Angus

[Angus]

I have 10 Pritchardia hillebrandi (Hawaiian Fan Palms). I live at Cairns northern beaches, in Far North Queensland, Australia. Being in the wet tropics, control of water to these plants is "difficult" - it's either dry or very wet. Palms grew well for about three years. However, more recently we had an unexpected long dry spell of several weeks (dripper watering system was off at the time) followed by the current very wet season. Most of the palms are now showing some form of stress as the new fronds, unfurling from the centre spike, are appearing 'half dead' as they emerge (photo). The soil can only be described as 'medium' at best, with respect to drainage. Is this simply a water problem or is there some other explanation which causes this problem and requires some urgent attention? My thanks for any advice.

[Harry’s Palms]

My 25 year old Pritchardia Hillebrandi does that right after the rainy season , not quite as bad as that , but some brown edges emerge until late summer. By Fall , the fronds are green without any brown . My thought was that the cold rain we get finds its way into the crown. It does not affect the overall growth of the palm. The last few fronds have been very large and no brown edges at all. Harry

You can see the tips of the old fronds have some brown but the new ones are clean. I sometimes just trim the brown off . Harry

[Darold Petty]

Angus, Welcome to Palmtalk !   

[quaman58]

Angus,

 

Welcome to the forum.. I have a lot of different Pritchardia, and some in the genus seem a bit touchier than others. Usually, it's a more exposed plant that gets this leaf burn for whatever reason. But as the growing season kicks in, they grow right out of it generally.  Yours looks pretty healthy at the growing point, so I wouldn't stress too much. I have one that was transplanted last year from one spot to another of the garden, and it looked way worse than yours. But as new roots develop, it's slowly coming out of it. They're pretty tough..