Zamia furfuracea not thriving

[PalmatierMeg]

I planted this male Z.f. at the edge of my new property in late 2011. It started out growing okay and even coned once. But over the past year it has gone into a slow decline: fronds turn yellow, then brown and die. It is still putting out new fronds but overall seems to be going backward. Over the weekend we dug it up and replaced it with a 15' silk floss tree. We noticed it didn't have an extensive root system for being in the ground 18 months. I've potted it in a 3g in hopes it will recover. I've left on all the current yellowing fronds.

Can anyone give me some clues about what is bothering it? What can I do to treat it?

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

These are usually indestructible. Last year, we had a very large one melt away. We just cut every leaf off, removed the dead head, fertilized and the thing took off again.

Yours looks like it needs fert, has it gotten any? Are the roots buried?

[tropicbreeze]

I always considered them virtually indestructible. I have two very large plants, bit over chest high and quite a bit wider. Looks like they're both males. Never get fertiliser and only get watered by wet season rains. We have a hot dry winter season and the summer is hot and wet. The soil is very poor and there's lots of competition from tree roots. Despite all that they're very healthy looking and produce an abundance of new fronds each season. Looking at yours, I'd (guess) they're getting too wet while too cold causing damage to the root system.

[PalmatierMeg]

I'm going to cut off yellow/brown fronds. When it was planted in 2011 I'm its roots conformed to the pot it was in. I think we planted them deep enough. We amended the shell rock/sand with top soil we ordered from a local business - no black "muck" in bags from the BBs. It was fertilized when we fertilized the palms & trees on the lot, 3 times per year with a fertilizer that had micro-nutrients.

I've just repotted it. Should I fertilize now? What are the requirements for cycads? Thanks for the info so far.

[Moose]

Meg - stop loving it like your other plants - you are being too nice to it. I just removed a bunch of volunteers a couple of weeks ago. Some were 10+ years old -never fertilized, no supplemental watering, crappy mostly rocky soil ...