How to treat cold damaged palms for their survival.

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

After our recent cold here in the southeast U.S. I thought this topic would be worth bringing up again. I know most of you know this but there are always new people here and some in Florida may not have enough experience with cold damage to of even bothered to learn. There are good ways that can help save a cold damaged palm. Living on the N.C. coast I have used these methods to save several palms. When a palm gets cold damaged , if the damage is only to the leaves but the emerging spear is still growing and green no action is usually needed other than a light application of fertilizer. When the cold damages even the emerging spear leaf and that spear "stalls", refusing to grow out, then quick action is needed. A green spear does not always mean the palm is ok. If it is not growing you need to tug on it, hard, every few days to see if it will pull out. The part of the spear down in the trunk can be rotting while the part you see can look to be a healthy green. Sometimes when the spear finally pulls the rot inside the trunk is too far along and the palm dies anyway despite your further efforts. If the spear does not grow, and continue to grow, you will have to decide whether you should jump to the third method below. If it is brown and not growing then you can bet that it is rotting down inside the upper trunk. If that is not taken care of quickly the rot will spread down to the heart of the trunk very quickly and kill the tree. If you find your palm in this condition you can take three steps that I know of. The least action would be to pour Hydrogen peroxide into the spear area. If there is a cavity (you might have to cut off the brown spear to creat one) that is even better so that the peroxide will really seep in. If some peroxide runs down the trunk and into the soil it is ok. Your second course of action would be to use copper fungicide or some other stronger fungicide. I like the copper as it has proven itself with me. Some people think copper fungicide is harsh on a palm but I find it to be a stronger course of action to stop rot and have not had a lot of problem with it harming a palm, even when applied several times. You use it just like the peroxide. I would try not to get too liberal with it though and let it run out into the soil. The third thing you can do is to start at the point where the spear emerges from the trunk and, using a saw, make horizontal cuts through the trunk, inch by inch until you find unrotted or healthy spear. Apply a small amount of copper to this healthy tissue if you finally find it. Some palms like Butia have very deep hearts that may actually be underground for many many years until it eventually grows above ground with more tree height. Other palms such as coconut will have the heart high up in the trunk not far from where the spear emerges. If you have to cut the trunk off till you do not see a center spear anymore but only solid trunk then you have cut off below the heart and the palm is a goner. If it was brown all the way to the heart then it was a goner anyway. If anyone can add to this or can correct anything I said that was wrong then please do. I'm sure we can save quite a few borderline palms.

Edited January 28, 2009 by Jeff zone 8 N.C.

[FRITO]

Jeff, good advice. I learned this last year after having budrot and spear pull on many hardy palms.

the cold along with rain is perfect time for palms to rot. they look good but like you said, check the spear. lightly pull on it to make sure its firm. I use copper fungicide or Daconil and spray into the bud after cold event. and continue every two weeks or so until warm weather arives.

a shirvling or drying up spear means usually its rotting at the growth point. pull it out and treat it.

[_Keith]

  FRITO said:

Jeff, good advice. I learned this last year after having budrot and spear pull on many hardy palms.

the cold along with rain is perfect time for palms to rot. they look good but like you said, check the spear. lightly pull on it to make sure its firm. I use copper fungicide or Daconil and spray into the bud after cold event. and continue every two weeks or so until warm weather arives.

a shirvling or drying up spear means usually its rotting at the growth point. pull it out and treat it.

Agreed. Right on the money.

[NBTX11]

2 or 3 years ago, we got down into the low 20s and it damaged my queen palm, burnt the exterior fronds pretty good. The spear looked fine until spring. The emerging spear was able to be pulled out easily in spring though, and the area pulled out was all brown and rotten. I basically did nothing but wait, and the next spear came out soon slightly deformed, but each one after that was healthy. Some times the best course of action is do absolutely nothing, but wait. Time has a way of healing wounds.

[Mark Heath]

Thanks Jeff for the information! I do have some palms here that will need attention! The Cocos that i planted out

at my palm ranch in Lake Wales are deffinatly goners, they were small and completely "crispy times two"!!!

[kahili]

I also don't do anything but pull the shriveled up spear out, and just let the open area dry out. I had 3 different kinds of palms lose their new leaves last winter, and as soon as it got warm, they started to push out new spears that were healthy.

I read in here that a lot of people use Daconil on the palms, but I am not sure exactly what fungus they are treating with Daconil? Does anyone know what fungus it is? I would love to know, because when I look at the label of Daconil at the fungi that it treats, none of them strike me as being present on a palm-except in the case of a palm that has a leaf spot fungus-which is not the same as budrot. I did see an article on phytophthora bud rot, but phytophthora almost always needs high temps/humidity to be active (unlike some strains of pythium) and Daconil won't treat phytophthora (or pythium), it would be a waste of money. Anyway, I have been curious about this for a while. I hope someone knows. I also just looked at the fungi that copper fungicide treats, and it looks like its very similar to what Daconil treats, so I would curious about that as well.

I have no problem with treating a plant with a fungicide, but I don't do it with my palms, although I have most of the fungicides, because I don't know what I am treating, and I don't like using fungicides if I don't know what I am spraying for. I would love to treat the palms with a systemic during the winter (in fall) but, again, I don't know what fungus I am treating it for. I do know that Daconil is not a preventative, and I suspect that copper fungicide is not also, but I don't know enough about it. I hope someone here knows and can tell us.

[Perito]

Can anyone who has had success saving a palm with Daconil tell me what dilution ratio to use when bud rot is suspected? - Perito

[TikiRick]

I would agree with most of the comments, except for the fertlizer part.

I don't believe that any fertilizer should be used until all threat of cold has passed.

Tender, exposed cellular tissue pushed by using fertilizer will only be further damaged should additional cold weather arise.

Personally, I refrain from using any fertilizer, even here in South Florida, after November 15 and before March 15.

Just my opinions.....

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

Luke and Keith

thanks for the back up! I fully expected others to disagree somewhat on my methods and their comments have given me some thoughts on refinement.

Jim and Kahili,

my mistake. I should have said that in some cases no action may be needed. Treatment is needed when the normally water tight healthy spear gets damaged and either shrinks inside the trunk or pulls out leaving a cavity for rain to collect in and hasten rotting. Jim, in a dry period or climate (I think San Antonio is fairly dry as compared to the southeast) if rain does not collect around the rotting spear or in the cavity where the spear emerges then the best method may be to do nothing. I wrote what I did thinking of my own climate where rains are regular. Every palm grower has to chose for himself based on his assessment of the situation. That does remind me though that there is another method to use either alone or along with the other methods. That is to cover the crown with a rain cover, like plastic, to keep rain out of the damaged spear. The cover should be open at the bottom to allow drying air to circulate.

Kahili,

I don't know much about what types of fungus copper treats "on the label" but I'm betting hardly no fungus can grow where it is applied. Labels are tightly controlled as to wording and uses listed, as well as problems they are approved for. I have done the same as you and not treated and things have turned out ok. I bet at least one of the palms you did nothing to is a Trachycarpus. They recover nicely all on their own and can do it year after year. What were the three kinds of palm?

Mark,

the good thing about your damage is that probably a very high percentage of your damaged palms will be fine and look great in a short time. The small Cocos at the ranch can be easily replaced. Man do I envy your climate and the cheap price and good availabity of different palms there. Wait a minute what am I saying? Those palms will probably look terrible, so if you want me to come down and dig them out and bring them up to my North Carolina palm graveyard and bury them...well at least the rootball.. then let me know and I will be happy to help you out. LOL.

Rick,

I was reluctant to put in the fertilizer part and thought I would hear more about that from more people. You were the only one to mention it. You get the prize! Don't get excited though, it is only honorable mention. LOL. Yea, I should have said that may not be a good idea but I wrote it in the frame of mind that the palm had no green leaves left and a rotting spear. At that point I want a spear to go ahead and push out rather than stall inside the trunk. That would definitely not be the best idea if more cold weather was expected unless the palm was protected. So I should have said that any damaged palm needs to be protected for the rest of the winter from further cold.

[kahili]

Jeff, the three palms were Chamaerops humulis, butia and a butyagrus. Like you, I get rainy winters, and I have already pulled spears from several palms this winter, but I think that they succumbed more to that run of cold nights in the 20's that we had in Dec when they were not covered, and they were pretty small, so I am thinking that they will not make it. One was a Brahea edulis-which made it thru fine last winter, and maybe it will recover. I need to go out there and take stock of all of them. I also need to stick to a rule that I made for myself that I would be patient and grow out to at least 5 gallon size, all the extreme borderline palms before I planted them in the ground. I think that would help a lot in getting them thru a winter, and also in recovering if they do lose a spear.

One thing that I have noticed is that if its just the spear that is gone and the rest of the leaves are still green, that it is a good bet that it will recover, but if all the leaves are fried, that it is not a good sign for recovery-what are your thoughts there?

I wouldn't use fert until it warms up either, partly because of the new growth being so tender, but also because in the colder zones, the palm isn't taking it up because the soil temps are so cold (as well as the roots).But I get what you are saying, and as soon as it does warm up, I would start providing fert to help the palm start growing.

Perito-if you have a fungus present-then you always use full strength, and alternating between two fungicides is a really good idea. The problem with spraying a fungicide without knowing what fungus is present such as spear pull, is that the problem may fix itself anyway without the fungicide, so you can't really say that it was the Daconil. In other words, say that someone has spear pull in a palm and they use Daconil, and the palm recovers-so they say it was the Daconil and so they swear by it. But if the palm would have recovered anyway and the Daconil didn't have anything to do with it-then you really can't say that it was the Daconil.

I am not trying to start an argument here, it was a twofold approach that I was taking. One was that I see people a lot saying to use a fungicide such as Daconil in ways that I don't think will help (such as for a preventative, or for spear pull) or if someone has a problem and I have seen many times where people tell them to get a "fungicide" and use that. Like any fungicide will help any problem. It doesn't work like that, and I hate seeing people waste their money, and/or not use the right fungicide and lose a palm (s). Two, is that I don't really know anything about the fungi that palms are susceptible to and I wanted to learn about them so if I have a problem, I can apply the right fungicide to mine-either as a preventative or to treat a palm.

As a wholesale bedding plant grower, I have been using these fungicides for almost twenty yrs-part of my success as a grower depends on me knowing these fungicides and how to use them, as fungi as a part of growing annuals-which as a rule-are more susceptible to a fungus than palms. Most of the fungicides were developed for grhouse growers for the above reason. So, as much as I have gotten from this site, it seemed a way to give back, as well as I really want to learn about the different fungi that do hit them.

[Turtile]

Rot from cold damage is caused by bacteria not fungi. Therefore fungicides will not help. However, copper is also a bactericide so it will help. Regular copper sulfate should not be used more than twice but other combinations such as Phyton 27 are much more safe.

I also fertilize my palms during the winter. Palms don't stop growth because of cold temperatures. It just slows down. The cold weather stresses the palm out and also lowers its ability to absorb water and nutrients. This is why bud rot can easily become fatal.