Concerned about Lethal Bronzing

[NatureGirl]

The more I read about Lethal Bronzing, the more alarmed I become. I am almost convinced this is what my two Coccothrinax Palms suddenly died from. Mainly because of ‘reddish bronze’ color of dead/dying leaves as opposed to grayish brown. I don’t have close-ups of the first Cocco that died, but I do have pics of my C miraguama havanensis. Do you think this is the reddish bronze color? 

[kinzyjr]

As per the symptoms at this IFAS Publication, the fruit will often drop first or the inflorescence will become necrotic and then the fronds will start dying from bottom to top.  It does appear the fronds are dying in the correct order for this diagnosis.  One way you might be able to test is to have one of the palms injected with the oxytetracycline anti-biotics and check for remission.  Currently, Coccothrinax is not listed as a host palm - but with a positive diagnosis, the list will need an update. 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, kinzyjr said:

As per the symptoms at this IFAS Publication,

That is a scary article for all of us palm people!  It's a pretty wide list of genus they identify which makes one wonder how quickly the list will grow.

[Reeverse]

It seems to be almost textbook on the symptoms minus the fruit drop. I would definitely get someone from UF to come test it. Scary stuff going on with this. I hope it not that 

[quaman58]

I'd never even heard of this disease until I read about it on a news site last week. Another lethal palm disease to worry about. Yay. Just what we needed..

[NatureGirl]

Doomsville! When they talk about the End of the World and Pestilence being one of the signs, were they talking about 'Palm Pestilence'???

[Palm Diasporan]

NatureGirl, you really hit a raw nerve, so much that I signed up just now for Palmtalk after many years of simply reading the forum as a guest...You are not alone with your concerns about LBD. In the last 6 months or so I've seen a handful of mature Sabal palmettos quickly die.

[rick]

I lost a Coccothrinax barbadensis earlier this year to what I am fairly certain was lethal bronzing. This is the only picture I have of it from the end of March but I first noticed it losing leaves in Jan or Feb. The spear was gone by the end of May. The matching one on the left appears to be totally unaffected. 

[NatureGirl]

I've had two others tell me about dead palms in my area, one was a Cocco crinita! Why Cocco's? Does it have to be my favorite Genus? BTW, I have two large Sabal palmettos in my front yard (one actually is neighbors) on property line and they are fine..... so far.

[kinzyjr]

Sorry to hear about so many losses and the possibility that Coccothrinax may be added to the list of susceptible palms.  I actually just started a few Coccothrinax barbadensis a few months ago.  I figured the cold would be the main enemy since they are supposedly only hardy to the mid-to-upper 20s F.  Guess I've got another enemy to battle now.  Lethal Bronzing has been terrible along the I-4 corridor.  A bunch of us have been having conversations and sharing news about this disease on another thread as well: TPPD or Something Else?

 

[NatureGirl]

1 hour ago, kinzyjr said:

Sorry to hear about so many losses and the possibility that Coccothrinax may be added to the list of susceptible palms.  I actually just started a few Coccothrinax barbadensis a few months ago.  I figured the cold would be the main enemy since they are supposedly only hardy to the mid-to-upper 20s F.  Guess I've got another enemy to battle now.  Lethal Bronzing has been terrible along the I-4 corridor.  A bunch of us have been having conversations and sharing news about this disease on another thread as well: TPPD or Something Else?

 

Thanks for the link to that thread!

[cfkingfish]

This is happening to a lot of Coccothrinax in SWFL as well, sorry to see it is taking out your nice collection too.

[HtownPalms]

This is a devastating disease. It's such a shame to see this happening. 

[NatureGirl]

Update! Hubby was cutting this down this morning when I noticed growth on trunk. Now I wonder if it was Ganoderma after all. The puzzling thing is, that the growth is about a third of the way down from top (crown) rather than at bottom base of palm. Any thoughts? In third photo you can see it near bottom of photo, with crown.

[NatureGirl]

Upon inspection, another growth about 8 inches higher up. Could be more if I looked carefully, now that it’s in pieces on garbage pile.
 

[NOT A TA]

If Ganoderma zonatum is present it may be secondary to something else such as  lethal bronzing or Thielaviopsis paradoxa.  The Ganoderma grows pretty much everywhere in FL and rarely "attacks" healthy palms but will begin acting on dying palm tissue as soon as conditions for growth are good. I've cut down healthy palms and seen formation of conks within months on stumps when conditions for it's growth are good. How long ago did you notice the decline of your Cocothrinax?

Waiting from August till now to remove the dead palm has allowed plenty of time for one or more diseases to continue their life cycle. If lethal bronzing was the initial cause of death disrupting the life cycle of the the leaf hoppers that spread the disease may help reduce/prevent future infections. You can read up on the critters here http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/palms/palm_cixiid.htm  and plan your course of action.

Since you're not sure what killed the palm remove all the dead plant material to reduce the risk of future infections. Did you take any pics of the trunk inside sections where saw cut through?

Ganoderma questions

Were the suspected Ganoderma zonatum conks that formed on the NNW side of the palm? How high off the ground? Sprinklers hit the palm at or above height of the conks? Were the conks on a side of tree sprinklers hit?