Deformed Fronds - Mexican Fan Palm

[DallasPalm]

I live in the Dallas TX, USA area and have 2 Mexican Fan Palms (aka Washington Palm, Washingtonia Robusta).   One is about 12 feet tall and the other is 17 feet tall.   Over the winter, I wrap them with Christmas lights and burlap around the bud.   This past winter it got down to 9oF.   The shorter palm is perfectly fine, but on the tallest one I guess I kept the burlap on too long.  Because, when I unwrapped it, the bud was rotting and fell off.   I could tell that new growth was occurring, so I thought it would be fine.   By the time I realized it wasn't growing normally, it was 1.5 months later.

Two leaves that were already outside the bud grew out and are green.  So those are mostly fine as you'll see in the pictures.  But all the fronds that grew out after the rotten bud are deformed.  The new fronds are growing about 3/8 inch per day, but just are not normal.  

I've now applied copper fungicide one time and hope that eventually it's going to produce a normal bud.  Below are several pictures showing what's happening.   Any advice is appreciated.

Here's the full picture of the Mexican Fan Palm with the 2 green fairly normal fronds that grew inside the burlap but outside the rotten bud which fell off 1.5 months ago.

 

In this picture you see some of the deformed fronds that grew after the rotten bud fell off.

 

Then, this picture shows one of the newest fronds.

 

Finally, here's the newest frond in the center, which still doesn't look like a normal bud is forming.

[GottmitAlex]

Welcome to the forum!

I wonder if one of its roots tapped into the pool pipes. My neighbor had his robusta he has growing streetside make its way into his toilet: 7-8 feet away. 

 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

That is fungus damage and you can fix it fast. Go to home depot and buy a bottle of daconil, mix it 50/50 with water and pour it down the center and in about 2 weeks you'll have normal leaves pushing out.  You can PM me for my cell # if you have any other questions.  We are up in dallas all the time. 

[DallasPalm]

Thanks TexasColdHardy...!   Note that I applied Copper Fungicide about 1 week ago.  So, should I apply the daconil immediately?

GottmitAlex, while it's possible that the roots are growing into the pool pipes, I'm fairly certain that my problem started because of the burlap wrap being on too long with too much moisture inside causing the bud to rot.

[heimerswt]

Old thread, but I am having the exact same problem with my Mexican fan palm after the Texas Palmageddon/snowpocalypse in February.

@DallasPalm did the Daconil work for you?

@TexasColdHardyPalms does this look like the same issue?

I have only treated it with hydrogen peroxide, and it was after that treatment when things started to grow again, despite not being what I was expecting to grow…

Here are pics of what I’m getting. They look like they’re green and “healthy” (at least for a while), just deformed. It’s pushed about 5-6 petioles out that looks like this now in the last  2 months.

Thanks!

[Fusca]

59 minutes ago, heimerswt said:

Old thread, but I am having the exact same problem with my Mexican fan palm after the Texas Palmageddon/snowpocalypse in February.

@DallasPalm did the Daconil work for you?

@TexasColdHardyPalms does this look like the same issue?

I have only treated it with hydrogen peroxide, and it was after that treatment when things started to grow again, despite not being what I was expecting to grow…

Here are pics of what I’m getting. They look like they’re green and “healthy” (at least for a while), just deformed. It’s pushed about 5-6 petioles out that looks like this now in the last  2 months.

Thanks!

Hi Joel, welcome to Palmtalk!  Good to see your Washingtonia palm survived the big freeze.  Looks like your palm had a similar problem due to the freeze and resulting rot.   That's normal what you are seeing after the palm deals with rot.  It might push a few more deformed looking fronds before it resumes normal frond production.  Looks like the newest growth has minimal damage so it might look pretty close to normal.  I'm on the far west side of town, what side of SA are you in?

[heimerswt]

29 minutes ago, Fusca said:

Hi Joel, welcome to Palmtalk!  Good to see your Washingtonia palm survived the big freeze.  Looks like your palm had a similar problem due to the freeze and resulting rot.   That's normal what you are seeing after the palm deals with rot.  It might push a few more deformed looking fronds before it resumes normal frond production.  Looks like the newest growth has minimal damage so it might look pretty close to normal.  I'm on the far west side of town, what side of SA are you in?

Hi Jon, thanks for the encouragement! I’m north central, just inside 1604 near Blanco/Bitters. 

I had several surprises after this freeze. Thought I’d lost pretty much everything except for a few yuccas. There are so many things coming back to life that are still occurring almost weekly. Still saying thoughts and prayers for two very large sagos that have had no movement except for three or four of the pups (which I usually prune completely bald during a normal spring/summer).

Back to the palm I posted above…I don’t think this newest frond will look normal, but I’m starting to have hope after what you’ve said and an apparent improvement. It’s grown another inch since the last photo above, and I can see the end of the petiole. It’s definitely better looking than the two others, still stunted however. See new pics below that I just took. (Mulch piece for scale). Third pic is of the previous spike to emerge.

Wanted to also mention that this was planted less than a year ago and it’s a raised bed, surrounded by concrete on three sides, about 2ft from the ground.

[DallasPalm]

@heimerswt, sorry for such a late reply.   I hope your palm recovered.    I applied the Daconil mixed with water 50/50 (very thick stuff) and then applied it again 2 weeks later.   The palm fronds were definitely looking better.  But, after 2 more weeks,  I applied copper fungicide mixed per the instructions, and then applied the copper fungicide again after another 2 weeks.   Finally, about 3 months in, the fronds were looking normal, and my Mexican Fan Palm survived.

I'm attaching a picture of the same Mexican Fan Palm wrapped during the 0 oF freeze in February of 2021.  It survived because it was wrapped with Christmas lights, plastic, and finally blankets.