Part time in the western mountains of North Carolina

Gratefully, the best of both worlds!

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Rick, you gotta work the sunny side of the street. This is eventually going to force you to go PALM SHOPPING. See what I did there?  

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Some pests and pathogens seem purely designed to cause misery to growers and this seems like one of them. Keep postive and nuture the single palms you have.

Regards Neil

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A friend of mine in Fort Lauderdale has 3 medium sixes Roystonea Regia in cluster right in front of his house.  Less than 15 feet from the home.  One of them has this fungus.  

If caught early sometimes an antibiotic injection can control it or even stop it from what I have heard.   He keeps cutting the conch euennitsnin its small white rock looking stage.  Cutting the conch off while it's still young prevents it from maturing to Produce spores.   I have urged him to have a specialist come look at the tree.  So far there is no visible sign of anything wrong.  

Another thing you can do is when leaning back any clumpers would be to seal off the top inch of the cut trunk.  His can effectively stop the fungi from entering living tissue.     

It looks like your infection is well past mature.  I'm not sure what you can do.   Fungicides don't work?  Or do they only work as a preventative?   

Anyway beet of luck fighting it.   Let us know if anything works for you.   

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I HATE this palm disease! It sickens me whenever I see it, I would recommend getting rid of the palms that it has effected so far, and burning them and the infected area. Be careful! Don't break the mature conch! Make sure you also wash all your tools after coming into contact with any infected areas. You wouldn't want spores from a shovel getting into the ground around non infected palms! 

Edited by PalmTreeDude
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PalmTreeDude

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What's even worse is that I am afraid to dig fearing cutting open any healthy Palm root. I'd love to trim and thin out my raphis but not now!

Rick Leitner

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

26.07N/80.15W

Zone 10B

Average Annual Low 67 F

Average Annual High 84 F

Average Annual Rainfall 62"

 

Riverfront exposure, 1 mile from Atlantic Ocean

Part time in the western mountains of North Carolina

Gratefully, the best of both worlds!

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Just now, TikiRick said:

What's even worse is that I am afraid to dig fearing cutting open any healthy Palm root. I'd love to trim and thin out my raphis but not now!

Maybe just cut down the infected palms, above ground? 

PalmTreeDude

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The only suggestion from the Agricultural Center is to remove the Palm, dig out the roots, remove the soil, burn the hole, replace it with sterile soil, and don't plant another Palm in the space. I've heard it also can affect bamboo.

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Rick Leitner

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

26.07N/80.15W

Zone 10B

Average Annual Low 67 F

Average Annual High 84 F

Average Annual Rainfall 62"

 

Riverfront exposure, 1 mile from Atlantic Ocean

Part time in the western mountains of North Carolina

Gratefully, the best of both worlds!

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2 minutes ago, TikiRick said:

The only suggestion from the Agricultural Center is to remove the Palm, dig out the roots, remove the soil, burn the hole, replace it with sterile soil, and don't plant another Palm in the space. I've heard it also can affect bamboo.

Dang... I really do not like this disease. I thought you could plant a new palm in the hole after a year, once the area is treated? I am probably wrong though, especially if the Agricultural Center said it. 

PalmTreeDude

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There is a fungicide that is specific to the basisiomycete fungi, and Ganoderma is in that group. The active ingredient is called Flutolanil and the brand is called ProStar.  It isn't labeled for Ganoderma so I cannot recommend you use it.  You can get  a label and send it to Monica Elliott & Timothy Broschat and see what they think.  They have the authority to conduct trials, and if it works, they can recommend it.  Maybe this is a small ray of Hope.  By the way, it would have to applied to the root zone and translocated upward for there to be any hope of it coming in contact with the pathogen.  

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Land O Lakes FL, a suburb on the North Side of Tampa, FL

Summers are great, 90f/32c in the day & 70f/21c at night with plentiful rain & sun

Winters are subtropical with occasional frosts and freezes. Tropical cyclones happen.

We have a few Royal palms in the warm microclimates but Coconuts freeze.

I am a Kayaker, Hiker, Bicyclist, and amateur Photographer that loves the outdoors.  

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That sucks Rick.. Sounds like So Cals "Demon below" are gophers... So Flo's is Butt rot... Damn... both suck!

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Zone 10a at best after 2007 AND 2013, on SW facing hill, 1 1/2 miles from coast in Oceanside, CA. 30-98 degrees, and 45-80deg. about 95% of the time.

"The great workman of nature is time."   ,  "Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience."

-George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon-

I do some experiments and learning in my garden with palms so you don't have to experience the pain! Look at my old threads to find various observations and tips!

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Rick, i think we think about ganaderma the wrong way.  As you state, the fungus is everywhere. It's a bracket fungus, same as you might see growing on a log in the woods. In other words, it's only growing on dead tissue. I've never seen it affect a healthy palm. Maybe the practice of thinning areca canes is a death sentence to the palm, and the fungus is secondary. I've planted palms right where dying arecas were and they never missed a beat. I don't think this is a big deal. That areca is probably toast. I'd bet that's the extent of your problem. It's not a disease. It's a fungus that breaks down dead tissue.

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1 hour ago, kurt decker said:

Rick, i think we think about ganaderma the wrong way.  As you state, the fungus is everywhere. It's a bracket fungus, same as you might see growing on a log in the woods. In other words, it's only growing on dead tissue. I've never seen it affect a healthy palm. Maybe the practice of thinning areca canes is a death sentence to the palm, and the fungus is secondary. I've planted palms right where dying arecas were and they never missed a beat. I don't think this is a big deal. That areca is probably toast. I'd bet that's the extent of your problem. It's not a disease. It's a fungus that breaks down dead tissue.

A friend of mine in Fort Lauderdale has 3 medium sixes Roystonea Regia in cluster right in front of his house.  Less than 15 feet from the home.  One of them has this fungus.  

If caught early sometimes an antibiotic injection can control it or even stop it from what I have heard.   He keeps cutting the conch euennitsnin its small white rock looking stage.  Cutting the conch off while it's still young prevents it from maturing to Produce spores.   I have urged him to have a specialist come look at the tree.  So far there is no visible sign of anything wrong.  

Another thing you can do is when leaning back any clumpers would be to seal off the top inch of the cut trunk.  His can effectively stop the fungi from entering living tissue.     

It looks like your infection is very mature and likely producing spores.   That entire area is now likely infected with it.  It appears to me that  this fungi will be a problem in that area unless it's remediate in a big way.   All of those palms are likely gone unfortunately.   

 

 

To the quote aboove, I have to disagree.  This fungus is different.  It enters via the roots and once it finds woody tissue such as cellulose or lignin, it causes the rot and the wood to die.  So this is definitely not like most other fungi which appear as part of the decay process. This one appears to start that process in live woody tissue.  

Here is some good info : 

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/m/#publication?id=PP100

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Sorry Rick this fungus sucks. Can you bury it?  If it doesn't have light will it still grow?

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Matt Bradford

"Manambe Lavaka"

Spring Valley, CA (8.5 miles inland from San Diego Bay)

10B on the hill (635 ft. elevation)

9B in the canyon (520 ft. elevation)

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Yes it's still in the soil. It attacks the roots of any palm. :angry:

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Rick Leitner

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

26.07N/80.15W

Zone 10B

Average Annual Low 67 F

Average Annual High 84 F

Average Annual Rainfall 62"

 

Riverfront exposure, 1 mile from Atlantic Ocean

Part time in the western mountains of North Carolina

Gratefully, the best of both worlds!

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Best thing to do is to remove all of the stump and the rest of the palm. Be careful doing this, as sawdust can contain the fungus. Unlike what I read above from someone, this fungus WILL ATTACK and kill living palms. In fact, when you see the conch, the palm still looks alive, but it's on death row--the days are numbered. Rick, the worst thing to do is to leave it there, as the fungus will continue to grow and release spores, infecting the rest of your garden. Remove all of the palm material you can from there, or the fungus will continue to eat and reproduce. I hear you should never plant another palm in the place of this infection, but the fungus eats lignin from old trunks--maybe if you plant a palm that doesn't trunk??? or a small palm... or just get away from palms in this spot and plant something else. Ganoderma's gotta go, though!

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11 hours ago, Mandrew968 said:

Best thing to do is to remove all of the stump and the rest of the palm. Be careful doing this, as sawdust can contain the fungus. Unlike what I read above from someone, this fungus WILL ATTACK and kill living palms. In fact, when you see the conch, the palm still looks alive, but it's on death row--the days are numbered. Rick, the worst thing to do is to leave it there, as the fungus will continue to grow and release spores, infecting the rest of your garden. Remove all of the palm material you can from there, or the fungus will continue to eat and reproduce. I hear you should never plant another palm in the place of this infection, but the fungus eats lignin from old trunks--maybe if you plant a palm that doesn't trunk??? or a small palm... or just get away from palms in this spot and plant something else. Ganoderma's gotta go, though!

You have to burn out the hole as well, have a nice big, controlled, bonfire in it. It kills off MOST of the fungi in the burnt area, but some will always survive this treatment. But it does help. I would not plant a palm in the same spot afterward for at least a year.

Edited by PalmTreeDude

PalmTreeDude

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Ganoderma is the herpes of palms. It never goes away. We have a section at Leu Gardens in the Palm Garden that has had a ganoderma problem for at least 30 years. We haven't planted any palms in the area in maybe 20 years. But it still attacks existing mature specimens. Currently a mature Syagrus coronata is infected and last year a X Butyagrus was lost. Over the years it has claimed specimens of Butia odorata, Butia purpurescens, Butia yatay, Syagrus romanzoffiana, Syagrus x montgomeryana, Dypsis decaryi, Acrocomia aculeata, Acrocomia totai, Acrocomia crispa and Phoenix reclinata. Since then we have expanded the cycad collection into this area.

I remember after the big Dec. 1989 freeze that surviving Syagrus romanzoffiana would come down with ganoderma in the first few years.The trunks had freeze injuries that never healed and was an open wound for infection. Same with clumps of Phoenix reclinata. The specimens that were more of a pure species type were much more tender to cold than hybrids. Lots of these clumps lost a few to many trunks. So when they were removed the stumps were an open invitation to the ganoderma party. It was sad to see survivor palms being lost years after the freeze to disease indirectly caused by the freeze.

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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  • 2 years later...

I am wondering if I have a patch of Ganoderma (or something else?) spreading outward in a particular area of soil.  However, I have not seen any conches.  First, the trunk of a chamaedorea radicalis started turning pink and died.  The same thing then happened to another one about two metres away.  Now I see it starting to affect a chamaedorea Microspadix and a chamaedorea radicalis that are another metre or two away.  Their trunks are not turning pink, but they are dying for no reason (they have stopped pushing out new fronds --- a slow death, although still standing now).  Could this be Ganoderma?  Does it spread outward in a radius through the soil?  I don't know what it is, but it apparently spreading outward. Help! What could this be and is there is a disease that ONLY affects chamaedorea species?

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12 hours ago, Sandy Loam said:

I am wondering if I have a patch of Ganoderma (or something else?) spreading outward in a particular area of soil.  However, I have not seen any conches.  First, the trunk of a chamaedorea radicalis started turning pink and died.  The same thing then happened to another one about two metres away.  Now I see it starting to affect a chamaedorea Microspadix and a chamaedorea radicalis that are another metre or two away.  Their trunks are not turning pink, but they are dying for no reason (they have stopped pushing out new fronds --- a slow death, although still standing now).  Could this be Ganoderma?  Does it spread outward in a radius through the soil?  I don't know what it is, but it apparently spreading outward. Help! What could this be and is there is a disease that ONLY affects chamaedorea species?

You probably have Gliocladium virens, pink rot.  It thrives in cool, wet conditions.  It attacks the bud, not the roots or "trunks".  You can probably find something to stop it, and once summer's heat returns, it'll go dormant.  I think our wet winter gave it a the perfect conditions.  Pink rot will kill many types of palms, not just Chamaedorea.  

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Land O Lakes FL, a suburb on the North Side of Tampa, FL

Summers are great, 90f/32c in the day & 70f/21c at night with plentiful rain & sun

Winters are subtropical with occasional frosts and freezes. Tropical cyclones happen.

We have a few Royal palms in the warm microclimates but Coconuts freeze.

I am a Kayaker, Hiker, Bicyclist, and amateur Photographer that loves the outdoors.  

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Wow, thank you.  I just found this about Gliocladium Virens:  http://www.entomology.wisc.edu/mbcn/kyf509.html    It says that, "The spores are dispersed only in water or carried in soil or organic matter, and are not airborne."  I suppose this means that if water pools around a particular area of plants, or a heavy rain causes the water surrounding an infected plant to spread outwards, then other nearby palms could become infected this way.

 

This article also recommends using SOILGUARD to ward off pink rot, if I have understood it correctly.  Here is a quote:

"SoilGardTM. Developed in collaboration with Grace Biopesticides and the Biocontrol of Plant Diseases Laboratory of USDA, ARS in Beltsville, Maryland, SoilGardTM consists of spores of the fungal strain GL-21 in a granular formulation. It should be blended with soil or soilless plant growing media at the rate of 1 - 1 1/4 oz./ft3 of media at least 3 days prior to planting, or incorporated into the media surface in plant beds at the rate of 3/4 -1 oz./ft2 prior to or at planting. The fungus is not persistent at the inoculated high concentrations and declines to pre-application levels over a period of a few weeks.

When incorporated into potting media, SoilGardTM controls plant pathogens through a variety of mechanisms including parasitism, antibiosis, competition and exclusion. G. virens is known to parasitize some soil pathogens such as R. solani. The Gliocladium will actually wrap itself around the pathogen and release enzymes that destroy the pathogen's cuticle, leaving the pathogens susceptible to attack. GL-21 also produces a broad spectrum antibiotic called gliotoxin which kills many soil pathogens. Gliotoxin is not found in the SoilGard™ formulations, but when the spores of GL-21 begin to grow in the soil or soilless mix, the antibiotic is produced."

 

If anyone else has knowledge about dealing with pink rot, please let me know  I seem to recall that when I removed the two dead chamaedoreas, I only chopped off the trunks, but did not remove the rootball of the infected plant.  Was that a bad idea?  (Sorry for my ignorance; I'm a novice)   Also, does anyone out there on PalmTalk think that I don't have pink rot?  

Thanks to everyone for your input.  Please keep commenting. 

 

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(Continued)

Now that I'm in the SoilGard website (http://certisusa.com/pest_management_products/biofungicides/soilgard_12g_microbial_fungicide.htm), it says that this product is: " An easy-to-use granular formulation that contains a living, naturally occurring soil fungus,Trichoderma virens, that controls soil-borne diseases caused by Pythium, Rhizoctonia and Fusarium."  

What caught my eye is that it controls Fusarium as well!!!  (Talk note, PalmTalkers, and/or please feel free to dispute this claim too) 

By the way, my reading indicates that Gliocladium Virens and Trichoderma virens are synonyms.  Please correct me if I am wrong, PalmTalkers.  Thanks. 

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As a fairly recent member here I hadn't gone back far enough in previous threads to find this old one on Ganoderma Zonatum, and then it popped up yesterday!  I've been following the progression of a textbook type case on a property I may choose as my next Vigilante landscape project.  So I'll share my previous observations here and continue if there's anyone else interested. I've also been monitoring other examples on my own property and neighbors properties but without picture documentation. The other examples do not involve the the infection of live specimens.

There were 5 Palms in a row in front of this Post office, apparently planted at the same time, probably when the office was built. The one on the far left (hidden by regular trees now) does not have sidewalk around the base. I'll refer to this as Palm A and the others as B, C, D, and E progressing to the right.  B, C, D, and E  were planted in openings in the concrete sidewalk roughly 4' X 4'. When they were first planted (before my time here) they probably had mulch and possibly small plants also, now just bare soil & palm seeds. I have not found any evidence of any irrigation system although there may have been one functioning at the time of planting. I've been monitoring the progression of the Ganoderma Butt rot of these specimens for probably around 7-8 years now.

The first one that caught my eye as declining was Palm B which died about 5-6 years ago after a slow decline. At first I thought it may have been hit by lightening but the decline was slower than I'd expect. Then once dead it was blown over and the stump cut flush. I noticed a conk afterward. A conk sighting was not unusual to me as I've seen them before on stumps of healthy Palms that had been cut.

By the time Palm B blew over Palm C had started showing signs of decline. Again slow decline and I was observing it more carefully after the decline/death of B.  I see these Palms regularly as I typically frequent the Post office a couple times a week to ship items. Last year a conk formed on the base of Palm C when the crown decline had progressed to the point that only the spear and the most recent leaf were still green. Meanwhile Palm D had already started showing signs of decline.  This led me to believe this was a case of Ganoderma Zonatum spreading from tree to tree.

In the pic below taken last summer you can see only the spear of Palm C is still green, Palm D is obviously in serious decline and Palm E appears to be starting to show signs of decline.

20190101_151141_zpsgjc5n3c5.jpg

In the picture below taken last week you can see that Palm C is done, Palm D looks worse and Palm E will probably follow along with the others and die. No one at the post office really maintains the grounds at all. The weeds (lawn) get mowed about twice a year. So no one there cares that the palms are dying, heck they don't even haul away the carcasses from other dead ones unless they're blocking traffic or walkways as you can see in the last pic. I'm not positive what killed the one in the lower pic but it's been dead since 2015, blew down during hurricane Irma in '17,  and lays there still.

20190306_145711_zpsox0w18jj.jpg

20190101_151405_zpswhwkmg7k.jpg

This pic of Palm A below was taken from the back side (center in the distance).  Been watching for signs of doom but it's holding out much better than the others. As you can tell by the size of the Sabal Palmetto that's grown as a weed, grounds maintenance isn't a priority here. Hence the reason I may take it on as a Vigilante project.

20190101_151620_zps87wucpzv.jpg

 

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I drove past this place a few weeks ago and noticed a stand of very unhappy queens.  The Google streetview is from May 2018, and now 2 are dead and a third looks like it's dying.  I haven't looked at the fronds or trunks up close to see if there are any conks, so it could also be Fusarium.  With the cash of Westin Hotels you'd think they would at least remove the dead palms before the crowns fall off,  nope!  They have a wide variety of queens, a big Bismarck, several nice Chamaerops and assorted Sylvesters, Livistona and Washingtonia.  I think there's also one dead Chamaerops, but I'd have to look at the streetview image and the hotel side-by-side to tell.  If they don't fix it, they might lose all of them!

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.7878268,-81.3584135,3a,75y,95.49h,98.04t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sD_65oDmZ5cAUjGxButS2uA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

On the plus side, it looks like Propizol is also labeled for Fusarium and Ganoderma treatment.  The trunk injection method uses 14.3% Propiconazole, a systemic fungicide.  I don't know if Arborjet's claims are valid, they could be totally bogus as the EPA label says nothing about palm trees and Ganoderma.  NY lists it here:

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/fung-nemat/febuconazole-sulfur/propiconazole/Propizol_2ee_0715.pdf

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10 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I drove past this place a few weeks ago and noticed a stand of very unhappy queens.  The Google streetview is from May 2018, and now 2 are dead and a third looks like it's dying.  I haven't looked at the fronds or trunks up close to see if there are any conks, so it could also be Fusarium.  With the cash of Westin Hotels you'd think they would at least remove the dead palms before the crowns fall off,  nope!  They have a wide variety of queens, a big Bismarck, several nice Chamaerops and assorted Sylvesters, Livistona and Washingtonia.  I think there's also one dead Chamaerops, but I'd have to look at the streetview image and the hotel side-by-side to tell.  If they don't fix it, they might lose all of them!

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.7878268,-81.3584135,3a,75y,95.49h,98.04t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sD_65oDmZ5cAUjGxButS2uA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

On the plus side, it looks like Propizol is also labeled for Fusarium and Ganoderma treatment.  The trunk injection method uses 14.3% Propiconazole, a systemic fungicide.  I don't know if Arborjet's claims are valid, they could be totally bogus as the EPA label says nothing about palm trees and Ganoderma.  NY lists it here:

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/fung-nemat/febuconazole-sulfur/propiconazole/Propizol_2ee_0715.pdf

There may be something environmental going on there. It appears the shrubs under the palms are also dying. Looks like the shrubs next to palms that are doing better are also doing better. Perhaps someone got carried away with weed killer in that area.

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On 9/18/2016 at 10:18 AM, kurt decker said:

Rick, i think we think about ganaderma the wrong way.  As you state, the fungus is everywhere. It's a bracket fungus, same as you might see growing on a log in the woods. In other words, it's only growing on dead tissue. I've never seen it affect a healthy palm. Maybe the practice of thinning areca canes is a death sentence to the palm, and the fungus is secondary. I've planted palms right where dying arecas were and they never missed a beat. I don't think this is a big deal. That areca is probably toast. I'd bet that's the extent of your problem. It's not a disease. It's a fungus that breaks down dead tissue.

I'd also been under the assumption Gandonerma is everywhere affecting dead tissue, and in some cases where the plant was still alive the plant also had dead tissue present that the fungus was living in. My previous experiences were up in New England and did not involve Palms so now that I'm in S FL I'm learning all over. As kurt decker mentioned he'd never seen it affect a "healthy" Palm, I haven't either, yet.

I believe the Post Office case is one where the disease is affecting living trees that were under stress from environmental factors. Perhaps not enough water? Gas exchange for root systems under the concrete? It's a very hot spot there, with a West facing wall of concrete/glass and between the building, sidewalk, and parking area.  The only rain water they would get would have to be through the 4' openings around each tree where the soil is compacted from people walking on it and would shed most of the rain during our quick thunderstorm downpours which provide most of the rain. I do not know how high the water table is in the area and am not familiar with various Palms root system depths yet. The fact that Palm A of the 5 in a row still appears relatively healthy while the 4 that were planted in sidewalk openings are dying leads me to believe some type of stress is making them vulnerable. Perhaps the disease is entering each Palm through intertwined dead roots underground where Mycelia (or Mycelium, pick your spelling) can enter the next plant?  This would explain the Palm to Palm progression.

The Fungus case in Ricks OP pics has a somewhat different appearing basidiocarp (conk) than what I've seen personally and seen posted in bulletins or studies studies like http://www.palms.org/palmsjournal/2001/vol45n2p62-72.pdf    So I wonder if the case at Ricks was actually Gandonerma Zonatum or perhaps another type of fungus. I'm curious as to what's occurred at Ricks over the past few years. I will look for dying clumps of Dypsis Lutescens in my travels to observe. I have dead palms (including Lutescens)  I've been letting Ganoderma work it's magic on unrestrained, will post about them.

 

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When I posted about Palms A-E above I looked back in my pics knowing I'd taken a pic of the conk at the base of Palm C last summer but couldn't find it. Since I was passing by there today I stopped and took a pic of this years new conk on Palm C and last years old one which had been knocked off but was still lying there. Like others I've seen, they're more likely to appear on the North side at ground level or just above the adventitious root zone if the root zone extends up above ground level. 

Top pic shows Palm C with a fissure in the trunk (dunno what from) and you can see the bright white of this years new conk. The conks to be somewhat of an annual as they don't seem to form during our short winter Dec.-Jan. and new conks start appearing sometime in Feb.  They also don't continue to grow once matured and having released spores, instead a new conk or conks form.  I'll study the timing of maturity more closely this year on multiple conks.

I did look closely for conk formation on Palms D-E but nothing so far and no fissures. I won't be surprised if Palm D forms a conk by summer because it's almost to the same stage of decline when Palm C developed it's first conk.

Pic 2 shows new conk on Palm C with last seasons old conk upside down in front of it and 3rd pic shows old conk flipped right side up. Final pic is for perspective so I can compare the mature size of this years conk which I expect to be much larger and more photogenic than last years. Few people in the world care to document these kinds of things, I guess it's the science guy in me.  ahahaha These Palms (C-E) are goners as far as I'm concerned so might as well observe & learn right?

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16 hours ago, NOT A TA said:

The Fungus case in Ricks OP pics has a somewhat different appearing basidiocarp (conk) than what I've seen personally and seen posted in bulletins or studies studies like http://www.palms.org/palmsjournal/2001/vol45n2p62-72.pdf    So I wonder if the case at Ricks was actually Gandonerma Zonatum or perhaps another type of fungus. 

 

I wonder if the different appearance is because Rick's conk is in dense shade and hasn't been roasted and dried out by the sun?

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4 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I wonder if the different appearance is because Rick's conk is in dense shade and hasn't been roasted and dried out by the sun?

That's a possibility although others I've seen here in S FL don't have the convolutions the ones in Ricks pics had. Also lacking from Ricks pics are the colored ring zones which the Zonatum was named for.  The ones in his pics remind me of ones I've seen on dead hardwoods in damp areas of deciduous forests up North. I'd be curious to know if he'd transplanted anything from up North into his yard prior to his losses. Lets say he transplanted one of the ground cover Junipers that can grow here as well as in say zone 6.  Spores or mycelia may have been transplanted at the same time.  If a foreign fungus was transplanted into his garden that was from an area where Palm trees are essentially nonexistent in the landscape it may have been able to "attack" Palms (although it doesn't attack the hardwoods) and then not continue to spread far due to the different environmental factors. Far fetched concept yes, but I try to keep an open mind. Another possibility might be the fungus that attacks Oil Palms in other parts of the world if spores or mycelia were transplanted with something imported.

Another possibility is a different species than Zonatum currently here in S FL. Long ago two species of Ganoderma affecting Palms were discussed then later grouped together, perhaps the case at Ricks is actually Gandonerma sulcatum with a different appearing conk that was later grouped with zonatum. Here's an excerpt from Elliot & Broschat 2001.

In Florida, Ganoderma butt rot is a lethal disease that appears to be caused by the fungus Ganoderma zonatum Murrill. Another fungal name that was associated with this disease in the first half of the20th century was Ganoderma sulcatum MurrilI (Murrill 1902,79O8; Childs & West 1953). Murrill indicated in his papers that both species were associated with dead wood in Florida, and that they were very similar in appearance. Recently,these two species have been grouped together as one, G. zonatum (Gilbertson & Ryvarden 1986.

I have a Cocos Nucifera stump I've been letting Ganoderma grow on for 5-6 years. The Palm was healthy when cut down and like most of the other Palms and trees on the property when I bought the home the Coco was too large and I considered it a liability. I have several mature 20-30 YO Dypsis lutescens clumps within 20'-50' of the Cocos stump and thin them out at least once a year, no signs of Ganoderma on the Dypsis.

Pic below of the Cocos stump with several years conks still in place. Area was sunny when Palm was removed and the first conks as well as last years were on the North side (upper right). After Plantain was planted the stump was shaded most of the day and conks appeared on top and around the stump as the area got overgrown with other plants. I cut away overgrowth a couple days ago to take these pics. Note that once the Palm has been cut down conks form in the adventitious root zone, haven't seen that on live plants but it may occur.

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Here's how I've been thinning the Dypsis clumps. There's several clumps of Dypsis along the rear of the property.  I cut the tallest ones out each year so the remaining ones are still tall enough so I can't see the neighbors roof. I cut back some of the new suckers and let a few grow. The Coco stump with Ganoderma in the previous pic is directly behind the Dypsis in the bottom pic below about 5' to the right of the Agave. If airborne spores were able to easily infect open wound Palms I'd think I'd have seen problems by now, however as stated by Elloit & Broschat

" After spores are released, it is unclear exactly what happens next. We do not know if the spores become dormant in nature. In a laboratory setting,the spores do not show any dormancy and germinate readily on media after being dropped from the basidiocarp. However, in the real world,they may indeed become dormant or need specific substrates, temperature, relative humidity and so forth for germination to occur."

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Writing this post reminded me of a Plant Pathology professor I had long ago in tree school. He had all kinds of observational experiments growing in his yard which was a lab class field trip one semester. When I saw his yard I thought his "experiments" were just an excuse for his complete lack of grounds maintenance. In some subtle ways I've become the old man, ahahaha! Grind that stump? Hell no!  I'm growing Ganoderma Zomatum!    Neighbor, "HUH?"

 

 

Edited by NOT A TA
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Here's pics of Ganoderma Zonatum on a large Dypsis Lutescens  clump I cut down for my next door neighbor last year. There was no sign of Ganoderma symptoms or conks prior to cutting down. There were some dead trunks from hurricane Irma damage, otherwise the remaining trunks and foliage looked fine.  A small conk formed before our short winter (in between clipper handles below) and a new one is forming on the lower right side of the clump stump in pics below. The conk is forming on the NNW section of the stumps (which gets the most shade)  as did the first conk. There are no conks currently on the sides in the adventitious root zone only on the flat top so far.

There is another Dypsis Lutescens clump about 8 feet away which does not show any signs of foliage decline or conks and appears generally healthy.  I've cut large trunk tall Palms out of the remaining clump as they start to lean too much toward my home and will continue to do so.  The neighbors yard seen in pic below has various Cocos, Roystonea regia , Adonidia Merrillii, and Phoenix roebelenii so I'll watch for signs that might indicate Ganoderma. Knowing the neighbor wanted the Lutescens removed I took cuttings from their Schefflera hedge and got new plants growing ahead of time, so as soon as the Dypsis was removed I started planting the Schefflera. One is actually planted right in the stump. They should fill in the hedge opening by end of summer.

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I stopped by the hotel and looked at the dead and dying palms.  One dead queen showed signs of butt rot, but no obvious conk.  The other 90% dead queen has a large Ganoderma conk in the below picture.  Two other Chamaerops are likely to die, they are about 5-10 feet away from the "conked" queen.  I'm not sure if the symptoms are consistent with Ganoderma infection, any ideas?

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Thanks for examining and taking pics!

Yes the Queen has the basidiocarp structure and zone rings on it consistent with Zonatum, so it's a goner. Hard for me to tell in the pic but it looks like it had a conk and then a second larger conk started under the first one, perhaps the following year or rainy season?  Not sure how much influence environmental conditions have on the development of the conks.  Syagrus romanzoffiana may be particularly susceptible to Ganoderma butt rot and why Elliot & Broschat used them for experiments.  The Chamaerops shown above also appear to be on death row with the wilt symptoms. The pup still having a healthy appearance next to a dying one is consistent with previous observations by pathologists who noted that seedlings and juveniles aren't affected by Zonatum and it appears to only affect Palms mature enough to have a trunk.

Plants under stress are more likely to have insect and disease problems and I suspect the group of palms at the hotel were or are under stress. I noticed in the google views that the hotel entrance and ends of the sidewalks at the intersection with the main road appear to have been redone somewhat recently (perhaps several years). Were the Palms currently suffering transplanted at that time? Was irrigation in that area shut off for an extended period during construction? We'll probably never know and since Genoderma zonatum is a slowly progressing disease it may have been 5 years or more since something occurred to stress the plants causing them to be susceptible.

Is the conk on the Queen on the North side of the tree? Did you tale a close look at the palms by the bar on the other side of the entrance drive? I examined all the other palms at the Post Office and did not find conks on any although there's a couple in an island that look really thirsty.

Here's Palm A at the Post Office. Does not have concrete surrounding the base and although competing for food and water with other crowding trees it looks good considering it's less than 10' from where Palm B was the first to die. It's even putting out an inflorescence while C is dead, D is looking real bad, and E seems to be wilting.  

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The conk on the queen is on the North side, maybe a little bit NW.  I didn't see conks on the other queens or other palms in the area, not even on the dead one.  But some were obscured by pine shrubs so I'd have to stomp around in their beds to see them.   

The hotel was built around 2010, and they did recently repave the parking lot and entryway, I'm not sure if it was before or after the queens started getting sick.  Most of them looked fine until last spring.

I forgot that I took a picture of the dead queen's base, it's below.  The area around the lava rock is split and rotted, and there are several "weeping" areas on the trunk, mostly in the bottom 3-6 feet.  It's been dead for months, but there's no sign that there was ever a conk on this palm.

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Edited by Merlyn2220
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If they leave it there long enough I expect you'll see a bright white button form creating a conk on the dead Queen very soon. If the trend I noticed continues it'll be on the N- NNW side and very close to the ground (based on your pic of planted depth). You're a few weeks behind us here as far as temps go and I believe the formation of basidiocarps is an annual event based on weather conditions. Particularly temperature more so than say daylight hours or intensity, rainfall/irrigation, humidity, etc. since the tertiary mycelium that begin conk formation are living inside the plant tissue already.

The conks just popped here recently so you'll probably see a new one form on the dying one that had conks before and I'd expect one to form on the dead one. Some victims don't show a conk until after death, and there may be some that never form a conk (or Palm & stump removed completely prior to death).  Since that queen kicked the bucket late in the season last year the disease might not have been to the point in the Ganoderma life cycle with coinciding favorable environmental conditions for conk formation. It's been reported in the past that the farther South the disease appears the more "year round" the conk development occurs. I'm 10 B here but down in the lower Keys where it's Zone 11 they may get conks forming in Dec-Jan also.

For those following along, the mushrooms in your dinner salad are basidiocarps.

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I stopped by the hotel and took a quick look at the sick and healthy ones, there was only one visible conk.  Others might have had them, the bottom inch or two on most trunks showed signs of rot, adventitious roots or possibly weedwhacker damage.  Most of it looked old, and there was similar damage on Washingtonia, Bismarck and Livistona at the same location.  There were probably 5 or 6 queens that looked sick, with fronds half the length of normal ones and distinct trunk tapering at the top.  But there were others next to the dead ones that looked perfect.  I'll go back later and see if the disease progresses through the rest of them or not.

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