Pink Rot?

[ramooi]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

[KennyRE317]

tell you the truth, from what i've seen it's very very difficult to overwater an Archontophoenix and i've seen them grow in some of the worse clay around. one of my neighbors has a couple Archontophoenix in a raised planter and the soil line is about 6-8" below the planter and since our clay doesn't drain much i've seen that palm sit in inches of rain constantly.

[KennyRE317]

also my own Archontophoenix alex has seen ALOT of water lately since i do all my potting and washing buckets and random stuff around it, it has seen 5-10gal daily for a couple weeks straight and only thing it did to my A.alex was giving it a growth spurt

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

It's more likely that it didn't get enough water and therefore was water stressed and too weak to resist fungal infection. Also, could just be luck of the draw and you got a bad specimen.

[ramooi]

When I plant the new palm in it's place, should I remove as much as the old dirt as possible or does it matter? Are queen palms susceptible to pink rot as well?

[ramooi]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

It's more likely that it didn't get enough water and therefore was water stressed and too weak to resist fungal infection. Also, could just be luck of the draw and you got a bad specimen.

When I plant the new palm in it's place, should I remove as much as the old dirt as possible or does it matter? Are queen palms susceptible to pink rot as well?

[KennyRE317]

When I plant the new palm in it's place, should I remove as much as the old dirt as possible or does it matter? Are queen palms susceptible to pink rot as well?

ideally when you plant you want it so when you pull the plant out of the tub all the dirt comes out of the bucket with the plant, pretty much waiting for the plant to become root bound in the pot. there's a few benefits to waiting for the plant to be root bound, an example would be minimal root disturbance, and also keeping the plant in the pot helps with better drainage. i've been planting through fall and into winter and quite a few of the plants i've planted were not root bound and when that happens you pretty much just have to make sure you give it plenty of water the day you're planting and probably water a couple days after planting to ensure you get all the air bubbles out

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

It's more likely that it didn't get enough water and therefore was water stressed and too weak to resist fungal infection. Also, could just be luck of the draw and you got a bad specimen.

When I plant the new palm in it's place, should I remove as much as the old dirt as possible or does it matter? Are queen palms susceptible to pink rot as well?

I didn't realize you are in San Jose, just over the hill from me. Sounds like you might be dealing with fungal infection after frost/cold damage from last Winter's intense cold in January. Either way, I would not worry about the soil, remove the palm that's there now and plant the new one in its place, it's not necessary to remove any soil. If it's cold damage related, and you don't want any hassles, then replace with something hardier like a queen.

[Sutter Bob]

My oldest and formerly biggest king (I think it made it through five winters here with some help) took a real hit last January and has basically stalled since then but hasn't died outright. No spear pull but minimal growth. I had high hopes it would flower in another year or two. We'll see what happens.

A number of smaller specimens are still growing. Those under a tall pine tree look pretty good going into December.

I agree about watering these - I'm not sure you can overdo it.

I've had a few pulled spears on others that sure stunk.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

Depending on your San Jose microclimate, I think, if you really want king palms to do well, plant them in close groups of three or more and closer to your house. Group planting will help the trees in the winter and summer and they look great in groups too. One king palm all by itself out in the open is sometimes asking for trouble this far north. I have over forty mature kings in my Los Altos garden and they're all planted in groups with the most protected ones looking far better than the least protected ones.

Water the heck out of them too. Look at my avatar. Those are the ripening fruits of one of my 20 year old kings above my head. When they're happy, kings are one of the most tropical species we can grow way up north.

[Sabal Steve]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help. P1050488 (1).jpg

It's more likely that it didn't get enough water and therefore was water stressed and too weak to resist fungal infection. Also, could just be luck of the draw and you got a bad specimen.

When I plant the new palm in it's place, should I remove as much as the old dirt as possible or does it matter? Are queen palms susceptible to pink rot as well?

I didn't realize you are in San Jose, just over the hill from me. Sounds like you might be dealing with fungal infection after frost/cold damage from last Winter's intense cold in January. Either way, I would not worry about the soil, remove the palm that's there now and plant the new one in its place, it's not necessary to remove any soil. If it's cold damage related, and you don't want any hassles, then replace with something hardier like a queen.

A queen????

[ramooi]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

Depending on your San Jose microclimate, I think, if you really want king palms to do well, plant them in close groups of three or more and closer to your house. Group planting will help the trees in the winter and summer and they look great in groups too. One king palm all by itself out in the open is sometimes asking for trouble this far north. I have over forty mature kings in my Los Altos garden and they're all planted in groups with the most protected ones looking far better than the least protected ones.

Water the heck out of them too. Look at my avatar. Those are the ripening fruits of one of my 20 year old kings above my head. When they're happy, kings are one of the most tropical species we can grow way up north.

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

Depending on your San Jose microclimate, I think, if you really want king palms to do well, plant them in close groups of three or more and closer to your house. Group planting will help the trees in the winter and summer and they look great in groups too. One king palm all by itself out in the open is sometimes asking for trouble this far north. I have over forty mature kings in my Los Altos garden and they're all planted in groups with the most protected ones looking far better than the least protected ones.

Water the heck out of them too. Look at my avatar. Those are the ripening fruits of one of my 20 year old kings above my head. When they're happy, kings are one of the most tropical species we can grow way up north.

How can I protect this young ones in front of the house? I planted them back in April and so far so good. They are happy and green. Can I cover them with something during the cold nights of winter with frost? I think last winter we had about 20 nights of freezing temps.

[Sutter Bob]

C9 Christmas lights and frost blankets while small make a big difference on frosty nights.

[Jim in Los Altos]

They grow much better under the protection of larger trees overhead. They look much better when shade or partial shade grown. Hot dry full sun in the summer and cold frosty nights are king palm enemies particularly when they are juveniles. Do you have any shady areas to plant more kings? Home Depot on De Anza Blvd. has big multi planted ten footers in 15 gallon containers for $59.00. It might be worth your time to look at them before they're gone.

[quaman58]

Even down here in San Diego, I often see evidence of pink rot on leaf bases that have fallen off on my one A. cunnnighamiana. So I've always been hesitant to pull off any leaf bases prematurely. Seems like the stuff is always around; you just don't want to give it even the slightest wound to make mischief in.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help. P1050488 (1).jpg

It's more likely that it didn't get enough water and therefore was water stressed and too weak to resist fungal infection. Also, could just be luck of the draw and you got a bad specimen.

When I plant the new palm in it's place, should I remove as much as the old dirt as possible or does it matter? Are queen palms susceptible to pink rot as well?

I didn't realize you are in San Jose, just over the hill from me. Sounds like you might be dealing with fungal infection after frost/cold damage from last Winter's intense cold in January. Either way, I would not worry about the soil, remove the palm that's there now and plant the new one in its place, it's not necessary to remove any soil. If it's cold damage related, and you don't want any hassles, then replace with something hardier like a queen.

A queen????

Yes, unfortunately in San Jose it's very hard to find anything besides the usual stuff. My recommendation for anyone willing to try to find so ething better and hardier but still tropical looking is to grow a parajubaea sunkha or a mule. I even sent this person a PM to help them find one.

[KennyRE317]

last time I was up in norcal before moving down here for good was probably 2009 or 2010 around thanksgiving and I remember walking out of the hotel around 6:30am and when I got into my car I saw a thick layer of ice on the windshield ... I sure don't miss those real cold nights in the east bay

[KennyRE317]

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

Depending on your San Jose microclimate, I think, if you really want king palms to do well, plant them in close groups of three or more and closer to your house. Group planting will help the trees in the winter and summer and they look great in groups too. One king palm all by itself out in the open is sometimes asking for trouble this far north. I have over forty mature kings in my Los Altos garden and they're all planted in groups with the most protected ones looking far better than the least protected ones.

Water the heck out of them too. Look at my avatar. Those are the ripening fruits of one of my 20 year old kings above my head. When they're happy, kings are one of the most tropical species we can grow way up north.

Hey there. I am guessing my king palm got pink rot. That smells nasty! Like stinky fish! It was getting skinnier and skinnier and I touched the top and the entire thing fell off! My wife and I are bummed. What caused this? Did it get too much water or was there bad drainage? We want to plant another one in the same spot but want to know if we need to do something different the second time. Thanks for your help.

P1050488 (1).jpg

Depending on your San Jose microclimate, I think, if you really want king palms to do well, plant them in close groups of three or more and closer to your house. Group planting will help the trees in the winter and summer and they look great in groups too. One king palm all by itself out in the open is sometimes asking for trouble this far north. I have over forty mature kings in my Los Altos garden and they're all planted in groups with the most protected ones looking far better than the least protected ones.

Water the heck out of them too. Look at my avatar. Those are the ripening fruits of one of my 20 year old kings above my head. When they're happy, kings are one of the most tropical species we can grow way up north.

How can I protect this young ones in front of the house? I planted them back in April and so far so good. They are happy and green. Can I cover them with something during the cold nights of winter with frost? I think last winter we had about 20 nights of freezing temps.

best thing to do is move the palm to the planter to the right of the stairs. looks like there might be a wall where the garage might be or you might move it a few feet toward the house in the planter right behind you. it's amazing what moving your plant a few feet can do to save it