Queen sago mineral deficiency?

[Walt]

I have four queen sago (Cycas circinalis) palms. Three of them are growing in proximity to one another. Last winter all four of them were, for all intents and purposes, defoliated.

One of the four, on it's first flush since winter, had some deformed fronds, where the leafs were fused together. I can only assume this was caused by some sort of mineral deficiency. But all fronds on the second flush are back to normal.

None of the other three sagos exhibited this fusing of leafs. Futher, in years past all of these sagos have been defoliated, but this was the first time I saw this condition (fused leaves).

It's no big deal, but I was just wondering what specific mineral deficiency (if in fact it is a mineral deficiency) it is. As anyone else run across this condition. If not, in any event, I thought I would post the below three photos for one's information.

I've also been fighting white scale on my sagos. I've given them numerous root drenchs with imidacloprid, specifically using Dominion 2L (21.4% imidacloprid). And even with this I still get infestations. However, I'm blasting the scale when I first see colonies of them with my water hose. I've pretty much rid my sagos of them for the time being, but these insects are very persistent.

Below photo, note red arrows showing some of the deformed fronds. Bottom two photos show close ups of some of the deformed fronds. I think there were no more than 4-5 deformed fronds on the initial flush.

[Palmlover]

That is crazy looking

[eastern.nurseries]

Polyphagotarsonemus latus