New Bismarck Question

[Brian M]

Hello all. First time posting in the group. Just starting my palm obsession so I am very new to the game.

I recently planted a 30 gallon bismarck...probably about 3 or 4 weeks ago. The palm is putting off new spears that are blueish green, but they seem get brown tips shortly there after. The fronds don't feel dry, they feel leathery. Is this just transplant shock, or do I need to adjust my watering, or something else? I have been hand watering as I haven't gotten around to putting in true irrigation for the area yet.

Thanks, Brian.

[Reyes Vargas]

I planted three 6 gallon bismarkia not to long ago and they did the same thing.  What your palms are experiencing is sunburn.  The growers grow them under shade cloths so that they look good when they go and sell them.  When we get them we plant them in full sun and they get what you see on the fronds.  They will eventually acclimate to full sun.  They are just going to look a little unsightly for a while.

[Merlyn]

At 3 or 4 weeks I'd tend to agree.  A combination of sunburn, transplant shock, and an unusually hot and dry spring can do that.  Hopefully when you planted it, you did NOT mess with the roots.  Some palms are fine with "root pruning" to cut off heavily circling roots.  Bismarcks do not like having their roots messed with.  I've read that it's easy to kill a Bismarck during planting or during transplant.  I haven't had that problem with the three I planted. But I was careful to dig a hole, drop the palm in it, and water it. 

If the new fronds open up and get ~1 inch of brown tipping, then I wouldn't worry about it.  If new fronds brown out like the one on the right in the 2nd photo, I'd be concerned about either over-watering or under-watering.  Too much water (or a poorly draining soil) can cause root rot.  And, ironically, rotten roots make a plant look a lot like it's underwatered. 

What was the soil like?  Sandy and loose?  Compacted and clay?  Coral sand?

And how much water are you giving it, and how often?

[kinzyjr]

@Brian M Welcome to the forums!  If the palm is relatively new, it was probably grown in at least part shade and it looks like it's in a very open area right now.

Good advice and questions above from @Reyes Vargas and @Merlyn.  If you've been getting rain like we have the last two days, you can probably take a break from hand-watering for a bit.

[Brian M]

On 4/20/2021 at 6:56 PM, Reyes Vargas said:

I planted three 6 gallon bismarkia not to long ago and they did the same thing.  What your palms are experiencing is sunburn.  The growers grow them under shade cloths so that they look good when they go and sell them.  When we get them we plant them in full sun and they get what you see on the fronds.  They will eventually acclimate to full sun.  They are just going to look a little unsightly for a while.

Thanks! I figured it had to be something of that sort since the new growth looked healthy when it was coming in. 

[Brian M]

22 hours ago, Merlyn said:

At 3 or 4 weeks I'd tend to agree.  A combination of sunburn, transplant shock, and an unusually hot and dry spring can do that.  Hopefully when you planted it, you did NOT mess with the roots.  Some palms are fine with "root pruning" to cut off heavily circling roots.  Bismarcks do not like having their roots messed with.  I've read that it's easy to kill a Bismarck during planting or during transplant.  I haven't had that problem with the three I planted. But I was careful to dig a hole, drop the palm in it, and water it. 

If the new fronds open up and get ~1 inch of brown tipping, then I wouldn't worry about it.  If new fronds brown out like the one on the right in the 2nd photo, I'd be concerned about either over-watering or under-watering.  Too much water (or a poorly draining soil) can cause root rot.  And, ironically, rotten roots make a plant look a lot like it's underwatered. 

What was the soil like?  Sandy and loose?  Compacted and clay?  Coral sand?

And how much water are you giving it, and how often?

I made sure not to mess with the roots and was warned as such by the nursery. Other than muscling this bad boy into the hole, no roots were harmed during this planting. 

Our soil is very sandy. I could completely flood the area and it would full drain in a few minutes.

I was watering it for a few minutes early each morning for the first week or so then shifted to every other day using the shower setting on the hose nozzle. With the rain we've gotten the past week I've been able to lay off watering it.

[Merlyn]

That's good news on the roots, a lot of nurseries don't know (or advise) about the root sensitivity.  The soil drainage and watering seems reasonable to me.  I'd think that if you are seeing only brown tipping on new leaves then it's just adjusting to full sun and being in the ground.  Anything more than that would be corncerning.

[sonoranfans]

19 hours ago, Brian M said:

I made sure not to mess with the roots and was warned as such by the nursery. Other than muscling this bad boy into the hole, no roots were harmed during this planting. 

Our soil is very sandy. I could completely flood the area and it would full drain in a few minutes.

I was watering it for a few minutes early each morning for the first week or so then shifted to every other day using the shower setting on the hose nozzle. With the rain we've gotten the past week I've been able to lay off watering it.

A 30 gallon palm is pretty heavy so you can put a lot of shear force on roots just by dragging it.   How would your foot feel if somone dragged that bizzie across it, even for 1 foot of dragging?  Any time you have to muscle something, energy is absorbed somewhere.  We have all done damage planting/transplanting.   Neither of my florida bizzies "dry tipped" when I planted them at 5 and 15 gallon sizes.  Neither of my florida bizzies had sunburn after planting, so I cant speak of the sun burn experience there, never happened.  I also planted out 4 bizzies in arizona 20 years ago, no notable sunburn and arizona sun burns a whole lot more readily than florida sun.  These are sun tough palms, maybe the palm was badly mistreated to a point where it cant handle even florida sun so well.  I once saw a bunch of palms just shoved together in a mound at a big box store, in the middle was yes a very sick looking bizzie in a 25 gallon pot.  My 5 gallon florida biz outgrew my 15 gallon in 5 years, yes it was taller in 5 years.  I dont see why anyone in florida 9b and up should buy a big bizzie, they are fast growing palms, mine grew 25' + overall in 10 years from a 5 gallon.  I get that you are new to palms, but unless you are trying to push a zone with a marginal palm, fast growing palms are better off planted 3-5 gallon size or so.  The early part of a plants life the plant produces lots of root hormones to expand that root system but with age, root hormone production slows down.  So the best rooted palms will often be planted at a smaller size if, especially if they are fast growers.  My (3) 15 gallon queens outgrew (3) 36" box queens in 6 years in arizona too, a lesson was learned there and I saw that again with my bizzies.  Good luck with your biz, I suspect root damage and it will probably recover.   You are lucky it wasnt a cuban copernicia, much more sensitive in the roots.  I would suggest you try another source for your next palm(s).  Any nursery that would make a bismarckia sun sensitive in florida abused it.

[Brian M]

On 4/22/2021 at 3:26 PM, sonoranfans said:

A 30 gallon palm is pretty heavy so you can put a lot of shear force on roots just by dragging it.   How would your foot feel if somone dragged that bizzie across it, even for 1 foot of dragging?  Any time you have to muscle something, energy is absorbed somewhere.  We have all done damage planting/transplanting.   Neither of my florida bizzies "dry tipped" when I planted them at 5 and 15 gallon sizes.  Neither of my florida bizzies had sunburn after planting, so I cant speak of the sun burn experience there, never happened.  I also planted out 4 bizzies in arizona 20 years ago, no notable sunburn and arizona sun burns a whole lot more readily than florida sun.  These are sun tough palms, maybe the palm was badly mistreated to a point where it cant handle even florida sun so well.  I once saw a bunch of palms just shoved together in a mound at a big box store, in the middle was yes a very sick looking bizzie in a 25 gallon pot.  My 5 gallon florida biz outgrew my 15 gallon in 5 years, yes it was taller in 5 years.  I dont see why anyone in florida 9b and up should buy a big bizzie, they are fast growing palms, mine grew 25' + overall in 10 years from a 5 gallon.  I get that you are new to palms, but unless you are trying to push a zone with a marginal palm, fast growing palms are better off planted 3-5 gallon size or so.  The early part of a plants life the plant produces lots of root hormones to expand that root system but with age, root hormone production slows down.  So the best rooted palms will often be planted at a smaller size if, especially if they are fast growers.  My (3) 15 gallon queens outgrew (3) 36" box queens in 6 years in arizona too, a lesson was learned there and I saw that again with my bizzies.  Good luck with your biz, I suspect root damage and it will probably recover.   You are lucky it wasnt a cuban copernicia, much more sensitive in the roots.  I would suggest you try another source for your next palm(s).  Any nursery that would make a bismarckia sun sensitive in florida abused it.

Thanks. I doubt it's anything from where the palm came from. It's directly from one of the larger wholesale farms in Homestead. I've got a good connection there so the price I pay is unbeatable.

The more I read, I guess it's important to mention I added Palm Tone in the hole while I was planting. Combined with shock and other things, I think based on reading other posts, there is a bit of fertilizer burn going on... Hopefully something it will get through.

[Merlyn]

35 minutes ago, Brian M said:

The more I read, I guess it's important to mention I added Palm Tone in the hole while I was planting. Combined with shock and other things, I think based on reading other posts, there is a bit of fertilizer burn going on... Hopefully something it will get through.

Ah, that could do it.  I looked up Palm Tone, it is a 4-1-5 slow release, but it's not clear from the description how "slow" it is.  A very small amount might not affect anything, but a few big handfuls mixed in could burn roots.  Generally I see people recommend not fertilizing for at least 1-2 months after planting.

One other possibility (I hope not) is whether the palm took a hit or two during your drive home or during planting.  I had a Butia double in the ground, and tree guys dropped part of a big water oak on one of the two.  The part that hit the palm wasn't big, but it was enough to apparently crack the growing point, spear, root initiation zone or something down in the meristem.  In my case the spear and center leaves died within about 3 days, and the rest of the fronds followed a week or two later.  So hopefully your palm wasn't rolling around in the back of a truck, or whacked against anything.

[Brian M]

After the first summer of plenty of sun and rain, I think it has pretty well established. It's grown almost a foot since April and is constantly pushing out new spears.

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

3 hours ago, Brian M said:

After the first summer of plenty of sun and rain, I think it has pretty well established. It's grown almost a foot since April and is constantly pushing out new spears.

Looks quite happy now, no palm garden should be absent of a Bizzie imo =) Looks like you still have plenty of room for more palms !!! 

T J 

[Merlyn]

Looks great!  I'm glad to see it was just some transplant shock and a bit of sunburn, and has gotten nicely established!  My three keep on pushing new leaves, even in the middle of winter here in the Orlando area.  It may slow down a bit more in Jax, depending on your local temperatures.  But by the middle of next summer I'd guess on an additional 2-3 feet of height.

[KDubU]

Nice!

[D Palm]

I would pull the mulch away from the base. Press on the trunk, if it’s soft hit it with some peroxide. Long term preventive care.