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Clinostigma rapid death


CLINODAVE

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Morning walk into the jungle and, ouch, here is one of my Clinostigma samoense.  It was fine the day before, like its siblings in the background.  There was no wind, no heavy rain overnight.   The trees are about 12 years old.  I don't recall seeing insect damage or nutrient deficiency.  I have seen Alexander palms here in East Hawaii have a complete crown lean-over -- tho not a collapse like this -- which I think is nutrient-related.  Do any of you more experienced palm growers have idea what might have caused this?

CLINO sad.jpg

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Thielaviopsis trunk rot can cause a sudden crown collapse, but all the fronds look pretty good.  I guess that's a possibility, but I'd expect to see some kind of symptoms of sickness first.  A complete collapse when all the fronds look pretty green is very weird!

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That is really strange; the crown looks perfect otherwise. Maybe BGL has some thoughts.

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Bret

 

Coastal canyon area of San Diego

 

"In the shadow of the Cross"

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I had one do that exact same thing, thought maybe it was nutrient deficiency and fed the other Clinostigma palms. But... since then I have lost 3 more, one by one, but with a different set of symptoms. The others had brown fronds high up in the crown, soon followed by the collapse, and I'm quite certain they were all attacked by something chewing out the meristem and heart. They went down very fast. I have treated the remaining healthy palms with systemic insecticide, but since I am absent for periods of time, they may become infected between treatments. :( 

Kim Cyr

Between the beach and the bays, Point Loma, San Diego, California USA
and on a 300 year-old lava flow, Pahoa, Hawaii, 1/4 mile from the 2018 flow
All characters  in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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I'm half joking here, but could there be a plant equivalent to sudden cardiac death? Like, not a pest, not a chronic disease, just simply an acute and rapid hard stop? Or is that only an animal/human thing?

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2 minutes ago, zoli said:

I'm half joking here, but could there be a plant equivalent to sudden cardiac death? Like, not a pest, not a chronic disease, just simply an acute and rapid hard stop? Or is that only an animal/human thing?

That's actually pretty interesting if you think about it. 

Edited by PalmTreeDude

PalmTreeDude

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Last September, I went to one of the back corners of my lot and did some work. As I was leaving, I just happened to look up at a pair of Roystonea borinquenas, about 20 ft tall, and was horrified at what I saw:

1420732191_Roystoneaborinquena_dying_1_MLM_092918.thumb.JPG.123d8ae2a35bf6206f47eaaa9db84c6f.JPG

 

2120714841_Roystoneaborinquena_dying_2_MLM_092918.thumb.JPG.e1b9b473b45c4a6aa777a73b88a349e5.JPG

I took a pic of the trunk of the one with brown foliage, showing what looked like some liquid emission from the base of the crownshaft:

1553506744_Roystoneaborinquena_dying_2_fluidonside_MLM_092918.thumb.JPG.2f3a10f19a8c9f07fed50fa9935349ad.JPG

I hadn't seen any problem with these palms before this. I do have occasional attacks of boring insects here, but they do not seem to be common. Usually, there are early symptoms, dead brown new leaves. But this happened overnite, like an act of God. I have suspected the possibility of a lightning strike. Electric storms are not common in east Hawaii Island, but do occur. Near the dead palms was a smaller one in perfect health. It can be seen in the background in the first photo.

 

 

Edited by mike in kurtistown
thought of more after posting

Mike Merritt

Big Island of Hawaii, windward, rainy side, 740 feet (225 meters) elevation

165 inches (4,200 mm) of rain per year, 66 to 83 deg F (20 to 28 deg C) in summer, 62 to 80 deg F (16.7 to 26.7 Deg C) in winter.

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Trunk rot could be it. We are having a bad case of banana moth right now, but don't think it is that. Is fusarium in Hawaii?

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If so, I haven't seen it. One problem we have here sometimes is root fungus, because of the constant, year-long, heavy rain.

Mike Merritt

Big Island of Hawaii, windward, rainy side, 740 feet (225 meters) elevation

165 inches (4,200 mm) of rain per year, 66 to 83 deg F (20 to 28 deg C) in summer, 62 to 80 deg F (16.7 to 26.7 Deg C) in winter.

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Mike, yours is likely lightning, looks almost exactly like mine that got hit by lightning.

Regarding the Clinostigmas, it may be leftover from all the rain we had last fall.  Mike Arends and I were sharing anecdotes of both of us losing a fair number of Dypsis sainteluceii, and thinking it was weird that they died so long after the eruption.  Our current guess is that it was actually from too much water.  The Clinostigma may have been the same.  This happens fairly regularly with Dypsis decaryii in East Hawaii, so it wouldn't shock me if it happened with other varieties as well, particularly those that have tightly held fronds that don't allow for excess water to drain out of the crown.

Resident of Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, San Diego, CA and Pahoa, HI.  Former garden in Vista, CA.  Garden Photos

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Dave, sorry to see the collapse of your Clino, I have no idea what the cause could have been. I've had crown shafts snap off, insect damage in the crown, but no outright collapse like your photo. 

Justin, I've not experienced any visible damage to any of my Dypsis and the three D. saintelucei in my garden are looking better than ever. The Clinostigma's are also doing well in spite

of 220+ inches of rainfall last year. (5588 mm) Of course there could be multiple variables involved, like drainage, age of the palm, exposure, etc...

I hope Mother Nature takes a break this year and that your garden thrives. 

Tim

 

Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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Thanks everyone for your input.  Seems there are a number of very plausible possible causes of this palm's collapse.  Tree's foliage is still pretty green;  vascular system still working?  I am gonna accept this loss as one of those things that happen and hope the remainder of the Clinos soldier on.  Again, many thanks.

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