In the beginning six Bottles were enjoying Beautiful Leilani.

In late 2010 or early 2011, one fell over from the top, like a drunken sailor. Its body felt hollow. BGL came over and cut same down.

Now today, I have two of the five doing the exact same thing. I'm so sorry, I do not have a picture at this time.

I will have the two cut down leaving three. I'm thinking about having the other three cut down also. They look okay, but not great.

It's very wet here and I'm wondering if the problem is, they do not dry properly. Maybe they need more sun! Help!

BTW, the garden looks great, I must say. I stay fit with all the work I do here.

Make it a great day!!!

Karolyn

Hi Karolyn! Great to hear from you. I bet that garden does keep you busy. Those bottle palms usually want full, all day sun. I know your "full sun" can be mitigated by the cloud cover, so I can see how they might get a little leggy and unhappy, especially if they are in the shade beneath some canopy. Not sure if you can open up any canopy to let in more light but that would probably help. If you can't, at least they're common and you can start over with a new fresh one. Good luck. Take care.

Matt & Jennifer Bradford

Hello, Karolyn:

Good to hear from you!

Sorry to hear about the bottles. As Matt pointed out they need their sun. Plant Hyophorbe indicas instead -- they'll take the shade much better, at least here in California (someone correct me if they won't take shade in Hawaii).

I'd just plant some new baby bottles out in the sunniest spot you have. On the other hand, sunny spots are a bit in short supply, if my memory serves. . . . The more sun the better. At least half a day, if you can, especially in the afternoon.

I'll bet keeping up with that place will keep you in shape. Just picking up the fallen leaves is a big chore all by itself.

Give us more pictures when you can!

Karolyn - see if you can tell if it is just rotting away, or if it is insect related. At times this can be overlapping - that is, insect damage contributes to a rotting problem.

The thing that is a concern these days is the banana moth. Do a search here on PT and look for a thread Dr. George did with some great pics. Look for the telltale signs of this pest.

Matt & Jennifer,

Thank you so very much for the information. You hit the bottle right on its head. My Bottles are not getting enough sun and are shaded by a canopy or two. I must bid them farewell. Take care of the family and yourself and kee posting, as if I had to tell you that.

Dave I have so many palms I needn't plant anymore Bottles after putting these to rest. I have someone with a pick up truck and he makes a minimum of five trips to where I have the palm fronds dumped about every ten days. Plus every 3 months someone with a backhoe stack the fronds in a huge pile. They do mulch after time. The place is beautiful and one can see and walk thru the various areas. Seeing the trunks and walking thru some areas is really breathtaking. I must thank you know who for such a lovely place, but lots of work.

Dean, rotting problem it is!

Karolyn

I was going to guess rotting as well. I had the same issue with some of my Triangle palms. We just get too much darn rain, and they never have the ability to dry out. In my opinion, the bottle palms look much better on the Kona side. Sadly, I always wanted to grow bottle palms here in California, but now that I have the opportunity (in Pahoa), I haven't done it, for fear of them ending up like how you describe.

Maybe the old mound planting technique on a hill of gravel would work.

Justin,

My place is really so very wet. My opinion along with the knowledge I'm attaining, is to stay away from bottles.

No thank you Matty!

Karolyn

Karolyn, too bad about your bottles. Sounds like the problem has been pretty well diagnosed. That means you only have 4,990 other palms left in your garden.

I see lots of bottles here in Hilo, but they are in full sun and look good. There must have been a time when these

were readily available locally, because it's a pretty common mature palm in residential landscapes.

Like Justin said, Triangles are a different story.

Tim