Palmgain through landscape fabric?

[palmneko]

Hi all,

new to palm trees and this forum. 

I want to apply Palmgain for several of my palm trees but found there is landscape fabric underneath the mulch/rive rock around the base. Can I apply palmgain over the fabric and water it in? If not what can I do to get some nutrients to the tree? 

 

Ps. I just learned punch holes never heal in palms and regret hiring someone who uses spikes to trim the trees. You can see the holes on the trunk in the first pic. Should I be worried or do something about it?

 

Thank you!

[kinzyjr]

@palmneko Welcome to the forum!  Upfront, I don't often use fertilizer, but I did decide to use some Florikan after a cool, but not cold, winter.  Several of my palms started showing potassium deficiency and another user recommended using Florikan to correct it.  I have landscape fabric in my beds and the nutrients still seem to be leaching into the soil as they should.  In the case of Florikan, it is temperature activated instead of moisture activated.  Moisture activated fertilizers tend to wash away here where we get 50 inches of rain per year, but you shouldn't have an issue with that.

[NOT A TA]

I've been testing Palmgain which is NOT a slow release so it needs to be reapplied every 4-6 weeks.

Palmgain tends to float so that may be an issue for you if you just sprinkle it on top of your stone.  The directions instruct us to scratch it into the soil 1/2" or so. I've wondered if this was because it floats and would potentially float beyond the root zone from heavy rain or hose watering or if the product dissolves better if it's kept moist by the soil? Maybe both?  I've noticed that the "floaters" that surface are still on top of the soil of potted plants beyond the 4-6 week time frame the fertilizer is supposed to work. Is this because it completely dries out before the next watering so it doesn't dissolve as it it supposed to?

Not really anything you can do about the spike holes and not likely to be an issue but ya, find another guy.

[palmneko]

All my palms except for the potted ones are covered by mulch/stone and then landscape fabric, a few are in my lawn so covered by grass. It will be difficult to scratch into the soil. Sounds like Palmgain may not be the best choice for my palms. Any recommendation on palm fertilizers that will be more suitable for my situation? Thanks!

[NOT A TA]

4 minutes ago, palmneko said:

Any recommendation on palm fertilizers that will be more suitable for my situation?

Hopefully someone with experience in your area can chime in with recommendations. I don't personally have any experience related to your conditions to make any recommendations.

You might find something about fertilizer recommendations using the search or perhaps start a thread "Fertilizer recommendation in XXXXX county CA please" .  I'm sure there's locals here on the forum who could give you good advice based on personal experience.