Leaning Foxy Lady palm

[Tracy]

So I have been watching this palm I acquired as a Foxy Lady as it has increasing leaned toward the south this summer.  It definitely has more traits of the Veitchia than Woodyetia imo.  I have a couple of other Foxy Ladies that I got roughly at the same time which each shoe different characteristics, but I digress from the issue.  It appears otherwise healthy, but I have experienced the Kentia (Howea forsteriana) leaning problem and watched a couple eventually die from it.  I am hoping that is not what is happening with this palm, but thought I would pose the question as to whether anyone has seen this pop up with Foxy Lady hybrids or pure species of either parent (Veitchia or Woodyetia bifurcata).  I have never seen it with either but then again, they aren't nearly as common here as are Howea forsteriana which it isn't too unusual to come across one with the leaning "disease" for lack of better identification.  It's to the right of the Caryota on the other side of the fence.

[joe_OC]

I had a Kentia with it.  The fronds are definitely acting like it has PLS.  How long has it been doing this?

Boron deficiency has been identified as the cause of palm leaning syndrome.  

Have you tried supplementing with Boron yet?

 

[Brett in Mission Viejo]

I also had a Howea F. with the "leaning disease" as in almost the spear turning nearly 1/2 way to the horizontal. What I did was trim all the "downhill" fronds off leaving the uphill fronds intact. I did this for two - three years and it is now straight for the last 7 years. 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, joe_OC said:

Have you tried supplementing with Boron yet?

I haven't supplemented specifically with Boron.  Your comment prompted me to look at the analysis for the fertilizer I use and I see it does not list any Boron.  I'll have to look into that as well as proper dosing.

[Tracy]

I did notice the dark spot on the side away from the walkway a while back, but it wasn't really oozing anything at the time.  I don't recall anything hitting the trunk but I'm now wondering if this could have any correlation to the lean.

[Tracy]

Yet another sign of demise after the last frond dropped is a horizontal crack in the most external crownshaft sheath.  It appears that the leaning was pulling on the crownshaft at this point.  The horizontal crack is just above the bend point as can be seen.  I guess I better start thinking about what I want to plant in it's place eventually.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Never fun Tracy.

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

What a bummer , beautiful palm 

[TomJ]

The horizontal scar has me puzzled.

Do not think I have seen this before.

[The Gerg]

The horizontal split on the newly exposed leaf sheath looks superficial. However, perhaps a result of the leaning. You can see how the trunk is starting to sort of concave a little on the side with the brown spotting. That’s not a good sign, but I have two palms I can think of where at the base of the trunk they have sort of flattened out on one side and even started to concave a little but the palms seem to have not been affected as of yet.  They continue to grow and look great. Unfortunately for you, you’ve got that nasty brown spotting along with the crown lean which makes it look like this one is on the decline. I have two good size foxy ladies that are perhaps my favorites. I would be devistated to lose them. Sorry yours looks like it’s on the way out. 

[Kim]

The line of dark spots is most concerning.  I wonder if it is worth doing some exploratory surgery to see what is happening inside? The core may be rotting, potentially? Wouldn't want to see it fall unexpectedly and hurt someone or something. Difficult losing palms, but the more palms you grow, over time, we lose some; that's how it goes.

[-2 brian]

I have had a Kentia with LPS and seen it in Archontophoenix as well. Initially that doesn’t look like the LPS I’ve experienced or seen; I think I would be more worried about the dark weeping spots. That looks somewhat ominous like some sort of rot. Beautiful palm hopefully it pulls through, good luck.

[Tracy]

On 7/13/2019 at 7:32 PM, -2 brian said:

I think I would be more worried about the dark weeping spots. That looks somewhat ominous like some sort of rot.

 

On 7/13/2019 at 5:09 PM, The Gerg said:

The horizontal split on the newly exposed leaf sheath looks superficial. However, perhaps a result of the leaning. You can see how the trunk is starting to sort of concave a little on the side with the brown spotting. That’s not a good sign, but I have two palms I can think of where at the base of the trunk they have sort of flattened out on one side and even started to concave a little but the palms seem to have not been affected as of yet.  They continue to grow and look great. Unfortunately for you, you’ve got that nasty brown spotting along with the crown lean which makes it look like this one is on the decline. I have two good size foxy ladies that are perhaps my favorites. I would be devistated to lose them. Sorry yours looks like it’s on the way out. 

The leaning, horizontal split leaf base and weeping all seem to be interconnected.  I suspect there is an internal infection.  I'll keep an eye on it and probably remove it before it actually falls over on anything.  The lean is at least away from the house and away from the walkway so when it does fall the crown will likely hit my block wall.  I don't think there is enough weight to damage the wall if it splits at the bend point so the main concern are my Lepidiozamia peroffskyana, a Cycas thouarsii and a Chambeyronia hookerii.  The real bummer is that I will also eventually have to remove the other big palm in that corner of the garden because it is a Caryota that will eventually flower.  I at least have 2 other Foxy Ladies planted about the same time.

[Tracy]

On 10/4/2018 at 7:19 PM, Tracy said:

So I have been watching this palm I acquired as a Foxy Lady as it has increasing leaned toward the south this summer.  It definitely has more traits of the Veitchia than Woodyetia imo.  I have a couple of other Foxy Ladies that I got roughly at the same time which each shoe different characteristics, but I digress from the issue.  It appears otherwise healthy, but I have experienced the Kentia (Howea forsteriana) leaning problem and watched a couple eventually die from it.  I am hoping that is not what is happening with this palm, but thought I would pose the question as to whether anyone has seen this pop up with Foxy Lady hybrids or pure species of either parent (Veitchia or Woodyetia bifurcata).  I have never seen it with either but then again, they aren't nearly as common here as are Howea forsteriana which it isn't too unusual to come across one with the leaning "disease" for lack of better identification.  It's to the right of the Caryota on the other side of the fence.

Two years later and the palm is still standing but also continuing to show the consistent tilt.  Anytime now the frond on the left, which is against the lean will fall off, and you can see the angle of the newest frond which should be on that side of the palm is leaning to the right.  If it falls in the direction of the lean at some point, it's still below the phone lines and will land on my block wall.  I keep an eye on it, because I wouldn't want it falling to the front and crushing the white fencing atop the lower wall on that side.  Obviously the dark spots on the trunk remain as photographed above .  Perhaps as a couple of adjacent palms get a little larger I'll have to be proactive and remove it, along with a -postmortem of what was happening internally at the weeping site.  Until then I will enjoy the palm.  The Caryota had to be edited after it flowered; this is the nature of a garden that some plant won't outlive us.

[Tracy]

This Foxy Lady Palm is still standing despite the lean and creased oozing vertical stripe.  It's getting close to the end for me though.  Since the lean is headed toward the overhead phone and cable lines (not power), I'll take it down before it comes down on its own.  I don't want to give a utility an excuse to start cutting back other healthy palms in my garden that are even further from the phone lines than this one.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Sorry to hear this.....time to edit and replace.

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Sorry to hear this.....time to edit and replace.

Replacements are already in place so to speak.  So you can actually see the Chambeyronia hookeri leaf which is to the west of the Foxy Lady.  I planted a 1 gallon Cyphophoenix elgans to the east of it about 3-4 years ago, so its just starting to gain some momentum.  The sad thing is that it gave some nice height contrast to the cycads in the area, being much taller.  It will take a while for the Cyphoenix and Chambeyronia to really completely rise above the cycads, particularly the Encephalartos laurentianus.  You can see the two "replacements" on either side of the Foxy Lady trunk in photos below.