I Really Don't Understand What Is Wrong With This Sabal minor Seedling

[PalmTreeDude]

This Sabal minor seedling has seemed to be in a slow decline for a long time now. First the spear turned brown and it stayed that way for like four months. In that time I have repotted it three times with different soil, watered it a lot less than when the spear first turned brown, and gave it lots of light. It just won't grow. The spear seemed to move up a few centimeters at one point, but that is all. Just today I noticed one of the strap leaves starting to shrivel up, which is something that I have seen in Sabal palmetto seedlings that I dug out of the ground in South Carolina due to transplant shock, although it has been more than a month since the last time I repotted it. All of the other Sabal minor seedlings I have are doing completely fine given the same conditions, they have the exact same soil, light, and get the same amount of water. Does anyone know what I could possibly do? Right now the only thing I have done was pour a tiny amount of 3% hydrogen peroxide down the spear every week or two to hopefully prevent more rot. I really don't want to lose this palm. In the picture, it is the palm in the very middle. Just watered, I gave it a little. 

Edited December 15, 2018 by PalmTreeDude
Added Text

[Rickybobby]

I have a couple sane size as yours. Same cups etc. I find a few have been faster than others. What kind of light and room temps?

[PalmatierMeg]

Palms are variable just like people. Some are healthy and robust, others frail and sickly or afflicted with a fatal genetic condition. Not all offspring will survive. My first (and only) Sabal miamiensis seedling struggled, then seemed to be dying altogether. I was distraught and was sure it was a goner. But after a while it sent up a leaf from an alternate growing point, then never looked back. For some reason the original growing point became damaged or non-functional but the palm seedling was determined to live and sent out that 2nd growing point. I suggest you treat the problem seedling the same as the others and let it work out its own survival issues. Sometimes you can do more harm than good fretting and fussing over your plants.

Coincidentally, I'm fixing to post a topic on a sickly Hemithrinax ekmaniana that has bedeviled me for years. Maybe I can do something for it or maybe it's just a poor genetic specimen.

[PalmTreeDude]

5 hours ago, Rickybobby said:

I have a couple sane size as yours. Same cups etc. I find a few have been faster than others. What kind of light and room temps?

It gets artificial light (only for this winter) that the others seem to thrive on and the room tempature ranges anywhere from 67 - 74 (especially when my computer is on). 

 

11 minutes ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Palms are variable just like people. Some are healthy and robust, others frail and sickly or afflicted with a fatal genetic condition. Not all offspring will survive. My first (and only) Sabal miamiensis seedling struggled, then seemed to be dying altogether. I was distraught and was sure it was a goner. But after a while it sent up a leaf from an alternate growing point, then never looked back. For some reason the original growing point became damaged or non-functional but the palm seedling was determined to live and sent out that 2nd growing point. I suggest you treat the problem seedling the same as the others and let it work out its own survival issues. Sometimes you can do more harm than good fretting and fussing over your plants.

Coincidentally, I'm fixing to post a topic on a sickly Hemithrinax ekmaniana that has bedeviled me for years. Maybe I can do something for it or maybe it's just a poor genetic specimen.

You are right, I probably will end up or already did more harm than good to it trying to fix its issue for it. I remember one of my Sabal palmetto seedlings that I got from the ground in SC (I was extremely ignorant about palms at this time, so I decided to literally grab and rip up the palm), it of course got bad transplant shock and turned completely brown and everything. So I left it in a pot, looking dead, and a few weeks later I see a new spear emerging. That amazed me. It unfortunately later died for some reason, but the the simple fact that it somehow had enough strength to regrow a new spear after being ripped from the ground like a weed really amazed me, especially after looking up how prone to transplant shock Sabals are. I will treat my Sabal minor seedling like all of the others and hope for the best. 

[RJ]

5 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Palms are variable just like people. Some are healthy and robust, others frail and sickly or afflicted with a fatal genetic condition. Not all offspring will survive. My first (and only) Sabal miamiensis seedling struggled, then seemed to be dying altogether. I was distraught and was sure it was a goner. But after a while it sent up a leaf from an alternate growing point, then never looked back. For some reason the original growing point became damaged or non-functional but the palm seedling was determined to live and sent out that 2nd growing point. I suggest you treat the problem seedling the same as the others and let it work out its own survival issues. Sometimes you can do more harm than good fretting and fussing over your plants.

Coincidentally, I'm fixing to post a topic on a sickly Hemithrinax ekmaniana that has bedeviled me for years. Maybe I can do something for it or maybe it's just a poor genetic specimen.

Sounds advise from experience. More often then not the best advise 

[NC_Palms]

12 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Palms are variable just like people. Some are healthy and robust, others frail and sickly or afflicted with a fatal genetic condition. Not all offspring will survive. My first (and only) Sabal miamiensis seedling struggled, then seemed to be dying altogether. I was distraught and was sure it was a goner. But after a while it sent up a leaf from an alternate growing point, then never looked back. For some reason the original growing point became damaged or non-functional but the palm seedling was determined to live and sent out that 2nd growing point. I suggest you treat the problem seedling the same as the others and let it work out its own survival issues. Sometimes you can do more harm than good fretting and fussing over your plants.

Coincidentally, I'm fixing to post a topic on a sickly Hemithrinax ekmaniana that has bedeviled me for years. Maybe I can do something for it or maybe it's just a poor genetic specimen.

I agree with Meg, you will never get a 100% success rate when you grow palms from seed.