Help…Phoenix Queen Palm struggling

[dave.koda]

Hoping someone on here can tell me what’s going on with my Queen Palm. It’s been crazy hot this summer in Phoenix and it’s just starting to cool off.  I’ve got about a 20 foot Queen Palm that’s leaves started turning brown more than I’ve seen before. Because of the temperatures being over 115F every day this year I increased the watering to every day on a drip.  The soil is very hard so not ideal for drainage and I have artificial grass around it (not up to the trunk but near it).  I recently removed the grass to add fertilizer and iron and soaked the whole area with a ton of water to get the nutrients into the soil.  Today the spear ended up drooping lower than the rest of the tree.  Im hoping I didn’t overwater but was told this is near impossible in Phoenix.  It’s been very rough on palms here this year I’m told as well. Im obviously new to this and am looking for recommendations.  I’m not sure if the spear is shocked or waterlogged or just dying.  Hopefully not the last. Will this tree come back to life?  See pics…and let me know what you guys think.  Thanks for the help in advance. 

[Jim in Los Altos]

Impossible to over water a Queen palm even in much cooler climates. They often live in swamps in their natural habitat. Yours is suffering from the extreme heat and low humidities. All you can do at this point is keep the ground as wet as possible and not just the base of the palm. The entire drip line and beyond if possible. I doubt the drip lines are putting out adequate amounts of water. 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Jim in Los Altos

[mnorell]

I believe the best queens in the low desert are those in golf courses or other heavily irrigated lawn situations...and what Jim mentions above is pertinent, because this species really, really, really loves water, also rich soil. The best queen palms I've ever seen are in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Once you've seen (and marveled at) those, you will realize that the queens in most of SoCal, even in mild coastal areas, are hideous, thin-crowned, chlorotic shadows of the palm's potential. The entire city of New Orleans is set in black muck that washed down the Mississippi River Valley over the last gazillion years, and there may be no wetter, more humid place for them to call home in the USA. Thus, rich, deep, black, mucky soil, saturated with good acid rainwater on a regular basis. In the desert we have coarse sand, granitic alluvium, sometimes there are better minerals available in areas of volcanic origin (and I think it's safe to venture that much of Arizona's red soils must be high in iron and other good minors), but at least here in the Palm Springs area of the Coachella Valley, it is just hostile to this species unless heavily amended and fertilized.

Also remember that the fibrous root-system is likely to stretch out like a wide and deep net. It is not just limited to the diameter of the palm's crown. So either a large army of sprinklers or flood-irrigation, which is usually somewhat impractical...Also perhaps if you could change out the heavy green carpet over the dirt for some thick mulch, nitrogen-fixing shrubbery or ground-cover with appropriate rhizobial innoculant (e.g., perennial peanut/Arachis spp., Calliandra spp., et al.) so you have soil enrichment, good aeration and a healthy microfauna and mycorrhizal network to assist in the palm's health and happiness.

I think ultimately you'd do better with a mule/hybrid, either Butyagrus x nabonnandii or the Arikury hybrid 'Coco Queen,' or a pure Syagrus coronata. These have shown themselves to be much more tolerant in the desert but give a similar effect. Though S. coronata may suffer cold damage in Phoenix as it is apparently several degrees less tolerant of freezing temps. I'm not sure about bud-hardiness but I think it would best suited to air-drained sections of central Phoenix...the Arizona gang here can confirm/expound on that issue, as well as Arizona-centric soil peculiarities. Also, have you dug down to see how moist your soil-area is around the palm after you give a good soaking? I have been struggling with one area of my landscape here where despite (usually) daily waterings I can dig down and it is just bone-dry sandy "soil." Where did all that water go? Really confounding and frustrating.