Ganoderma butt rot killing off Sarasoda, Fla's Venice Avenue Palms

[WestCoastGal]

Saw this sad 2/13/13 article about the CIDPs in Sarasoda's downtown palm-lined street being killed by Ganoderma butt rot: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130213/ARTICLE/130219815/2055/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg

From some of the comments posted it made me think a poster thinks the palms that the City bought might have been diseased to begin with maybe. Don't think they came out and said that exactly but that's the implication I got--suspicious company, questionable stock. Anyone on the forum living in is area?

Isn't this the disease that in it's last stages produces actual fungus (mushrooms) on the trunk? Got me to wondering if it's possible for the palms to be infected, then planted and result in the new ground being infected? Or is it more likely the ground on Venice Avenue had the fungus in it and transferred it to the palms like I think is the case with fuscilium wilt (or am I wrong), it's just in the ground?

In any event sad situation. Sure will impact the look of the downtown; not so different I imagine as how the RPW has affected palm-lined streets in cities in Europe and elsewhere.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Canaries in a coal mine: Time for a category change. Ganoderma zonatum is native to the same geographic range as Sabal palmetto. It can be present in municipal compost. Once in the soil, it will re-infect newly planted palms though the process of infection isn't understood. Anyway, time to get some good ole Bambusa oldhamii and replace the coal mine Canaries. Sad, Canaries are such cool palms, especially in places where they are better adapted.

[MattyB]

I planted a queen palm directly next to a large tree stump that grows things off the side of the stump. I think it might be some sort of Ganoderma but I'm not sure. I even had some growing on the leaf base of the queen palm but I popped it off and applied fungicide. Is this palm tree doomed because it's planted on top of the rotting stump?

[DoomsDave]

There are many kinds of Ganoderma. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganoderma

It appears that the butt rot of palms is highly specific to them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganoderma_zonatum

I recall that palm butt rot is present in some soils in California, including in the nearby city of Placentia.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Dave, I thought I remembered a report of Ganoderma in SoCal too. I mentioned that to Dr Timothy Broschat one time and he really perked up. he hadnt heard that and it was clear that would have been a big deal to him.

[sonoranfans]

Its a shame, but those CIDP were probably not good choices in venice. And the medjools are terrible choices there, they are desert trees. A fool and their money are soon parted... Both species look much better with a little irrigation in phoenix arizona where I used to live... More robust crowns, bigger trunks, these are better adapted to the drier areas. there are apparently plenty of landscaping fools running around planting palm trees... Even worse, I drive past a planting every day of a mix of queen palms and phoenix dactyliferas at the foot of a hill in Laguna Niguel CA. All the irrigation drains to the foot of that hill. Its pathetic, to see the combination of water logged scrawny dactyliferas and nutrient starved scrawny queens in an area that is 600' elevation in zone 10..., must be a 10b, lowest temp was 39F this year... Its a real eyesore, It makes you wonder what idiot is responsible for the landscaping of these public places...

[Walt]

Saw this sad 2/13/13 article about the CIDPs in Sarasoda's downtown palm-lined street being killed by Ganoderma butt rot: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130213/ARTICLE/130219815/2055/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg

From some of the comments posted it made me think a poster thinks the palms that the City bought might have been diseased to begin with maybe. Don't think they came out and said that exactly but that's the implication I got--suspicious company, questionable stock. Anyone on the forum living in is area?

Isn't this the disease that in it's last stages produces actual fungus (mushrooms) on the trunk? Got me to wondering if it's possible for the palms to be infected, then planted and result in the new ground being infected? Or is it more likely the ground on Venice Avenue had the fungus in it and transferred it to the palms like I think is the case with fuscilium wilt (or am I wrong), it's just in the ground?

In any event sad situation. Sure will impact the look of the downtown; not so different I imagine as how the RPW has affected palm-lined streets in cities in Europe and elsewhere.

It's possible the disease may in fact have been transferred (the palms already infected with gano when planted in Sarsota).

I say this because I have a hunch that might be the case with (so far) six queen palms I purchased from a local palm nursery (grown on the nursery site).

In 1998 I bought three trunked (about 10 feet of trunk) queen palms and had the nursery plant them as an ensemble in my back yard. I had them plant three more untrunked queen palms in an ensemble in my front yard. Five of these queen palms died last year of ganoderma butt rot. The sixth queen is almost dead now and I am having it removed next month.

I've had one other mature queen palm (not from same vendor) that died last year of gano. Where all these queen palms died I've replanted with new queen palms (I have lots of them as they come up on my property all over). I purposely planted the new queens in the same spot (adjacent to cut off trunk of dead queen) to see how long, if ever, it will take until these palms become infected. As of right now, after almost one year in the ground they are the picture of health. Also, where my front yard queen ensemble was, in addition to planting a new queen palm I also planted a Serenoa repens (saw palmetto) and Sabal etonia (scrub palmetto). I did this because I wanted to personally monitor the health of these palms and to see how the different species might be affected by gano in the soil.

I have several hundreds (actually more than that) of palms on my property, comprising about 75 species. Of all of them (after 15 years here), only the seven queen palms above have died of ganoderma butt rot.