Death of a King Palm

[mxcolin]

Sadly, I had to dig out my dead King Palm today. However I'm determined to grow one so I want to try to avoid the mistakes I made the first time. I'm in Zone 9b (almost 10) only a handful of hours last winter below freezing and then only 1 or 2 degrees at most. I know King Palms are zone 10 and it's a risk here, however it didn't even get to see a winter. I planted it in February and at first it flourished. Then around late June I started to see problems, 2 of the fronds bent over without prompting, at first I thought it was the wind but then it turned out to be some form of crown rot. Needless to say the palm died. Attached are some of the shots I took when I dug it out. You can see it was pretty badly rotted inside and very damp. I'm growing it in a container (28" square) with a single drainage hole at the bottom which also acts as the feed in for the drip line. It was getting water and it was draining.

Was I giving it too much water. You can see the drip line I was using. Throughout the summer I ran it for 40 minutes every 3 days. The roots don't look too soggy even though the shaft was extremely wet and black. I thought maybe it was sitting in water but digging through the soil it doesn't feel too soggy. I've seen way worse in palms that survived fine. In terms of the planting and the container. I have a Queen Palm in an identical container with the identical drip line and drainage system, on the same irrigation timings, and it's thriving. I had expected to see trouble from the hot summers here or the cooler winter nights but not for this to happen in summer. Was this some disease that the palm had and none of these things would have mattered? 

As always, appreciate any responses, I'm determined to grow another one.

[enigma99]

I have close to a 100 of them in the ground, most in the ground for many years. Also live in Rocklin.

1. First mistake is putting it in a pot. 
2. It could have suffered root stress on planting? Also sometimes they come from a big box store stressed. i.e. Lowe’s forgot to water them, or they were rooted in at the grower etc. 

3. You cannot overwater, they will literally grow in a swamp or a pond. Jim in Los Altos can speak to that. If anything it could have underwatered it as it needs watering daily. Again put it in the ground, helps keep it waterlogged

4. Crack and sunburn on trunk. Probably got too hot? These are sensitive in the sun until established. Maybe that created a way for pathogens if it was unhealthy 

Edited September 12, 2020 by enigma99

[mxcolin]

Unfortunately my backyard doesn’t really have room to plant it in the ground. I would have expected the sun to have caused it to go brown and crispy but it’s gone the other way. The crack only occurred recently. After it died I believe. Is there anything I could have treated it with to stop this kind of rot? I wonder if a multi trunk install would have been better. 

[mxcolin]

Also I didn’t buy from a big box store. Bought from a palm specialist in the Bay Area. Couldn’t find one with any trunk near here. 

[enigma99]

I have one or two with a similar looking crack. They formed on a triple after I cut down some cypress trees over the winter and now they are taking a lot more sun. Deleted one, but leaving the others as my Royal grows out in that spot. (latest experiment on a mounded hill) 

The growing point looks pretty bad! If you notice your Kings are not moving fast (mark with a pen on spear), you could try some daconil down the crown or hydrogen peroxide if it's in the summer. 

On the backyard, when I bought my house I wasn't into palms, now I got every square inch filled. Wish I had a half acre in town, and I did look around a bit, about $1M+ for a palm perfect house/lot nowadays. I have a hard time leaving my current palms though. My plan for now is to just stay where I'm at.  

Kings are extremely fast growing so I don't know if they will do well in a pot long term. Lowe's on fairway in Roseville usually always has them, 1g, 3gal, 15 and 24" boxes depending on what they can get from the growers. Bit of warning though, once they are trunking they usually never do good once planted/transplanted. Maybe you should try a 3gal and keep it watered well? At least you'd get to enjoy it for a few years before it got too big for the pot. It probably would look pretty good. Or maybe try a slow growing species from New Caledonia like Chambeyronias. 

Edited September 13, 2020 by enigma99