What's Wrong with this Royal Palm?

[eddiek]

Hello, I live in SW Florida and I have 6 Royal Palms lining my driveway.  We planted them all 8 years ago.  One of them has some sort of problem.  As you can see in the images, the fronds are shrinking. This has been happening over the course of 1.5 years.  New fronds are yellow and brown, and each generation gets smaller and smaller.  I can't figure out the problem.  I've made sure to fertilize it as suggested, and the other 5 palms on the same lot are perfectly fine.  Any ideas?

[kinzyjr]

@eddiek Potentially a serious case of potassium deficiency: https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/monroeco/2008/09/23/pencil-pointing-palms/

[DoomsDave]

Ouch! 😢

[Robert D. Young]

Considering the palm size and cost, worth an attempt to save. Agree that it needs something. As as another pointed out, could be a potassium deficiency. It also could be age, this palm is taller and therefore older than the others. In ideal conditions royal palms can reach 98 feet high so I definitely think there's a chance to turn this situation around. Get a plant arborist to test for diseases, insect infestations, etc. 

[eddiek]

I did an at-home potassium test of the soil but it seems like potassium was pretty high.  I'm not an expert though.  

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

Boron

[jennalee]

Pencil rot

[jennalee]

Correction: Pencil Pointing not pencil rot

https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/monroeco/2008/09/23/pencil-pointing-palms/#:~:text=Have you ever seen a,) Nitrogen (N) deficiency.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

 Did you manage to save it? It’s sad to see so many royals slowly dying every time I visit sfl, especially since somewhat regular fertilization is the only thing they need. 

[MarkC]

I’m noticing this all over Naples. What’s the cause?

[Looking Glass]

1 hour ago, MarkC said:

I’m noticing this all over Naples. What’s the cause?

The cause is usually nutrient imbalance, especially focusing on fertilizing the grass over the palms, or just not fertilizing at all.  Lawn fertilizer is usually just very high nitrogen and some potassium.   This pushes rapid new growth without essential building blocks that palms need for healthy growth.   Notice the grass in the above pics looks amazing.  

Big palms like that need pounds and pounds of balanced palm specific fertilizer spread way out around them every year, if there is lawn fertilization going on nearby.  Fertilizing the entire lawn with just palm fertilizer instead of lawn fertilizer works too.  

https://www.palmbeachpalmcycadsociety.com/documents/PalmNutritionalDeficiencyCorrectionAndAntagonisticNutritionalRelationships.pdf

[sonoranfans]

That palms has to push water a long way up that trunk.  IF its underwatered, the crowns shrink like that and its been pretty dry this spring around me, my rainbird has been used heavily(2-3 times a week) in the dry windy conditions.  I am suspecting sandy soil and watering schedule that is likely set for grass(3x too short a duration vs palms).   they all look trim but that one may have more sand in the soil.  I doubt they have been mulched in years.  My royals are not fertilizer dependent and they get plenty of water in they dry season, run on their own once the wet season hits.  Mine have never been deficient and as looking glass points out- mine don't ever see any lawn fertilizer or lawn lime.  When you deprive palms of water they not only 0dehydrate but they cant feed.  There is a guy dwn the street that has killed 3 royals with 10 foot plus of trunk by not repairing his obviously broken irrigation system.  He has heavy sand for soil and they are now totems 10-15' tall.  You can kill a royal here, but you have to abuse them to kill them.  I have never allowed grass fertilizer or lime near my palms and I lightly fertilize with florikan 8-2-12 for palms 2x a year.  I have other palms that need the fertilizer, like copernicias, teddies, phoenix rupicolas, chambeyronias, satakentias.  Royals are native here, even the low maintenance cookie cutter landscapes have nice looking royals.  

[MarkC]

29 minutes ago, sonoranfans said:

That palms has to push water a long way up that trunk.  IF its underwatered, the crowns shrink like that and its been pretty dry this spring around me, my rainbird has been used heavily(2-3 times a week) in the dry windy conditions.  I am suspecting sandy soil and watering schedule that is likely set for grass(3x too short a duration vs palms).   they all look trim but that one may have more sand in the soil.  I doubt they have been mulched in years.  My royals are not fertilizer dependent and they get plenty of water in they dry season, run on their own once the wet season hits.  Mine have never been deficient and as looking glass points out- mine don't ever see any lawn fertilizer or lawn lime.  When you deprive palms of water they not only 0dehydrate but they cant feed.  There is a guy dwn the street that has killed 3 royals with 10 foot plus of trunk by not repairing his obviously broken irrigation system.  He has heavy sand for soil and they are now totems 10-15' tall.  You can kill a royal here, but you have to abuse them to kill them.  I have never allowed grass fertilizer or lime near my palms and I lightly fertilize with florikan 8-2-12 for palms 2x a year.  I have other palms that need the fertilizer, like copernicias, teddies, phoenix rupicolas, chambeyronias, satakentias.  Royals are native here, even the low maintenance cookie cutter landscapes have nice looking royals.  

I’ve owned a home in Naples for 4 years, and am really noticing how many royals have died this year and how many are shrinking at the crown. It’s not the public planted ones, it’s the ones in residential neighborhoods behind the gated fences. You believe the dry conditions are singularly to blame?

[TropicsEnjoyer]

34 minutes ago, MarkC said:

I’ve owned a home in Naples for 4 years, and am really noticing how many royals have died this year and how many are shrinking at the crown. It’s not the public planted ones, it’s the ones in residential neighborhoods behind the gated fences. You believe the dry conditions are singularly to blame?

I haven’t been to naples but over in like Miami i see it more in public or business plantings. regardless of where it’s a real shame

[Looking Glass]

11 hours ago, sonoranfans said:

That palms has to push water a long way up that trunk.  IF its underwatered, the crowns shrink like that and its been pretty dry this spring around me, my rainbird has been used heavily(2-3 times a week) in the dry windy conditions.  I am suspecting sandy soil and watering schedule that is likely set for grass(3x too short a duration vs palms).   they all look trim but that one may have more sand in the soil.  I doubt they have been mulched in years.  My royals are not fertilizer dependent and they get plenty of water in they dry season, run on their own once the wet season hits.  Mine have never been deficient and as looking glass points out- mine don't ever see any lawn fertilizer or lawn lime.  When you deprive palms of water they not only 0dehydrate but they cant feed.  There is a guy dwn the street that has killed 3 royals with 10 foot plus of trunk by not repairing his obviously broken irrigation system.  He has heavy sand for soil and they are now totems 10-15' tall.  You can kill a royal here, but you have to abuse them to kill them.  I have never allowed grass fertilizer or lime near my palms and I lightly fertilize with florikan 8-2-12 for palms 2x a year.  I have other palms that need the fertilizer, like copernicias, teddies, phoenix rupicolas, chambeyronias, satakentias.  Royals are native here, even the low maintenance cookie cutter landscapes have nice looking royals.  

This is a good point.   A neighbor here has huge old royals…. Like scary big for a residential neighborhood.   He never fertilizes anything at all.  The grass looks terrible, the other palms in the yard all have 3-4 simultaneous deficiencies and look yellow and beat, but he waters like crazy multiple times per week and the royals are green and lush while everything else starves.  They say sometimes no fertilizer at all is better than the wrong fertilizer.  

A row of giant old royals at the hospital around the corner, planted in sand and barely watered or fertilized, look very beat up and ragged this year in the drought, but they somehow hang on.