Is my Bottle palm dead?

[teog]

Hello all,

I love the website and have learned so much. I bought and planted this 25g bottle palm in December 08. Everything was going good till the freezes here in Orlando. I kept it very well covered but it was not enough. All three fronds died and the spear wilted over and fell out. This week I was pulling back some of the dead fronds and found green underneath. The green areas are seeming to become more purplish once it was exposed. Any chance that it will survive or is it a gonner?

Thank you for you time,

T

[bgl]

Hi Teog,

Welcome to the PalmTalk Forum! Doesn't look too promising with your palm, but stranger things have happened. Check down in the center if you can see a new spike pushing up. If so, that would be good news. And even if you don't see a hint of a new spike, don't give up quite yet. Leave the palm there for a couple of months (at least). Spray into the center with fungicide.

Aloha from the Big Island!

Bo-Göran

[DoomsDave]

teog!

Welcome to the Forum!

Sorry to see you introduce yourself with what appears to be bad news.

I concur with Bo:

Don't give up yet.

Nudge the palm with your toe. If it's still solid in the ground, it's very much alive. If so, drop copper fungicide, daconil and/or hydrogen peroxide down the hole where the new leaf used to be. Peroxide's the cheapest; it's the same stuff people use to bleach their hair.

I'd use all three of the fungicidal things, treat once a week, and, with luck a new spear will emerge.

If you nudge it and it keels over, drag out your crying towel, go to the store and try another . . . .

[Walt]

It may not be dead, but it may be irreversibly damaged. I've had many zone 10+ palms freeze damaged to the point that they never grow normally again. By that I mean their growth rate falls off to about 1/4th of the normal rate. They will hang on for years and then die.

All you can do now is treat your palm (should have done so months ago) with a fungicide like copper sulfate and hope for the best.

I don't know what you thought just covering your bottle palm would do. At best it would only stave off the cold for a short period of time, due to the insullation effect. Such a small palm should have been tied up (fronds bundled together) and wrapped with rope lights, heating cables, etc., and then covered with layers of sheets or blankets, etc., to hold in the heat.

Without supplemental heat, just covering a palm will mainly just help protect if from frost, but not the low cold temperature.

[teog]

Thanks for the feedback. Ill give the fungicides a try and see what happens.

[Kim]

You were probably very excited to get that beautiful bottle palm in the ground, but in most cases it is not advisable to plant palms going into winter. Prime palm planting time is late spring and early summer, giving a plant more of a chance to develop roots and establish itself during the warm growing season. In this particular case, even that would not have helped. I believe this species routinely dies when temps fall below about 38F. If you get colder temperatures every winter, grow one in a large pot and move it indoors when the temperatures fall. They don't mind growing in a pot and you'll have a nice palm for many years.

Good luck resuscitating this one!

[DoomsDave]

Teog:

Even if H. langencaulis won't make it in the ground for you, it's a great container plant, if you have a large enough container, and a dolly to move it to shelter when it gets cold.

You're probably a bit far north for those where you are, alas, they're more of a Miami palm.

I know, they sell them in the nurseries, like they do here, where it's even worse . . . .

[Mark Heath]

Teog,

Use this as a learning experience! I have a Bottle palm that was defoliated as well but it has a newly full grown frond and another coming. I planted mine under an Oak canopy but it still gets sunlight half of the day. It does'nt look good for your palm I'm sad to say but like others have said, don't give up. If you do get another, take Walts' advise unless you have a microclimate, like i do! I live next to very dense woods w/ huge Oak trees located north of me so everything that is very tender, ( like the Bottle palm that my wife had to have), i plant there. Please keep in mind that this winter has been freaky, and we only see bad ones every 20 years. But please don't plant another frost-tender palm out in the open unless you use supplimental heating along w/ covering it w/ blankets! How did your other palms do??????

[Walt]

This bottle palm was fried from the 27 degree low radiational freeze on 2/14/06 (St. Valentine's Massacre, I called that morning). The palm was located several blocks from my house. I spotted it riding around looking at freeze damage. I went back a couple of months later and there was new growth, but I didn't followup months later, so I don't know if the palm continued to recover or not.

FYI, I have several palms now that were severely (totally defoliated) by last January's freezes. Even though the center spears are green, they are not moving. I marked these spears on several palms. Two of the palms are veitchia species with 4-5 feet of trunk. Others are small foxtails with no trunk, as I just planted them last fall.

When new spears don't grow it's a bad sign.

URL=http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2606088030042496162ghgSLK]

[Tyrone]

This bottle palm was fried from the 27 degree low radiational freeze on 2/14/06 (St. Valentine's Massacre, I called that morning). The palm was located several blocks from my house. I spotted it riding around looking at freeze damage. I went back a couple of months later and there was new growth, but I didn't followup months later, so I don't know if the palm continued to recover or not.

FYI, I have several palms now that were severely (totally defoliated) by last January's freezes. Even though the center spears are green, they are not moving. I marked these spears on several palms. Two of the palms are veitchia species with 4-5 feet of trunk. Others are small foxtails with no trunk, as I just planted them last fall.

When new spears don't grow it's a bad sign.

URL=http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2606088030042496162ghgSLK]

That's the most depressing palm picture I've ever seen.

Tyrone

[BS Man about Palms]

I'm sorry. I saw this earlier today and felt sad. I looked at this thread in the index again and now all I can think of is the Monty Python sketch with Parrot and the Pet shop.

"Its bereft of life"...et al

[teog]

Thanks for all the feed back. I actually have two other smaller bottle that I planted last week in the ground from planters in hope that we dont freeze again for many years to come. If so Ive learned my lessons on what I need to due to protect them. Unfortunetly I also lost 2 foxtails this year due to the freezes here in Orlando. I raised a total of 4 from seedlings and now they are 7-8 ft tall. Two of them survived closest to my home. I dont plan on buying any more bottles though I believe they are awesome plants.

The local HD's here too are selling tons of bottle, spindles and other varies 10 or higher palms under the palm special for 49.00. Though I'm tempted I dont plan on wasting any more money. I have enough cold sensitive palms already to worry about for the next time we get cold weather.

But the good news is I come back this afternoon from Brooksville Palms with two new 15g mule palms. Pics to come soon.

Thanks again for such a great site. Wish I would have found it ealier, could have saved some of my palms this winter.

[DoomsDave]

Teog:

Be aware that Central Florida gets some nasty freezes sometimes, which periodically clears out the tender stuff. When I went there in December of 2007, there were Veitchias, Roystoneas, etc., everywhere.

However, when it freezes again, they'll be toast, but it was lovely while it lasted.