Hi all!

This is my first post, here. I have a question. We've had three foxtail palms planted in our Escondido, CA front yard for about three years. I wish they were a deeper green, but for the most part, I've thought they were reasonably healthy. The past few days, we've had lots of rain and winds only up to 30 mph. One of my Foxtails was found on the ground, this morning, with half of the roots broken. I don't see any problem with the tree, but perhaps one of you can point out why it may have fallen over, and if you think it is salvageable. I'm definitely not an expert. Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

It may have been planted a bit too high if it looked like the other one that survived.
 

Unfortunately, I don’t think that it would recover. You can try adding a bit of soil to the other one to try and get some more root to grow out from the base a bit more horizontally for stability. 

They seem to have been planted too high . The remaining palm shows that the base of the trunk is well above the soil . Honestly , I’m surprised they didn’t both go down. The one laying down is probably a goner , although I would still try to save it by mounding around both palms and staking . If there is any movement in the standing one , stake it as well. Maybe try a liquid kelp fertilizer to help them along unless they have been fertilized recently. Good luck with those , Harry

Based on my previous attempts to save loose palms, I would not try to save it My experience has been that it was not worth the time and effort, for an unsuccessful result 

You could dig it up and replant in a pot, in a protected area, to see if it could be saved.  But I think she is a goner.

@Donelle welcome to PalmTalk!  As others mentioned, they are planted a couple of inches too high.  This creates "air girdling" of the root structure and makes them super weak.  You can mound the one still standing, just add dirt up to the "root initiation zone" and put the rocks back on top.  Or you could dig about a 2' diameter hole, lift it up out of the hole, dig out a couple of inches at the bottom, and put it back in the hole at the right height.  The one that fell over could be staked up, but my guess is that it's broken too many roots to survive.

Here's a good webpage on planting depth, written by an IPS Director and PT member:

http://www.marriedtoplants.com/palms/palm-tree-growing-tips-mounding/

Another thing that you should change is switching the staked sprayer for a couple of drip emitters.  The sprayer will eventually rot the lower trunk.  I'd use maybe 3x 1gph drip emitters spaced about a 6-12" from the trunk.

Thank you all so much for sharing your wisdom. I had told my husband that my theory is that all of the rain made the crown heavy, and since it was planted too high, a 30 mph wind just took it down. 

We will dig up the fallen one and pot it, hoping for the best, but not have high expectations. The one still standing we will mound. We will look into the drip emitters.

Do you know if I could plant bromeliads or succulents on the mound, or would that hurt the foxtail?

Donelle

@Donelle quite a few PTers are also big fans (insert fan palm joke here) of bromeliads too, and frequently plant them together.  I'd think they would work well on a mounded bed, since Foxtails and bromeliads are both happy with lots of water.  If you do that, using the small fan low-pressure sprayer-head-on-a-stick would probably work well.  The low pressure fans are much less likely to cause trunk rot than the small sprayer heads in your original photos.  I've used the small fans for many years in my nursery area.

As far as succulents, if they are water tolerant it should work too.  Things like desert-happy agaves (like Utahensis or similar types) probably would die quickly if you water the Foxtails enough for them to grow well.  More tropical agaves (like Desmettiana) might be fine with regular watering.  I grow ~300 agaves/aloes/cacti here in swampy Florida, but I also managed to kill ~220 agaves, aloes and cacti that just couldn't tolerate our daily afternoon thunderstorms.  So I'd just pick ones that can handle regular watering.   

🌴Thank you, again, for your helpfulness! I think I'll go with bromeliads, since I like them better, being more tropical than succulents:)🌴