Spear not opening on A. cunninghamiana

[ruskinPalms]

Hello all,

Just seeking advice on my A. cunninghamiana. I have not had great luck with these over the years and I am wondering if my last one is on its way out. It pushed a spear like usual but it never opened up. It is pushing another spear too. It has always opened a new spear before pushing a new one out (actually, all my crown shafted palms are that way). Just wondering if there is some sort of fungus or nutrient deficiency going on. There is a lot of competition there in the landscape bed and it is a rather dry corner of my yard. It has been very dry for about a month now so could be water. I did hand water it good the other day but nothing has changed. Here are the best pics I could get of it. There is brown weird area on the larger spear and some spots on the smaller spear. It is up too high for me to do much with it but I’d still like to know what’s going on. Thanks!

 

 

[ruskinPalms]

Wow sorry the photo quality stinks. I guess the forum really recompresses the files a lot. 

[Merlyn]

I had a Spindle palm do that to me this spring, I had recently planted it from a Walmart purchase, and it had a normal-looking spear about halfway up when I bought it.  It grew to a "normal" length but refused to open.  When the palm started growing a new spear I figured that something was wrong, because Hyophorbes always open the spear before the next one pokes out.  Since it was short and easy to reach, I gave the spear a gentle twist.  The middle of each leaf seemed separated okay, but the tips were still fused, especially at the very end of the spear where it forms a 'wedge" shape.  A couple of days after the twist, it looked like it was trying to open.  So I carefully separated some of the bigger clusters of leaflets and found 2 or 3 spots where they popped apart easily.  Over about a week almost all of the rest opened and separated by themselves, I only had to "help" a few near the tip of the spear that were truly glued together. 

I have no idea what caused this, and it's opened 2 normal spears this summer.  Maybe it was physical damage in the move, a mild boron deficiency, or just bad luck.

[Rickybobby]

3 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I had a Spindle palm do that to me this spring, I had recently planted it from a Walmart purchase, and it had a normal-looking spear about halfway up when I bought it.  It grew to a "normal" length but refused to open.  When the palm started growing a new spear I figured that something was wrong, because Hyophorbes always open the spear before the next one pokes out.  Since it was short and easy to reach, I gave the spear a gentle twist.  The middle of each leaf seemed separated okay, but the tips were still fused, especially at the very end of the spear where it forms a 'wedge" shape.  A couple of days after the twist, it looked like it was trying to open.  So I carefully separated some of the bigger clusters of leaflets and found 2 or 3 spots where they popped apart easily.  Over about a week almost all of the rest opened and separated by themselves, I only had to "help" a few near the tip of the spear that were truly glued together. 

I have no idea what caused this, and it's opened 2 normal spears this summer.  Maybe it was physical damage in the move, a mild boron deficiency, or just bad luck.

I second this I had a bottle palm that was growing another spear and hadn’t opened up yet. Gave it a twist and moved some of the spear around as best as possible and the leaflets popped out 

[GottmitAlex]

Same here. But my issue was winter. Had a spear on one of my coconuts take 4 months to open (around May). We had a prolonged Winter, actually, we never had a spring, winter turned into summer. Once the spear decided to open, it took three weeks for it to collapse: half of the leaf could not support its own weight, leaned over and produced a fissure. I knew I had to cut it to avoid rotting/fungus.

The subsequent spears/leaves turned out beautifully.

I know this does not apply to you sice you're in Florida and it's not winter. But that's my personal experience with something of the sort.

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by GottmitAlex

[quaman58]

I've had two things cause this: insufficient water and root rot. It's probably the former. A couple deep waterings (at least during the growing season) should help. I'm sure there's also the possibility of this or that insufficient micro nutrient, but that's way over my head. I actually have something similar going on with one of my best Archontophoenix alexanders.

[Tyrone]

Just give it a few good floodings of water and see what it does. These grow along rivers and even in rivers in moist to wet soil.

[ruskinPalms]

Hmm.. I guess water and palm fertilizer for the win 

[ruskinPalms]

Alexandrae grows so much better here. Too bad they are more tender to cold and frost..

[NorCalKing]

I have this happen time to time. Always seems to right itself. But as others have said they need lots of water (especially here in CA). I don't think you can overeater them.

[RedRabbit]

2 hours ago, ruskinPalms said:

Alexandrae grows so much better here. Too bad they are more tender to cold and frost..

All of mine died from sun exposure.  I'm tempted to get a archontophoenix for my new house, but they've been such a pain for me to grow so far. Not the best palm for this area in my experience. 

[ruskinPalms]

On 10/5/2019 at 12:00 AM, RedRabbit said:

All of mine died from sun exposure.  I'm tempted to get a archontophoenix for my new house, but they've been such a pain for me to grow so far. Not the best palm for this area in my experience. 

Alexandrae always looked great for me, until freezes anyway. I never had any sunburn on those but who knows. My cunninghamiana gets sun burned on a regular basis. But I’ll put up with that as long as it can take the freezes and frosts that we get here. Large, long term crownshafted palms are few and far between here. And my wife likes the way the cunninghamiana fronds move in the wind so that’s a win   So I do hope the darn thing isn’t trying to die. I’ve  killed many cunninghamiana over the years somehow...

Edited October 6, 2019 by ruskinPalms

[ruskinPalms]

Welp. It opened. I guess it just needed some wind and rain. Tropical storm Nestor helped this one out. So I guess it is probably not getting enough water where it is at and went into drought mode. We have certainly had a couple 4 to 6 week periods of drought this year. 

[ruskinPalms]

I’m really glad this palm isn’t dead yet. I really want this one to live.  I know this a boring palm for most of the palm growing world but I like it. They are definitely not commonly grown here.  Perhaps for good reason..,

[Merlyn]

That's great!  Because of this thread I recently moved a seedling to my "tropical" bed that gets completely drenched from sprinklers every morning.  It was out in a dry sandy area before, and was just unhappy-colored and essentially didn't grow at all.  Hopefully yours just needs a bit more water in drought times (May and September this year...) and it'll grow out of it normally!  Thanks for the update on your palm!

[Palmə häl′ik]

Water it.

They luv wet feet

[sonoranfans]

I have several happy palms that show 2 spears at once, happy bizzies can show 3-4 at once.  I dont see that as an issue though I know a stuck spear is a problem.  I agree with brett, failure to open is probably a water(or root rot) response mostly.   I have grown alexandre(3), myolensis(2), maxima(1) from strap leaf seedlings, all take the sun no problem once they put down roots.  But early watering has to be consistent for best root development and mulching needs to happen every year in sandy soil.  They dont like to grow in sand, cant get enough moisure and nutrients with sand.   My archies have somewhere between 8-12' clear trunk and look great after our "21 days of rain in a row late july to mid august".  They all took  a big burn in jan 2018 advective event, most of the crowns were fried.  But they came back faster than all my other crownshafted palms, including royals.  Less than two years later you could never tell they had been burned.

[ruskinPalms]

Well. I think it is done for. It decided to not open spears again this spring and summer and now the last remaining fronds have cracked near the base. This all coincides with it starting to flower. I guess it was trying to reproduce before it dies. I don’t think it was the cold this winter that took it out. Probably bugs or disease. The spindle planted near it has thrown a goofy little frond and it had grubs under one of its leaf bases in mid spring. I doused it with 10:1 water:bleach solution when the grubs attacked then hit the crown with peroxide when I noticed the latest frond came out tiny. Anyway not to get too far off topic about my cunninghamiana, I’ve now killed two in this spot. I don’t think they will work for me.  I would certainly try a different Archontophoenix species there if I could find  one lol. Here are some pics to illustrate:

 

 

 

[ruskinPalms]

Goofy little spindle frond:

 

[ruskinPalms]

Other zone 10 palms in the yard to confirm it wasn’t that cold this winter:

 

[ruskinPalms]

And yes, I have been watering a lot and it has rained pretty hard here and there (but the rainy season has been a let down so far…) 

[ruskinPalms]

I’m starting to wonder if I should remove the first few inflorescences from challenging palms when they are young. Maybe they are sinking too much energy into that process and then get weakened and sick. I had an amazing (for 9B anyway lol) coconut going near my back porch that decided to throw out some flowers but then went into similar decline in mid spring a year or so ago and then I thought for sure it was dead. I was able to reach high enough to pour peroxide down the crown a couple of times and keep it alive. It is no where near its former glory but it is indeed still growing and putting out new fronds so fingers crossed. 
 

[D. Morrowii]

Maybe have the soil tested? With 2 palms growing “funny” in the same spot seems like it could be environmental. 

[banthony720]

I tried a few A cunninghamiana here nw of Orlando & have had no luck (similar issues). I've got an a alexandri x of some sort (purpuria probably) that gets alot of water (basically flooded 3-4 days a week) & shrugged off low temps back in Feb.  

My D Lepticilious and Spindle got burned but my A cunninghamianas (3 in one bed) all died along with a 3 gallon size foxtail (wodyetia) & a triangle (d Decaryi) I think it was a water/neglect issue little to no irrigation my survivors definitely got more water via irrigation.

[ruskinPalms]

1 hour ago, banthony720 said:

I tried a few A cunninghamiana here nw of Orlando & have had no luck (similar issues). I've got an a alexandri x of some sort (purpuria probably) that gets alot of water (basically flooded 3-4 days a week) & shrugged off low temps back in Feb.  

My D Lepticilious and Spindle got burned but my A cunninghamianas (3 in one bed) all died along with a 3 gallon size foxtail (wodyetia) & a triangle (d Decaryi) I think it was a water/neglect issue little to no irrigation my survivors definitely got more water via irrigation.

Yep. I’m starting to think cunninghamiana‘s reputation of cold hardiness and robustness only works in Mediterranean climates. I’ve tried these more than just here in Parrish. They sucked in Ruskin too lol. They aren’t well adapted for here. 

[Dan941]

On 6/23/2022 at 7:17 PM, ruskinPalms said:

Other zone 10 palms in the yard to confirm it wasn’t that cold this winter:

 

Beautiful yard! I am just a bit south in Lakewood Ranch / Sarasota area east of i75.. how big was your royal when was planted? I planted one in October 7.5 gal 

[ruskinPalms]

Well. August 2019 like this.  Here is before and after. Lots of hurricane damage about to fall off of it. 

[Merlyn]

@ruskinPalms great looking Royal!  Did you ever try another Archonto?  I have several growing happily here in 9B just outside the urban heat island of Orlando.  My biggest is probably 8 feet tall by now.