So, I live in Satellite Beach, Florida and I've been babying my oldest Pritchardia Pacifica with lights and blankets through the winters since 2005. It took a major hit in the winter of 2010 and became soft in a couple spots of the trunk.  Slowly over the years, the rotted trunk material broke away leaving huge holes.  The tree still appears the be thriving but has very little support around the affected area.

I really love this palm and don't know of any others this old and this far north...so I'm desperate to save it.  I'm guessing there's nothing I can do, but I thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts or experiences.

I have pics but the files are too large.  I'll see if I can figure out how to compress the files or lower the resolution and post later.

 

Here are my pictures resized for upload...

 

Cut it down and "burn it"...   Pete

I'd want to save it too, what a beauty!! I've heard of holes being filled with hardware store gap fillers before but I imagine at some point the palm will just collapse whatever you do. This kind of damage is sometimes caused by spinklers continuously keeping the trunk wet in places and rotting it.

 

Regards Neil

Really sad to see such a beautiful palm with damage like that. Has it set seed before? I'd do what you can to save it (I've heard the same thing as Neil about filling the trunk, but I have a feeling that it's better for it to be exposed to air so that it doesn't stay moist), but get a replacement ready just in case. The good thing is that they grow relatively quickly.

 

You might also have luck growing Pritchardia beccariana, which is cold hardier than P. pacifica but looks pretty similar. You could always plant both and to your hand at hybridizing them when they flower. 

That's a real shame. That's a beautiful pritchardia too.  Even your pup looks concerned.     That said I don't see how that can ultimately be saved.   Filling it may prolong its life somewhat, but then you run the risk of other issues including more rot as water will likely get inside, and will stay moist longer without the air circulation   

Either way sooner or later one good gust of wind is going to take it out, maybe before it even begins to decline.   

I'd be thinking about a replacement at this point       .  I wish I had more ways to help or a more positive outlook   But that is a considerable amount of damage and it just doesn't look good for the tree. :-(

 

Ah, the life of a gardener. I'd do nothing but attempt to keep it dry. I wouldn't fill it with any "great stuff" or the like because it would only trap moisture. 

The fronds appear to be healthy, so just enjoy it. I would however, get another ready to go in. 

At least you don't have ganoderma.

Beautiful palm. If I lived in S. FL I would try Pritchardias. It's too bad palms can't heal their trunks. There are a couple queens in my area that BARELY survived the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 winters with upper teens and frozen precipitation, and their trunk have similar "gouges" in them.

Auto body polyester resin fillers are great for this application. If the crevice is properly filled, it will keep out moisture completely. Leaving that open hole only allows moisture an entry point. 

Exterior support will help too. You know the decorative iron bar trunk surrounds used on city trees along sidewalks? The other treatment I saw many years ago was a concrete trunk surround that braced the badly damaged W. filifera trunk that a truck had run into and gouged out a huge chunk. Workers put a form around the trunk and poured colored concrete in. When the form was removed, and the concrete dry, the colored concrete was touched up to better match the natural trunk. The concrete ran about five feet up the trunk. This was many many years ago and I hope the tree survives today. 

Either way, if that Pritchardia were mine, I'd do anything possible to save it. It's beautiful.