Queen palm mineral definciency

[Walt]

I volunteer as a master gardener for my county extension office. All the palm questions are fielded to me. Yesterday a customer dropped by the office and asked if I would make a site visit to his property to look at one of his many queen palms. He said he knew it was suffering, thought it might be a disease and didn't want his other palms, plants, etc., infected.

Well, today I made a visit to the customer's house and looked over the queen palm in question. To me, I think it is a manganese deficiency, possibly boron, too.

I forgot to ask the customer when he first noted this condition.

I advised the customer to get some straight manganese at Home Depot, Lowes, etc., and broadcast it around. I think I will further advise the customer to get a pH test of the soil around his queen palm, also, just in case the pH needs to be adjusted for better mineral uptake.
However, the soil here (deep inland as one can get on the Florida pennisula) is very acid, not alkaline like near the coasts, and I know manganese deficiency is more prevalent in alkaline soils.

In any event, I'm posting the below photos for the forum's opinions as to what is aling this queen palm -- and if you think this palm can be treated and recovered to normal again.

The customer must have at least a dozen queen palm planted within 10-20 feet all around the palm in question, and none of them show any signs of mineral deficiency, disease, etc. Could the problem just be specific to this one queen palm? Genetics? I think the customer told me the queen palm in question was planted in 2002 or there abouts, and that he grew all his other queen palms from seed from this palm.

I told the customer, when I get back to him, that I would give him the Palmtalk address so he could review any responses to my post.

Note: I've been growing queen palm since I moved here in 1997 and have never, ever had a mineral deficiency of any kind. Of course, I've always given my palms TLC via palm special fertilizers. Hence, I'm not familar first hand, only from book photos, of specific mineral deficiencies in queen palms.


Below is an overall view of the sick queen palm:





Note the rippling of the leaflets below:

[gavilan1]

This palm looks like it's been struggling for a while. I don't see what the new growth looks like, as nothing is obviously sticking up, but you might see some yellowing of new growth. It appears that the upper fronds are shorter than the lower fronds, indicating some possible stunting of frond length, and the frizzie look does seem to indicate manganese deficiency. The palm will recover, if you caught it in time. Has this one seen any hurricanes? The trunk doesn't appear to be growing straight up and even. Makes me wonder if it had a rough upbringing, and has been put back up more than once. I'm just sayin'...

[Walt]

This palm looks like it's been struggling for a while. I don't see what the new growth looks like, as nothing is obviously sticking up, but you might see some yellowing of new growth. It appears that the upper fronds are shorter than the lower fronds, indicating some possible stunting of frond length, and the frizzie look does seem to indicate manganese deficiency. The palm will recover, if you caught it in time. Has this one seen any hurricanes? The trunk doesn't appear to be growing straight up and even. Makes me wonder if it had a rough upbringing, and has been put back up more than once. I'm just sayin'...

I believe the palm has been struggling for awhile as it's showing the classic pencil pointing at the top of the trunk. I pointed this fact out to the customer, telling him that trunk constrictions indicate past trama to the palm and pencil pointing indicate current trama (mineral deficiency, disease, damage, etc.).

Yes, the palm has endured 5 hurricanes in two years time back in 2004 and 2005. However, I didn't discuss that fact with the customer. I know this as he said he planted the palm around 2002. I had two trunked queen palms blown completly down and two more blown on a 45 degree angle, not to mention many other palm species during the hurricanes.

The palm is also growing on a slope as the customer's back yard is on a lake. The palm is maybe 25-30 feet from the lake's shore.

It's only a lowly queen palm, so if it dies it won't be a big loss. The main thing the customer was concerned about is that the palm might be diseased and he didn't want it to spread to the rest of his palms and tropical plants which abound on his lakefront property.

[Mark Heath]

Hello Walt,

I have a large Queen that looks indenticle to the one in the picture. I assumed it was Manganese and i have been applying the liquid "Frizzle top" solution from Home Depot for the past two years along w/ fertilizer. It still has the same problem and i think it could be a Boron def. I don't recall who had told me about Boron but, he said you can buy

Borax at your local grocery store and apply two table spoons along w/ your palm fertilizer. I have not done this yet but i plan to this spring when the fertilizer will be absorbed by the roots due to warmer temps.

I hope this helps you Walt.

Mark

[edric]

If you haven't already seen this, it may shed some light on the subject of Boron deficiency, Ed

http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/index.php/PA...PESTS_IN_HAWAII

[Walt]

Hello Walt,

I have a large Queen that looks indenticle to the one in the picture. I assumed it was Manganese and i have been applying the liquid "Frizzle top" solution from Home Depot for the past two years along w/ fertilizer. It still has the same problem and i think it could be a Boron def. I don't recall who had told me about Boron but, he said you can buy

Borax at your local grocery store and apply two table spoons along w/ your palm fertilizer. I have not done this yet but i plan to this spring when the fertilizer will be absorbed by the roots due to warmer temps.

I hope this helps you Walt.

Mark

Hi Mark,

I shop at Home Depot and am unaware of Frizzle Top, but I will check for it the next time I'm at the store.

About 6-8 months ago I had a "just trunking" queen palm (that came up on its own) push out a distorted, stunted, accordian leafed frond. I immediately put down some granular manganese. As of now it growing normally again. Why that particular palm developed that condition is beyond me, as there's two other queens of the same size and age withing 15 feet and they are growing perfectly.

I do use the Borax powder and have applied it to some palms I felt might have a boron defeciency. I was chancing on just how much to apply, as I know too much boron is toxic to palms.

Thanks for your advice.

Walt

[Walt]

If you haven't already seen this, it may shed some light on the subject of Boron deficiency, Ed

http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/index.php/PA...PESTS_IN_HAWAII

Thanks for that link. I book marked it and will check it out in detail this weekend.

[Mark Heath]

Walt,

The liquid fertilizer that i am refering to is labled, Chelated Palm Nutritional. On the front lable it reads,

For the correction and prevention of yellowing and "Frizzletop" of palms.

Contents; manganese 2.50%

magnesium 1.50%

iron 1.00%

It is one pint sized and works very well, concentrated mix goes a long way! I use it w/ my liquid fertilizer at

my palm grove in Frostproof.

[Davidl]

That does not look like the typical look of a manganese deficient palm to me. I would think it is a boron and a balanced fertilizer.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LyraEDISServlet?c...t_version=48150

Edited October 17, 2009 by Davidl

[_Keith]

Was it boron?