trachycarpus fortunei/windmill palm help

[Honez]

My wind mill palms seems to still be declining.  These are my two.  The fronds tips keep getting brown or black, and a few are more of a tan dead look, and it gets more and more by the week it seems.  Is this to much sun, water, not enough water, or a fertilizer issue?  I water them every other day and fertilize every 2 months with organics.  They get maybe 7-8 hours of sun a day.  The soil is a well draining mix too.  I am new to this, but I am trying.

[Philly J]

Following.  Mine is in rapid decline as well.  Just repotted after I pulled it out of its nursery pot, severely rootbound.  Had to brush away quite a bit of dead roots (that’s how rotten they were just broke apart in my hand).  It’s had some grow light time over the winter and been fine up until a month ago, but has only been acclimating a few hours a day outside because it’s still colder here in 3b.  I should have left the older frond off even after it went completely yellow because the palm was probably sucking it’s nutrients to compensate elsewhere, but i cut it off early (it wasn’t brown or crispy yet but it was 100% yellow).  Now the other is following behind very closely and I fear I will lose all the fronds.  Next week it gets outside full time.

[Allen]

Hard to tell from what I see in pictures.  They get brown tips quite a bit and older fronds die off faster when growing conditions are not great.  I would plant those in ground now in 7b if you have a spot.  They will do better long term that way.  Don't let them sit with those drip pans full of water.   Wish I had more for you.

[Honez]

I do not want to plant them in the ground till I am somewhere I want to stay for a while.  They are not root bound yet in these pots.  Hoping next year they will go into bigger pots if they are ready.  These seem to be looking worse by the week.  Also they do not sit in water, those drip pans have like 30 holes in them.  They are more or less there so I can see the water come out of pots.  Tells me the soil is still draining well.

[Honez]

They got fertilized today with jobes.  I have no clue what to use honestly.  I have the miracle grow palm, jobes, and jr peters jacks classic palm food or something like that.  Any other help?  I don't want these to die off.  No new growth in crown of the one either.  The other doesn't seem to be growing much.

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, Honez said:

They got fertilized today with jobes.  I have no clue what to use honestly.  I have the miracle grow palm, jobes, and jr peters jacks classic palm food or something like that.  Any other help?  I don't want these to die off.  No new growth in crown of the one either.  The other doesn't seem to be growing much.

I can't offer much help, but I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's bought all kinds of different fertilizers. I've bought Jobes, Jobes palm spikes, Jobes plant food spikes, Carl Pool, fish emulsion, and Orchid Mist. 

 

Good luck with your Trachy. 

[Honez]

Thanks,

If these die I doubt the wife well let me keep buying palms haha.  Trying my best to keep them alive.  Hopefully they turn around or someone else helps out.  I’m missing something here.  

[Philly J]

42 minutes ago, Honez said:

Thanks,

If these die I doubt the wife well let me keep buying palms haha.  Trying my best to keep them alive.  Hopefully they turn around or someone else helps out.  I’m missing something here.  

I am losing fronds every week.  This is bad.

[oasis371]

Trachycarpus are temperate palms..., not tropical. They resent excessive aridity and excessive heat...,especially in a pot.  I grow my containerized ones under the shade of some Eastern Hemlocks and keep them moist.

In some of the photos above, the Trachys are on concrete in front of a brick wall, those can bounce off a lot of heat even at this time of the year.

If they are not doing well, do NOT fertilize, that will only make things worse.  

[Far2go]

So what do you do? No fertiliser, no cutting of fronds,.... there must be a solution. 
My trachy in its pot in a sheltered position, although it’s v windy at the moment, and is not sitting in water! 
Was thinking of re-potting as it seemed to be doing ok. But now quite quickly declining! 
There must be someone who’s rescued their Trachy from this point?

Help? 

[teddytn]

I have had problems with trachys in the past. If you mail ordered them and they came bare rooted you have to be very careful about everything. Even when up potting from a nursery pot sometimes if you aren’t matching the growing conditions exactly it can give your plant transplant shock. I would move them both to a shaded spot for starters. If you maybe got a little over eager and used a little bit of all those different fertilizers that could explain the browning and discoloration on the leaves, if that’s the case you need to remove the fertilizer if possible. Maybe even to the point of taking them out of the pot and washing the fertilizer from the rootball and repotting. Palms are a long term game and have to take measured slow steps. Too much of anything water, sun, heat, fertilizer, cold can all cause problems. Also when young the same as for humans everything is recommended in a diluted dose. Hope this helps. Keep giving feedback and somebody will help to connect the dots for sure.

[Honez]

The palms were not mail ordered but grown at a local nursery.  No part of my yard is shady, its all mostly full sun.  Most I can do is give it sun from 11am to sunset. 

I only use one fertilizer at a time.  Right now its Jobes, which seems to not have half the stuff palms need.  Once I finish the bag, I will use the jacks classic/carls pool or whatever it is.  I don't trust the miracle gro one all that much.  The new growth on both look good.  Maybe its all winter damage?  I don't know but hopefully they improve over the summer.

[Allen]

1 hour ago, Honez said:

The palms were not mail ordered but grown at a local nursery.  No part of my yard is shady, its all mostly full sun.  Most I can do is give it sun from 11am to sunset. 

I only use one fertilizer at a time.  Right now its Jobes, which seems to not have half the stuff palms need.  Once I finish the bag, I will use the jacks classic/carls pool or whatever it is.  I don't trust the miracle gro one all that much.  The new growth on both look good.  Maybe its all winter damage?  I don't know but hopefully they improve over the summer.

They will brown tip in pots much more than in the ground.  And they just overall don't do nearly as good.  4 years ago a got 2 - 15 gallon already full trunked (2 foot trunk) Trachy that I put in really large pots and one 5 gallon one I planted.  Fast forward to today and the planted one is 3 times the size of the others and green.  the potted ones are weak and brown tipped but I planted them all as of this spring.

[teddytn]

10 hours ago, Allen said:

They will brown tip in pots much more than in the ground.  And they just overall don't do nearly as good.  4 years ago a got 2 - 15 gallon already full trunked (2 foot trunk) Trachy that I put in really large pots and one 5 gallon one I planted.  Fast forward to today and the planted one is 3 times the size of the others and green.  the potted ones are weak and brown tipped but I planted them all as of this spring.

I’m curious @Allen where did you get those 15 gallon trachycarpus?

[Allen]

1 hour ago, teddytn said:

I’m curious @Allen where did you get those 15 gallon trachycarpus?

Phil at Jungle music sent them to me.  He mail orders 15 gallon palms.  I planted them in these 3 foot tall x 2.5 foot pots.  The shipping is high as he mails in pot and all.  I think i paid $125 for the palm + shipping which was more than the plant.  here is one of the two palms back then.

 

[teddytn]

7 minutes ago, Allen said:

Phil at Jungle music sent them to me.  He mail orders 15 gallon palms.  I planted them in these 3 foot tall x 2.5 foot pots.  The shipping is high as he mails in pot and all.  I think i paid $125 for the palm + shipping which was more than the plant.  here is one of the two palms back then.

 

Well worth the money to not be bare rooted! How’s your garden looking so far this spring? Seems like all my palms started pushing new growth earlier that’s normal, not complaining though!

[Allen]

1 hour ago, teddytn said:

Well worth the money to not be bare rooted! How’s your garden looking so far this spring? Seems like all my palms started pushing new growth earlier that’s normal, not complaining though!

Well I will probably do a video in June when some of my more tropical plants get bigger.  They are all just coming in right now.   If you're ever down this way stop by.

[Honez]

I plan to plant these at the next house I buy or have built.  Not sure I want to plant these in the ground yet.  I don't want to leave them here for someone else to kill and I don't want to have to dig them up either.  Plus the soil here is extremely hard packed down clay.  3 years of soil conditioners, humic acid, and other things to try and make good soil have been fruitless.  Grass won't even grow into it because its so compacted. 

So your windmills are not in pots any longer?  I plan to re-pot mine next year into bigger pots.  Would bigger pots help them more?  Still trying to find a fertilizer that has everything they need that won't burn them.  Jobes seems fine but it doesn't have manganese. 

[Allen]

3 hours ago, Honez said:

I plan to plant these at the next house I buy or have built.  Not sure I want to plant these in the ground yet.  I don't want to leave them here for someone else to kill and I don't want to have to dig them up either.  Plus the soil here is extremely hard packed down clay.  3 years of soil conditioners, humic acid, and other things to try and make good soil have been fruitless.  Grass won't even grow into it because its so compacted. 

So your windmills are not in pots any longer?  I plan to re-pot mine next year into bigger pots.  Would bigger pots help them more?  Still trying to find a fertilizer that has everything they need that won't burn them.  Jobes seems fine but it doesn't have manganese. 

I have 7 in ground Trachy and 2 in pots as of today.  Pots slow them substantially.

[Honez]

Im fine with slow, until I can get them in the ground.  Just want to make sure they are getting taken care of haha

[Philly J]

After losing the two fronds completely it looks like it’s out of shock and I am getting spear push, thank goodness.

[Allen]

2 minutes ago, Philly J said:

After losing the two fronds completely it looks like it’s out of shock and I am getting spear push, thank goodness.

 

Great!

[JohnAndSancho]

13 minutes ago, Philly J said:

After losing the two fronds completely it looks like it’s out of shock and I am getting spear push, thank goodness.

How sad is it that I recognize the Bloem pot?