Trachycarpus fortunei - Drought Stress?

[CTX Palm King]

I’ve been growing various palms for some time and have never seen this before. Y’all think this is drought stress? Once I realized it was doing this I immediately watered it and it has not helped. Thanks!

[Collectorpalms]

3 hours ago, CTX Palm King said:

I’ve been growing various palms for some time and have never seen this before. Y’all think this is drought stress? Once I realized it was doing this I immediately watered it and it has not helped. Thanks!

We have been in a drought in TX awhile, the stress first shows folded leaves and then quickly followed by brown fronds. Trachycarpus are not drought tolerant for Texas and the soil PH is too high in the central and western part of State to live long term. 

So PH of soil and as well as PH of tap water could be an issue. They go down hill pretty quickly once they either dry out, effected by too high PH, ( 7.5 upwards), or something else is killing the roots like nematodes. 
The best remedy is to give it RO or distilled water. Depending on how long it’s been in the ground, put it back in a pot and nurse it back to health. In My 22 years. I have not successfully grown a Trachycarpus in the ground. I can only grow them in pots, and they look good. My issue is salts in the tapwater, which can be leached out in a pot, but once you put a Trachycarpus in my high PH clay soil, they look like yours at first then they die because they can’t leach the salts in the deep alkaline clay soil, so they just build up over time the more you water. Salt kills roots! 

I remedy this by having all raised mounded flower beds. 

[CTX Palm King]

Thanks @Collectorpalms yeah I was thinking I should pull it out of the ground and put it in a pot to see if I can get it to rebound before much more damage sets in. The roots looked great. All of my TF palms are in a raised bed around my pool. I can easily water it with distilled water no problem. Let’s see how it does. My other TF palms are doing well. Even nursing one back to health.

[Collectorpalms]

6 hours ago, CTX Palm King said:

Thanks @Collectorpalms yeah I was thinking I should pull it out of the ground and put it in a pot to see if I can get it to rebound before much more damage sets in. The roots looked great. All of my TF palms are in a raised bed around my pool. I can easily water it with distilled water no problem. Let’s see how it does. My other TF palms are doing well. Even nursing one back to health.

It just looks water stressed, the roots are not getting the water to the leaves. The bottom leaves aren’t able to be held up, and the top fronds looked folded. It can be for several reasons, so it’s just guessing by looking at it. 

As long as it’s in a raised bed I assume it’s not waterlogged and drowning though. 
 

Whatever happened, looks like it happened fast. Hope it recovers for you. 

[Swolte]

Most of my Trachy's aren't looking great either but do appear to perk up a bit with some water (trying to minimize using the city-water). They all survived this summer w very little (to no) extra water so I am still impressed with their performance. Hoping the cold front today will bring some of that much-needed rain.

Are you fertilizing it? (I am not saying you should, at this stage...)