Help Save my queen palm

[Palmtreedude69]

Now I usually don't really like queen palms but when I had my house built the builder planted this one it was fine ever scince 1997 but now it seems to really be suffering what should I do to help it?

[SeanK]

Look, You're in zone 10. Why are you wasting real estate on a Queen palm? If I lived there, she would have met the chainsaw long ago. Replace it with something like Thrinax or Pritchardia.

[PalmatierMeg]

Agree. If you are in FL be aware queens are Class II invasives, water & fertilizer hogs, prone to fatal fusarium wilt and hate alkaline, sandy soil.

[NickJames]

8 hours ago, Palmtreedude69 said:

Now I usually don't really like queen palms but when I had my house built the builder planted this one it was fine ever scince 1997 but now it seems to really be suffering what should I do to help it?

What are you feeding it?

[Johnny Palmseed]

10 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Agree. If you are in FL be aware queens are Class II invasives, water & fertilizer hogs, prone to fatal fusarium wilt and hate alkaline, sandy soil.

This right here. ^^^

Also, queens tend to look best in their adolescent years as evidenced in your pictures. Then they fade out (also in your pics) as they develop trunk issues and get hard to keep tidy due to their height and lack of self cleaning fronds. Do yourself a favor and dig it out now and get something better. Actually, looking back at the pictures I can see that you had 2 queens and already replaced one with a coconut. Why didn’t you just replace both at that time?

[JLM]

I understand the hate for Queens but damn y’all completely dodged the man’s question entirely. He already stated that he doesn’t really like queens he was just asking what he can do to help this one in particular.
 

I myself am not sure why it would be doing that. The way the emerging fronds look to me, I’ve always associated that with being cut. How that could happen? Honestly I have no clue. My question to you @Palmtreedude69 is did you find a spear on the ground somewhere around the tree recently? It appears to me that it’s growing it just either got cut or it had some sort of infection in the crown for whatever reason, and said infection got pushed out and the result is the fronds having a cut appearance.

[Palmtreedude69]

16 hours ago, SeanK said:

Look, You're in zone 10. Why are you wasting real estate on a Queen palm? If I lived there, she would have met the chainsaw long ago. Replace it with something like Thrinax or Pritchardia.

Very true if it was up to me I whould remove it but unfortunately my HOA requires 2 statement palms and have to be queen palms so if I do remove it they whould just replant another queen palm.

[Palmtreedude69]

16 hours ago, NickJames said:

What are you feeding it?

Just some jokes fertilizer spikes twice a year 

[Palmtreedude69]

6 hours ago, Johnny Palmseed said:

This right here. ^^^

Also, queens tend to look best in their adolescent years as evidenced in your pictures. Then they fade out (also in your pics) as they develop trunk issues and get hard to keep tidy due to their height and lack of self cleaning fronds. Do yourself a favor and dig it out now and get something better. Actually, looking back at the pictures I can see that you had 2 queens and already replaced one with a coconut. Why didn’t you just replace both at that time?

Funny story actually so hurricane irma of 2017 took that other queen down and my hoa landscaper planted it thinking it was a queen palm little did they know it was actually a coconut palm not going to complain about it though!

[Palmtreedude69]

5 hours ago, JLM said:

I understand the hate for Queens but damn y’all completely dodged the man’s question entirely. He already stated that he doesn’t really like queens he was just asking what he can do to help this one in particular.
 

I myself am not sure why it would be doing that. The way the emerging fronds look to me, I’ve always associated that with being cut. How that could happen? Honestly I have no clue. My question to you @Palmtreedude69 is did you find a spear on the ground somewhere around the tree recently? It appears to me that it’s growing it just either got cut or it had some sort of infection in the crown for whatever reason, and said infection got pushed out and the result is the fronds having a cut appearance.

Actually yes I did one day after a rainstorm I found a spear on the ground but it was all brown and mushy I only trim it with a pole saw twice a year.

[Little Tex]

1 hour ago, Palmtreedude69 said:

Very true if it was up to me I whould remove it but unfortunately my HOA requires 2 statement palms and have to be queen palms so if I do remove it they whould just replant another queen palm.

Put an Acrocomia and see if those stuffed-shirt HOA invasive plant supporters notice 😈 

 

[Johnny Palmseed]

4 hours ago, Palmtreedude69 said:

Very true if it was up to me I whould remove it but unfortunately my HOA requires 2 statement palms and have to be queen palms so if I do remove it they whould just replant another queen palm.

Only queen palms? That sucks. I would move.

9 hours ago, JLM said:

I understand the hate for Queens but damn y’all completely dodged the man’s question entirely. He already stated that he doesn’t really like queens he was just asking what he can do to help this one in particular.

I doubt there is much that can be done. It looks like a general decline that is fairly typical of older queens. Maybe a quality fertilizer will help. Jobes spikes are probably not going to provide the best ratio for palms. The surrounding shrubs probably will be fine with whatever you use.

[JLM]

No way in hell i would let somebody come in and take out or put in plants as they wish. They can take that and stick it where the sun don’t shine.
 

6 hours ago, Palmtreedude69 said:

Actually yes I did one day after a rainstorm I found a spear on the ground but it was all brown and mushy I only trim it with a pole saw twice a year.

That’s the answer. If the spear was on the ground then that means the palm is actively recovering from some type of crown infection. Would go with the fertilizer recommendations on here. During the spring/summer use a quality fertilizer once every 2-3 months. If it gets a good amount of water during the growing season your palm will look better than it ever has before with the fertilizer schedule mixed in with the watering. As for trimming, I wouldn’t personally trim just twice a year. Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow *if* you have enough time to follow it: only cut dead fronds or flower/seed stalks throughout the growing season. Never cut anything green (unless it’s flowers/seed stalks). I know Queens can kill off fronds frequently but if you have the time to trim like this, your queen will actually stand out quite a lot as it will have a very large full crown of deep green fronds. This will take time but if things are done right, this queen can be quite attractive, and the HOA will be happy. It would be a win-win.

[Palmtreedude69]

57 minutes ago, JLM said:

No way in hell i would let somebody come in and take out or put in plants as they wish. They can take that and stick it where the sun don’t shine.
 

That’s the answer. If the spear was on the ground then that means the palm is actively recovering from some type of crown infection. Would go with the fertilizer recommendations on here. During the spring/summer use a quality fertilizer once every 2-3 months. If it gets a good amount of water during the growing season your palm will look better than it ever has before with the fertilizer schedule mixed in with the watering. As for trimming, I wouldn’t personally trim just twice a year. Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow *if* you have enough time to follow it: only cut dead fronds or flower/seed stalks throughout the growing season. Never cut anything green (unless it’s flowers/seed stalks). I know Queens can kill off fronds frequently but if you have the time to trim like this, your queen will actually stand out quite a lot as it will have a very large full crown of deep green fronds. This will take time but if things are done right, this queen can be quite attractive, and the HOA will be happy. It would be a win-win.

Thank you so much for all the help JLM! I am going to try out palm gain I have heard good things about it hopefully it can nurse it back to its former glory days!

[Palmtreedude69]

6 hours ago, Little Tex said:

Put an Acrocomia and see if those stuffed-shirt HOA invasive plant supporters notice 😈 

 

I whould do this the only issue is my annoying nosy neighbors if they here a chainsaw cutting down the queen they will probably activate karen mode on me!

[Palmtreedude69]

3 hours ago, Johnny Palmseed said:

Only queen palms? That sucks. I would move.

I doubt there is much that can be done. It looks like a general decline that is fairly typical of older queens. Maybe a quality fertilizer will help. Jobes spikes are probably not going to provide the best ratio for palms. The surrounding shrubs probably will be fine with whatever you use.

Yeah I will definitely try palm gain it might even help the ixora bushes underneath like you mentioned thanks for the help jhonny palmseed!

[Jim in Los Altos]

6 hours ago, Johnny Palmseed said:

Only queen palms? That sucks. I would move.

I doubt there is much that can be done. It looks like a general decline that is fairly typical of older queens. Maybe a quality fertilizer will help. Jobes spikes are probably not going to provide the best ratio for palms. The surrounding shrubs probably will be fine with whatever you use.

In California, that would be considered a young specimen. I’ve seen Queen palms that were planted over 100 years ago and are still growing. 

Edited February 21, 2024 by Jim in Los Altos
Spelling

[Harry’s Palms]

They are great California palms , except for the messy inflorescence . They grow fast and provide a great canopy for more sensitive palms. I have not had any trouble with mine . I have cut two down just for space requirements. Occasionally I see sick queens but not very often for the thousands that are planted in my area. Harry

[Palmtreedude69]

On 2/21/2024 at 10:46 AM, Harry’s Palms said:

They are great California palms , except for the messy inflorescence . They grow fast and provide a great canopy for more sensitive palms. I have not had any trouble with mine . I have cut two down just for space requirements. Occasionally I see sick queens but not very often for the thousands that are planted in my area. Harry

Interesting that they like California better than Florida.

[Palmtreedude69]

On 2/21/2024 at 12:06 AM, Jim in Los Altos said:

In California, that would be considered a young specimen. I’ve seen Queen palms that were planted over 100 years ago and are still growing. 

Wow Jim in Los Altos I did not think they chould ever grow that tall most big palms turn into lighting Rods in my area unfortunately.

[JLM]

5 hours ago, Palmtreedude69 said:

Wow Jim in Los Altos I did not think they chould ever grow that tall most big palms turn into lighting Rods in my area unfortunately.

That’s anywhere in Florida. This is why you don’t see those towering washingtonia robustas filling the skyline like they do in California.

[sonoranfans]

14 hours ago, Palmtreedude69 said:

Interesting that they like California better than Florida.

 YEs Queens like arizona better than florida too.  I grew (9) of them in arizona in multis, they were far more robust than here.  They dont liek alkaline soil and get Mn deficiency, " frizzletop".  I treated one with frizzletop sucessfully with MnSO4 and brought it back to health.  Here in florida the rains rinse the soils of nutrients fast and they are fertilizer pigs, need a lot here, much more than in AZ.  IN the end I decided not to plant them as they were also water needy and its like going against the climate suitability and paying for it.  At least my fertilizer pig cuban copernicias are drought tolerant.  I dont think I have a single palm that is both a fertilizer hog and water needy.   Here are my arizona queens about 15 years ago, pain in the but to keep happy but in zone 9a I didnt have access to many choices in 2009.  Bunching them allows for sharing and more efficient use of water and fertilizer.  But still, they needed way more fertilizer than anything else I had and watering every 2-3 days in the hot season for 4-5 hrs overnight.  These days I try to grow what grows well here in florida and probably half the queens here are deficient and stunted in trunk thickness and crown size.  

Arizona queens

 

[Merlyn]

In the last photo it looks like there may be 4 or 5 unopened spears:

They look a sort of normal off-white color, so no visible sign of rot.  But if you had a spear on the ground that was brown and mushy then it probably did have (or maybe still has) a crown fungal infection.  The height makes it tough to get anything into that crown directly, at least not without a big ladder and a couple of people to help stabilize it!  If you have an 8 foot A-frame ladder you could tape a solo cup to a long pole, fill it with hydrogen peroxide, climb up the ladder, and dump it in the crown.  Hydrogen peroxide is a great crown fungicide.  At the moment, though, it looks like the new spears are pretty normal.  If those open up in a few weeks, it'll probably grow back to normal over the summer.

[miamicuse]

I am following this thread because I also have a 30' tall queen palm that has been penciling for several years.  I do not have an HOA limiting what I can grow, but in my case, my wife has already attached orchids and philos to it, and there is vanilla and jade vines climbing up on it so the lower ten feet has many other plants that can't be untangled from it without killing them.  The advice I got was to cut it down and given the choice of cutting it down and killing everything or leaving it in it's current stage, I left it in it's current stage.  Besides, it's not a zero sum game, you cut a 30' tall palm down and grind the stump, you do not "gain" the space for another palm in it's place, you can only put grass over it.  It takes a long time to break down even in south Florida.

[Palmtreedude69]

On 2/24/2024 at 10:00 AM, sonoranfans said:

 YEs Queens like arizona better than florida too.  I grew (9) of them in arizona in multis, they were far more robust than here.  They dont liek alkaline soil and get Mn deficiency, " frizzletop".  I treated one with frizzletop sucessfully with MnSO4 and brought it back to health.  Here in florida the rains rinse the soils of nutrients fast and they are fertilizer pigs, need a lot here, much more than in AZ.  IN the end I decided not to plant them as they were also water needy and its like going against the climate suitability and paying for it.  At least my fertilizer pig cuban copernicias are drought tolerant.  I dont think I have a single palm that is both a fertilizer hog and water needy.   Here are my arizona queens about 15 years ago, pain in the but to keep happy but in zone 9a I didnt have access to many choices in 2009.  Bunching them allows for sharing and more efficient use of water and fertilizer.  But still, they needed way more fertilizer than anything else I had and watering every 2-3 days in the hot season for 4-5 hrs overnight.  These days I try to grow what grows well here in florida and probably half the queens here are deficient and stunted in trunk thickness and crown size.  

Arizona queens

 

Wow those look beautiful!

[Palmtreedude69]

On 2/25/2024 at 4:13 PM, Merlyn said:

In the last photo it looks like there may be 4 or 5 unopened spears:

They look a sort of normal off-white color, so no visible sign of rot.  But if you had a spear on the ground that was brown and mushy then it probably did have (or maybe still has) a crown fungal infection.  The height makes it tough to get anything into that crown directly, at least not without a big ladder and a couple of people to help stabilize it!  If you have an 8 foot A-frame ladder you could tape a solo cup to a long pole, fill it with hydrogen peroxide, climb up the ladder, and dump it in the crown.  Hydrogen peroxide is a great crown fungicide.  At the moment, though, it looks like the new spears are pretty normal.  If those open up in a few weeks, it'll probably grow back to normal over the summer.

Thanks @Merlyn I thought those were more seed pods but they might just be more spears and about the crown fungal indection is that something that will eventually go away or will I need to treat that?

[Merlyn]

@Palmtreedude69 yeah they could be seed pods too, it's hard to tell in the photo.  But if they grow out normally then it's probably "growing out of the funk" either way. 

If it does *not* look like the new spears/seed pods are normal, then a surface treatment like hydrogen peroxide, aluminum tris (Fosetyl-al or Alliette), Mancozeb, or Daconil all make a good crown drench.  Bud rots are usually Phytophthora, and can sometimes be treated with a systemic like thiophanate-methyl.  Here's a reference sheet on it: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PP144

 

[sonoranfans]

15 hours ago, Palmtreedude69 said:

Wow those look beautiful!

Yeah the amount of fertilizer and special treatment needed was a constant burden, with todays fertilizer prices I would not even try to grow these in my former yard.  In my area of florida they get deficient due to sandy soil and they often look a few steps from deaths door.  The cost of feeding "fertilizer hog palms" is an increasingly significant factor and its more expensive in sandy soil with all that florida rain.