Palm frizzle, lack of watering.. or something else?

June 29, 2024

Hi all, I’ve gotten some feedback previously here on queen palm care back in the fall. Have 11 queen palms. Since then I’ve added micro sprinklers around each tree, as well as deciding on using Palm Plus fertilizer. I couldn’t find Florikan here in Southern California (San Diego area), but the same manufacturer (Simplot) makes “Palm Plus” with controlled release, which is available throughout the west coast. https://partners.simplot.com/product/Palm-Plus-1358-with-GALXeONE

Originally when we moved in the trees appeared more lush, but yellowed a bit in the late fall.. I’ve seen that a lot in the area, I think it’s just part of the cycle here with the temps, except for trees that are fertilized. Plus I don’t think I was watering enough. So I tried a blend of Palm fertilizer back in the fall that I decided to not use anymore, by Loveland called Super Palm. I did just Langbeinite in December. I did try some PalmGain in early April, but it’s so expensive.. so I picked up Palm Plus and will be using that now. Apparently my N in the soil is really low, and Palm Plus has more of that.

Most of the new growth is looking pretty nice and green, however, I’ve got one tree looking really sick, and one tree that might be sick from looking at the new growth it’s trying to push.. The really sick tree was already sick when we moved in. I’ve attached some soil samples, one recent and one from back in winter. I can’t really tell if this is a deficiency that shows as palm frizzle with no new healthy growth, or some other issue.. we do have a lot of ants around here, not many other insects that I know of.

latest soil test and photos of trees here..