washingtonia What’s going on with my Washingtonia?

[DreaminAboutPalms]

This Washingtonia hybrid seedling is about 9.5 months old and I noticed about a month ago how the trunk was starting to curve. This morning I was removing the oldest frond noticed that the boot ripped right off revealing what looks to be like the trunk rotting on bottom of one side, it’s all black.

 

not sure if this is from bugs, or if that spot just kept getting wet. Other than this the palm looks fine. Newest frond is steadily growing 

[MSX]

I had a curved hybrid but now it's perfectly straight as an arrow

[Collectorpalms]

2 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

This Washingtonia hybrid seedling is about 9.5 months old and I noticed about a month ago how the trunk was starting to curve. This morning I was removing the oldest frond noticed that the boot ripped right off revealing what looks to be like the trunk rotting on bottom of one side, it’s all black.

 

not sure if this is from bugs, or if that spot just kept getting wet. Other than this the palm looks fine. Newest frond is steadily growing 

looks ok for humid Texas. I am growing hundreds of native Washingtonia Filifera, and Washington Filifera that survived the TX Freeze out in the open. Filifera are very prone to rot, will be interesting if one does better than the other. I do not plan to keep them for myself. but try to find homes for them if they make it planting size.

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Need advice, another strap leaf is starting to die, and I am seeing tiny little bugs crawling around where Trunk appears to be rotting.

Palm is leaning in direction of the trunk damage. Wondering if I should repot it, or pour peroxide on the area or what. No spear pull yet newest 2 fronds and spear look good

[JohnAndSancho]

"appears to be rotting" - is it soft and squishy? 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

6 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

"appears to be rotting" - is it soft and squishy? 

Yes. And it appears part of trunk has disintegrated away

[Collectorpalms]

I wouldn't panic. Its a normal look Washingtonia in Texas, SO if its a Filifera heavy its gonna have issues! I suggest keeping the area dry, like remove fertilizer and dirt. Could be a million reason really. But I try not to put soil around the basal plate of the trunk,,,,, use. sand, rock, expanded shale etc... wet soil around trunk leads to too many premature deaths.

[DreaminAboutPalms]

13 hours ago, Collectorpalms said:

I wouldn't panic. Its a normal look Washingtonia in Texas, SO if its a Filifera heavy its gonna have issues! I suggest keeping the area dry, like remove fertilizer and dirt. Could be a million reason really. But I try not to put soil around the basal plate of the trunk,,,,, use. sand, rock, expanded shale etc... wet soil around trunk leads to too many premature deaths.

I’m also just realizing that it spent the first 8 months of its life on a covered balcony, never having water in the crown and now the past few months it’s been on deck, and it’s gotten soaked a few times from the rain. I’m going to repot it and make sure it doesn’t get rained on anymore and see if that helps at all 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Update, took it out of its pot and repotted, noticed some roots at the bottom in poor shape. I’ve been up in Minnesota zone 4 since early May, and have all my Washingtonias sitting on a deck that gets 15 hours of sunlight per day. Before this they were all on a balcony that was covered and only got 5-6 hours of direct sun. A few weeks ago it was in 80’s all week and 
top of pot was drying out to fast while bottom half still soaked so I made mistake of watering just before heavy rain and it all just collected at bottom of pot, I have now spread rock around base of my washingtonias and also keep them covered from overhead when it Rains. A few of mine do not like water in crown and will look a bit yellow afterwards
 

newest spear grew a bit yesterday even with temps in mid 60’s, 2nd newest frond yellowing out a bit at tips but spear growing is a good sign 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Update. It died about 3 weeks ago. I inspected roots and the roots on one of the sides had started rotting and it made its way up to the trunk. If I repotted it when I first noticed this I probably could have saved it. I didn’t want to slow its growth by reporting it and replacing the soil and thought that since it’s a Washingtonia that it would pull through. I think the culprit or at least the last straw was from a rainstorm in early May up in MN. We had a week stretch where temperatures didn’t get above 60 and it was cloudy and in the 50’s all week. I put all of them underneath my deck before a huge rainstorm and that was the only one that got soaked from water going beneath deck boards, all others were directly underneath a table and stayed dry. Took a few weeks until we had any warm sunny days above 70 so it didn’t have a chance to really dry out and MN is pretty humid 

Edited July 13, 2022 by DreaminAboutPalms