Hope for Livistona Chinensis?

[boaterboat]

I climbed my Chinese Fan Palms to treat with copper fungicide, and spears have some green. I gave them all a firm tug and they seem very sturdy.  

Opinions on likelihood of survival?

[Alex High]

11 minutes ago, boaterboat said:

I climbed my Chinese Fan Palms to treat with copper fungicide, and spears have some green. I gave them all a firm tug and they seem very sturdy.  

Opinions on likelihood of survival?

I think they have good chance so long as you trim away the dead fronds and keep it well fertilized. The green gives me hope. I have seen palms fully recover from worse. Thanks and best of luck to your palms!

PalmsUSA

[Collectorpalms]

Did you say you heated the crown? I have two that are about that height.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[boaterboat]

32 minutes ago, Collectorpalms said:

Did you say you heated the crown? I have two that are about that height.

The only thing I was able to do was wrap some heat tape near the hearts, but I was not able to wrap with burlap or anything anything since it was an icy mess. 
 

I did run a patio heater under them intermittently. I doubt that did much.

Edited February 25, 2021 by boaterboat

[Collectorpalms]

The picture of a little green next to the harder mahogany brown was a “tell” That there was heat there. The other tissue is gray Brown. Nevertheless the meristem is pretty far down. I’d say 18 inches below that. If you kept that part heated then maybe you have a chance.

[boaterboat]

I have had spear pull on the three to the left, but the two on the right continue to push green. Is it safe to assume the three on the left are goners? I am planning to add quite a few new palms, so I’m trying to decide if I should leave them or go ahead and replace the left 3 using the same holes. 

[Collectorpalms]

2 out of 5 is pretty good.  But Replant then with Sabals Pa.lmettos.

I am about to trunk cut the top several inches of my Livistonia to see if their is life, and then give them till the end of spring. Once we constantly get into the 90s in a month or less, things are going to grow even if damaged/ or remain dormant.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[NBTX11]

If two out of 5 survived this freeze that is a pretty good rate.  Robusta would have been 0 out of 5 there, most likely.

I'm giving my Robusta til around June to start pushing green.  If I haven't seen anything by then, they are gonzo.

[aegean]

5 years ago, after a nasty freeze period I had about 5 W. robustas/filibustas that looked quite similar to your Livistonas near the spear. Outer petioles were still green, but the spear was brown like yours. All of them died. The big problem is the rotting spear. If the rot reaches the central growing point the palm is gone.  I think it would have been better to cut the top part of the trunc and remove the rotting tissue. But who knows ? 

[Collectorpalms]

8 minutes ago, aegean said:

5 years ago, after a nasty freeze period I had about 5 W. robustas/filibustas that looked quite similar to your Livistonas near the spear. Outer petioles were still green, but the spear was brown like yours. All of them died. The big problem is the rotting spear. If the rot reaches the central growing point the palm is gone.  I think it would have been better to cut the top part of the trunc and remove the rotting tissue. But who knows ? 

Was anyone able to save tall washintonia Robusta? Through trunk cutting only...it really isn’t an option if it taller than a ladder without special equipment, or did some naturally live? How cold and how long was it cold.?

I can reach one Filifera that is about 20Ft that I am going to try and trunk cut it very soon. As some filifera are growing, no Robustas are growing but mine are very tall.

Edited March 31, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[aegean]

19 hours ago, Collectorpalms said:

Was anyone able to save tall washintonia Robusta? Through trunk cutting only...it really isn’t an option if it taller than a ladder without special equipment, or did some naturally live? How cold and how long was it cold.?

I can reach one Filifera that is about 20Ft that I am going to try and trunk cut it very soon. As some filifera are growing, no Robustas are growing but mine are very tall.

It was a one week cold period with one night low of 12 F , two nights low 14 F, 72 hours below freezing, also heavy snowfall during that period and rain afterwards.

Almost all W. robustas died, almost all W. filiferas and CDIPs survived. I'm probably the only palm enthusiast here in nothern greece, so nobody tried to save a Washingtonia except me.

I did cut the top part of the trunc, but maybe it was too late or maybe I should have cut further. In the beginning there was still a little bit of growth, so I hesitated to cut. when I couldn't notice any more growth at all I started to cut and also built a little plastic roof over the crown, but it didn't help.

Later, when I cut further I found out that the "heart" of the palm was still quite firm, but all the surrounding tissue was rotten, even below. So my guess is that it could have been saved by completely exposing the central growing point early. But that's just my theory. and of course you don't know if the palm will make it anyway and you only harm or kill the plant by doing this.

I did save one smaller CDIP by completely exposing the central growing point. It started growing a new small frond about 3 months later in June. 

I have seen your pictures and understand that it's impossible to reach the crowns of the Robustas.  Mine were much smaller with about 20 feet the tallest.

From my experience Robustas and Filiferas are two different worlds, when it comes to cold hardiness.

[Collectorpalms]

4 hours ago, aegean said:

It was a one week cold period with one night low of 12 F , two nights low 14 F, 72 hours below freezing, also heavy snowfall during that period and rain afterwards.

Almost all W. robustas died, almost all W. filiferas and CDIPs survived. I'm probably the only palm enthusiast here in nothern greece, so nobody tried to save a Washingtonia except me.

I did cut the top part of the trunc, but maybe it was too late or maybe I should have cut further. In the beginning there was still a little bit of growth, so I hesitated to cut. when I couldn't notice any more growth at all I started to cut and also built a little plastic roof over the crown, but it didn't help.

Later, when I cut further I found out that the "heart" of the palm was still quite firm, but all the surrounding tissue was rotten, even below. So my guess is that it could have been saved by completely exposing the central growing point early. But that's just my theory. and of course you don't know if the palm will make it anyway and you only harm or kill the plant by doing this.

I did save one smaller CDIP by completely exposing the central growing point. It started growing a new small frond about 3 months later in June. 

I have seen your pictures and understand that it's impossible to reach the crowns of the Robustas.  Mine were much smaller with about 20 feet the tallest.

From my experience Robustas and Filiferas are two different worlds, when it comes to cold hardiness.

I have three or 4 Washingtonia I can reach. If I can see any difference ( get them to show growth in them) then I may try it on the big ones. It’s worth a shot Time a ticking.. if trunk pruning doesn’t make a difference on these then it likely would not have worked on taller ones.

[aegean]

17 hours ago, Collectorpalms said:

I have three or 4 Washingtonia I can reach. If I can see any difference ( get them to show growth in them) then I may try it on the big ones. It’s worth a shot Time a ticking.. if trunk pruning doesn’t make a difference on these then it likely would not have worked on taller ones.

Here is a photo of a W. robusta that I have taken after the mentioned freeze in 2017. 

As you can see this robusta survived, probably because it is growing in a more sheltered spot.

Nevertheless on this photo You can clearly see the problem that occurs after such a freeze event:

while the central growing point is still intact and keeps growing by using the plant's reserves, the palm is struggling to push the spear further out, because the upper part of the spear is damaged from the freeze, became too soft and is beginning to rot.

Depending on how big the damage is, the palm might not be able to push the spear out, the rotting progresses further down to the central growing point and the palm dies.

Cutting off the top part of the trunk early and thus removing the soft, rotting part of the spear could solve this problem.

 

 

[Collectorpalms]

I trunk cut two Robustas, there was no saving them. There was just mush and hole all the way down the palm. these were not a big deal as they were volunteer palms that I let grow. This is really bad news for the tall ones probably. Seems like if they were alive you would see at least some dead tissue trying to come out unless its stuck, which is why I am trunk cutting to begin with, but more than likely they are just dead..

I trunk cut what i think is a Filifera that ended up getting too much shade so it didn't do well. Initially it looked like it was alive but slowly started to go downhill. This one was slightly salvageable. we will see, I had to put some peroxide on it. I will keep working on this one.

I trunk cut one Filifera that was just slightly going downhill, It might have been ok but I did it anyhow.

I have one very nice Filifera, that I can reach with a taller ladder that I have not gotten to yet that I want to try as it is one of my favorites. I haven't seen it do anything and its a surprise it hasn't.

I have several others... that are second priority next week the rest are too tall at the moment.

Depending on my success ( any) after a week or two Ill decide on the taller ones.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[Collectorpalms]

On 2/25/2021 at 11:16 AM, boaterboat said:

I climbed my Chinese Fan Palms to treat with copper fungicide, and spears have some green. I gave them all a firm tug and they seem very sturdy.  

Opinions on likelihood of survival?

I have one Livistonia almost the hight as one of yours that is showing green as off yesterday. I didn't protect it. While a nearby one, hasnt yet, I am going to trunk prune it to see if it helps. I also trunk pruned about 10 smaller Livistonia.

[boaterboat]

I am sad to say the two Livistona Chinensis on the right seem to have given up. One still has green fronds, but they have only emerged about 6” and haven’t moved in months. The other was in the same state, but fronds have turned brown. I’m expecting the “stalled” palm to do the same. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by boaterboat

[necturus]

Sorry man. I would've been shocked if they survived. Even in Houston, survival of trunking L. chinensis isn't as great as this site would have you believe. Lots of dead ones.

[Collectorpalms]

I had two that were almost as tall of those and they both survived low single digits. One took off much faster. I also had 1 medium and 2 small recover. One medium recovered around july 4th. 
I lost the other 7, mostly medium size. 
they were actually all the same age. Nearly 20 years old. Some that had less competition and more sun grew fast. They were oversized clumps of 1 gallon size when planted.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Collectorpalms