If one trunk is dead, can the tree survive?

[JaimeP]

Tried everything. Other Palma in yard thriving—these bad boys seem to be dying

[Tracy]

  On 10/28/2021 at 7:30 PM, JaimeP said:

Tried everything. Other Palma in yard thriving—these bad boys seem to be dying

Expand  

So each of those trunks is a separate palm and they were planted in the same pot originally.  King palms aka Archontophoenix cunninghaminana aren't a clumping species, they are solitary.  So hypothetically, the answer is yes, the other trunks can survive if the one dies.  On the other hand, these are definitely "penciling" getting narrower like a sharpened pencil at the top, ring spacing has narrowed and leaflets look a little beat up on some of the leaves.  All that spells a downward spiral that has been ongoing. 

As far as suggestions on what to do and diagnosing the problem, it will be helpful knowing where you are growing them.  Based on adjacent plants it looks like you do irrigate unless these have been recently planted and they didn't get watered for a period of time.  Also how long have you had them in the ground?  Are you growing other palms in the yard that are doing fine, and it's just this planting that is struggling?  The more information you can share the better the feedback you will get for trying to save at least one of the three trunks as at least one of the two remaining doesn't look promising at this point.

[Steve Mac]

Yep, what he ^ said. 

Looks like something changed half-way through the life of those three palms and they are all in a slow death spiral.

[Johnny Palmseed]

In addition to what was stated above, the answer is yes it can but it might not be what you want. I had a triple Veitchia Joannis which became a double when the runt died off. The remaining 2 looked fantastic until one day I went out and found one of them on the ground. It had been a bit windy and evidently one of them had some rot inside. My double was now a single. It has done well since but it has a weird curve due to the original growth as a third of a triple and half of a double. It really doesn’t look as good as a true single which would have been vertical if grown as a single. I have saved some seedlings and have been considering removing and replacing it.

[masatepino]

aren´t those Adonidia?  Maybe need a more tropical climate...

[Merlyn]

I had an Adonidia triple do the same thing.  One of the trunks pencil-pointed and then died, and the second was looking pretty ugly too.  I sliced off the two nasty ones and the inside was completely hollow and rotten.  I suspect it was Thielaviopsis...I cut down the third and dug out the stump immediately to keep it from spreading: