Arenga engleri spear issue

[Tropicdoc]

I have 3 clumps of dwarf sugar palm. We had three cold days in a row in early January 24,26,29 F. The palms are under live oak canopy. This is one of two spear collapses this spring. Cold damage? Or something else?

[Merlyn]

If it was an unopened spear that was pretty long, cold damage seems plausible.  I have an Arenga Pinnata in the front yard that did that.  It was probably about 75% or so of the normal "full length" at the time of the Christmas weekend freeze, and saw 4 cold nights at 28.5, 27.5, 33, 36.  The rest of the leaves were burned off but the rachis on the existing fronds was about 75% undamaged.  A few weeks later the new spear fell over.  I sliced it off and it was dessicated inside, I just assume that it froze and died.  Fortunately the Pinnata is growing a new stunted spear, it was about 3 inches long when I cut off the dead one.

I'd hit it with some fungicide into the crown, like copper or H202 or your favorite crown type.  A local PT'er highly recommended Mancozeb for crown fungal infections, I bought some but haven't used it yet.

[Tropicdoc]

The cold I listed did no visible damage to the palm under canopy but I guess it messed up the new spear. I’ll put some copper in the hole 

[Tropicdoc]

But yes the spears were very long. Like you’d expect them about to open long.