Recently my giant birds of paradise have begun to  wilt on the leaves and the new growth has stopped coming. The shoot slowly dies off as it sheds the leaves. Is this a result of a fungal problem? It seems strannge as I don't think you can over water these plants but it seems to be a symptom of overwatering. These leaves in the photo used to be very  strong and upright and are now drooping. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Has it been overwatered ? 

I dont think so. There are others nearby that are watered the same amount and they aren't effected. My thought is fungal. Some of the leaves are also crinkled like curly leaf which leads me to believe it may be fungal but only happens on certain shoots in the grove which is strange. 

Yea, it sounds like a possible root rot, or you might have something like grub worms eating your roots. What you are describing sounds like a loss of roots for one reason or another.  Tom

do you have gophers?

No gophers but might be root rot. Just limit watering to avoid root rot? Anything else I can do if that is the case and its the roots rotting? The soil is very sandy here so Id be suprised. I water once a week in the summer and once every other week in the winter  - slow drip. Soil is pretty dry at depths under a couple inches. 

The best fungicide for root for is Alliette. I'd use Orthene for grub worms. I would drench with each of them just to make sure.

With this plant in San Diego, it's hard to believe there are issues with watering. In my experience it's difficult to over and under-water this thing. I can let the soil dry up or have soggy soil and it's as happy as can be either way. I've even chopped off trunks at the base and stuck them into the ground and they will develop new roots in moist soil.

Did you over-fertilize by any chance??? You posted similar issues with the king palms so it makes me wonder...

Interesting - I'll be following this thread. I'm a big fan of all Strelitzia, and have a bunch. 

I agree with it not being water-related. 

I don't believe it over fert as its only happening to certain stalks in the grove and the water based fert is everywhere. The more I discuss I think it may be fungal related or its just the recent cold dry air that's started off winter and is making all the Tropicals plants unhappy and I'm over analyzing. 

On 12/3/2015, 1:50:37, Pando said:

With this plant in San Diego, it's hard to believe there are issues with watering. In my experience it's difficult to over and under-water this thing. I can let the soil dry up or have soggy soil and it's as happy as can be either way. I've even chopped off trunks at the base and stuck them into the ground and they will develop new roots in moist soil.

Did you over-fertilize by any chance??? You posted similar issues with the king palms so it makes me wonder...

Ando I totally agree. These plants are bullet pruff in many places. 

For this thing to showing evidence of water stress, its gotta be a mole or gopher infestation.

No moles or gophers here. 

Is the entire plant in trouble or only a trunk or two? I've seen it all the time, and I think it's pretty normal for this plant to die off some trunks seemingly for no reason whatsoever, but the rest of the plant seems to thrive and grow on. It could be some fungal attack in that trunk only - if it looks bad best to just remove the bad leaves, and if new leaves don't emerge just cut the trunk off at the base. In San Diego these things grow like weeds.

Edited December 4, 201510 yr by Pando

I adjusted the lighting on image you posted so I can see better. Frankly it looks pretty normal to me, the leaves do get droopy at times, sometimes due to wind, heat, etc.

It can't be under watering - if the plant gets too dry, the leaves will get stiff, remain upright, and close up like a clamshell to conserve moisture.

thanks pando yeah its only a few trunks in the grove. It seems to always be the oldest ones. Maybe it is natural but my king palms next to it seem unhappy too which was the cause for the concern. I posted the question regarding the king palms as well and the previous post on the pygmy palm with what looks like crown rot is close by as well. I feel like it was a fungus from over watering the area but I have not been able to get an exact idea and how to treat it so dont want to just start dumping fungicides in the soil in hopes its that. 

Considering the drought, you can easily reduce watering the monster.  I never water mine (it is already well established).  

If your place was subjected to the hot burning suns of September, this could be a result of that.  My leaves have some scorched bits from the past heat.