Hello everyone, been a long time lurker on here. Learned a lot from you all. My home unfortunately burned down in the Palisades fire but some of my trees survived. My question is my alfie has burned fronds and was wondering if I should cut them off. They are singed but some of the stems are still green. Just saw there may be some black spots too today so I am going to go hit it hard with some copper fungicide. Hoping I can save it along with my 2 hyophorbe indicas that made it. Kind of blown away at their resilience along with some of my heliconias. I went back and the heliconias had shoots coming out like crazy so I dug them up and transplanted to our rental. Bummed because I got my rostrata's and angusta's to bloom like crazy this last year after 2 years. Anyway I have some before and after photos. You can see a couple fronds on the alfie have green. In the crown there are 3 new ones slowly pushing and green in the photos, but they have black spots on them now. I added a before photo of my Hilebrandii but it looks like it may be toast unfortunately. Also have a 10ft Pandanus with about 5 feet of trunk that looks like it made it too that I am trying to nurse. Any way any advice to help me save it is very much appreciated! Just wasn't sure if the burned fronds provided any nutrients right now or if I should clean it up to get some sunlight to the bud.

 

 

@R-Banger nice to meet you!

My heart breaks at your pictures and situation. 

Lordy I’ll have to think about some ideas for care; you may well be a pioneer.

I know a couple people who’ve lost homes in the Palisades fire. 😢 

 

I am so sorry . I think some palms , amazingly , can come back. I remember the Thomas fire up here burned homes and landscaping in the hillsides above Ventura. There was a palm tree farm on the Coast highway , Rincon Gardens I think it was called. They had large specimens that were blackened with foliage completely burned. Within a year several had new fronds growing . Even the smaller ones in the residential areas that had tragic loss , some of the landscaping started growing again. There may be hope for your palms . I only hope things will get better for you , I can’t imagine the loss you have to endure. Harry

what heliconia is it?

I really appreciate the kind words! Fingers crossed, I left the green stems but cleaned off some of the burned leaflets as I wanted more sunsine to make it's way through to the bud. I dumped some copper fungicide down the top and all over the green leaves to be safe. Will upload some more photos later. Wondering if a shot of fertilizer will help get some nutrients to the tree?

20 minutes ago, gyuseppe said:

what heliconia is it?

This is Heliconia Angusta "red holiday" blooms for me late winter early spring around March.  You can kind of see my pritchardia to the right behind it. It provided shade for these as they don't love sun. Trying to find photos of my rostrata's as they bloomed like crazy last summer starting June. Only get ike 6ish or so bracts but they looked awesome. Hot Rio nights and Pedro Ortiz did well but I hadn't gotten them to bloom yet. Schiediana did but man that thing was like a weed. Psittacorum grew really fast, bloomed like crazy, but most of them would completely die off. There was always a small patch that was right up against my stucco wall that would make it and then take off again when it warmed up. I don't get that cold where I am in Malibu as we are really close to the water, but we also don't get that hot. Will post up more pics.

Im not from California (was born at Vandenburg AFB though) so i think you should defer to others from there except this: make sure the new spear leaf is able to push past any damage.  I think you have one thats iffy with all the burned fronds.  My degree is in horticulture, but the weather is different there and im not sure if the burned foliage will help protect or hinder new growth.  Here its a hindrance but we have more rain and humidity.  Removing it can help if the new growth is trapped, and make sure there is no dead material in the crown to rot away (or just dump peroxide in just in case). As long as the meristem is intact the plant should grow out just like if it was frost burned, so similar cautious care should work.  I hope they all come back and provide something positive amongst the stress you are no doubt dealing with!

R- Banger,   I would cut away any foliage that is completely brown since it no longer can photosynthesize and produce carbs to nourish the plant.  This will also maximize the sunlight exposure to the remaining green tissue.  Keep it up with hydrogen peroxide, 3% or copper sulfate, but hold off on fertilizer, especially synthetic salt fertilizer.    Think of fertilizer as vitamins, not food.

Good luck and keep posting !   

 

 

I am reminded of forest fires in NoFL about 20 or 25 years ago. With all the Long leaf and Slash pine, fires moved quickly up up the coast. It was remarkable to see the Serenoa recover in the month that followed. 

You palms look pretty good for the beating they took. A little trim and a lot of love and they will be mostly fine by the fall.

4 hours ago, R-Banger said:

I really appreciate the kind words! Fingers crossed, I left the green stems but cleaned off some of the burned leaflets as I wanted more sunsine to make it's way through to the bud. I dumped some copper fungicide down the top and all over the green leaves to be safe. Will upload some more photos later. Wondering if a shot of fertilizer will help get some nutrients to the tree?

Now’s the season to fertilize. I’d mix up a five gallon bucket of Miracle Gro 15-30-15, give the palm a good big drink of water then souse it with the whole bucket full, wait a couple weeks or a month and repeat. 

3 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

R- Banger,   I would cut away any foliage that is completely brown since it no longer can photosynthesize and produce carbs to nourish the plant.  This will also maximize the sunlight exposure to the remaining green tissue.  Keep it up with hydrogen peroxide, 3% or copper sulfate, but hold off on fertilizer, especially synthetic salt fertilizer.    Think of fertilizer as vitamins, not food.

Good luck and keep posting !   

 

 

I will reinforce Darold's advice.  I wonder if your municipal water is still connected to the property .  If not, then watering this summer would seem to be the greatest challenge.   Good luck with the entire process of permitting,  design & rebuilding.  I am sure that while your palms are a pleasant distraction, their survival is small on your list of priorities. 

@R-Banger sorry to hear about the house!  On the Alfredii, I might take a set of garden shears and prune off all the dessicated brown leaves.  When I had a bad frost here and an Arenga Pinnata was mostly defoliated, I snipped off the leaflets and left the green rachis/petiole in place.  It looked a bit odd, but it recovered from defoliation reasonably quickly.  That might help on your Alfredii too.

So sorry for your loss. That’s heartbreaking stuff. 
 

As others have said leave the green stuff alone and trim off the dead. My advice would be to go gentle gentle with the fertiliser and maybe head towards the seaweed fish emulsion direction and give them a good drink with that regularly. There’s plant growth hormones in that, which is missing from an NPK fertiliser. They need a tonic to give them the will to live.  That and time will help. 
 

All the best. 

I really really appreciate the kind words and all the advice. I will clean her up leaving the green stems. With the peroxide treatment, I should be using 3% peroxide and just dump it on the bud/trunk to make sure any thing that may be getting soft etc. gets coverage to prevent rot correct?

3 hours ago, R-Banger said:

I really really appreciate the kind words and all the advice. I will clean her up leaving the green stems. With the peroxide treatment, I should be using 3% peroxide and just dump it on the bud/trunk to make sure any thing that may be getting soft etc. gets coverage to prevent rot correct?

Yes, just use it straight from the bottle at the store, anywhere needed.  Just dont breathe it in if you use a sprayer, but the plant wont notice at all as any microbes die.  And you can use it as often as you need to, its only oxygen and water after it reacts.

Hi everyone wanted to thank you all again for the help! It looks like the Alfie is pulling through great like it was made for fire. I marked all the palms and this one is pushing around 5inches per week. I usually got 4 new fronds per year from spring to end of fall then it goes dormant so I think it's going to be a few years before she is pretty again. The Pritchardia may pull through. I thought it was toast but it is slowly pushing an inch per week it seems. That one was almost fully defoliated though so I know it's hurting because that thing pushed new fronds like crazy when it was healthy and seems to be anemic right now. The large pandanus also looks to be pushing new leaves but will probably be years before it looks good again. The ones that shocked me as they burned to the ground is the Heliconias. Those rhizomes have gone full tilt overdrive with new shoots coming out of the ground. Especially my Rostratas and Angustas. I managed to recover those along with my hot rio nights, Schiediana, and Pedro Ortiz. Transplanted them to my rental and building back up the collection. I will get some good updated photos of their conditions maybe next week.

So happy you are ok and the plants are recovering somewhat. I think Pritchardia are a bit more hardy than some think , I never expected mine to do as well as it is. Hopefully soon yours will be pushing along at a normal clip again. The fact that it survived is really saying something. Four fronds a year sounds about right for a healthy specimen in Southern California . Again , glad you are ok , thanks for checking in and progress report . I can’t imagine going through what you ( and your plants) have had to endure . Harry

Have a photo of the pandanus from a couple weeks ago after I cleaned it up before it started pushing again. I did get photos of my Hyophorbe Indicas yesterday which are pushing, but I noticed on one that there is like a scar or something on the crownshaft/trunk area. Anyone know what this is? Wasn't there before. 

Hi everyone,

Been a long while but figured I’d post an update on the trees. Been hand watering for the last year and half and so happy they really bounced back. Was on cloud nine and then the city decided to trim trees in the parkway. 5 years I’ve lived there pre fire and they never touched my alfredii. Well I go the next week and they damn near murdered the tree! They cut every frond off and chopped the three new spears coming out of the top with it. I am so pissed off and defeated at the same time. I have tried calling to see what the hell happened and nothing typical California just takes me on automated loops for hours. I am going to keep watering in hopes it keeps pushing them out as they didn’t damage the bud and 6 inches or so of the spears is sticking out the top. What are your thoughts is it too far gone? Anything I can do to help it bounce back yet again?

That’s terrible. In one day, they probably did more damage than the fire. That will be difficult to recover from. Municipal crews have no clue when it comes to palms, especially unusual palms. And I’m guessing that they have a “cut it before it burns” mentality now.

I am so upset, that tree was my favorite one. Always wanted an aflie but didn't have a house. First thing I hunted down when we got a house and planted it out. Splurged and got a 30 gallon because I wanted to see it get some nice height in my lifetime. In one day they undid years of my life. I hope I somehow can get it to survive.

So sorry for your loss. Seems actually malicious imo. To cut everything like that and think it's okay? I cant imagine it. Pure lawlessness.

7 hours ago, R-Banger said:

I am so upset, that tree was my favorite one. Always wanted an aflie but didn't have a house. First thing I hunted down when we got a house and planted it out. Splurged and got a 30 gallon because I wanted to see it get some nice height in my lifetime. In one day they undid years of my life. I hope I somehow can get it to survive.

Oof, ..Also curious why they did this. Certainly doesn't seem like they needed to and ..unless i'm missing something, it seems that was the only thing they cut.

Can understand the city wanting any grassy / weedy ( see lots of Sow Thistle in the beds ) stuff below removed ...or kept as short as possible, but, scratching my head in regards to why they trimmed that palm, but not anything else ..or so it seems via the pictures..

Regardless.........

Not that you don't have a right to be.. but instead of staying angry / feeling defeated, redirect that response to... ...and instead of... calling x or y to get answers ( " Loop de loop " phone tag game with city folks is common just about anywhere these days, unfortunately ) , approach whichever / whom - ever authority is in charge of this sort of thing out there IN- PERSON-

If you have to do so, repeatedly, ...until you get answers, and resolve anything else, DO IT.. ..and document / get signatures of everything, ..so no one can deny that you approached them about this..

If a simple mistake, that happens, but at least they will be aware of it and hopefully avoid doing it again..

If a bigger issue? ..that doesn't need to be? then they need to be called out, and corrected.

That won't happen without action.



BTW, assuming it is a current? shot.. Pretty impressed by how your Pandanus looks after being burnt. Not a plant i'd think could withstand that.

Whoever trimmed that one wanted it dead. I see that it’s overhanging the street, blocking the sidewalk, and blocking the view pulling out of that driveway, and a few inches from an in ground utility valve access box. It was going to spread out much more in time. Lots of potential suspects in this case would benefit from its demise. Someone wanted it gone.

Sorry for your potential loss. I’d plant the next one with 20 feet of clearance, well away from any right-of-ways.

It’s just wild that after 5 years they did this. That utility box was added just a couple months ago as part of the post fire upgrades so it wasn’t something the tree was encroaching on.

Any shot at saving this thing? I can’t think of doing anything other than watering it. It was pushing fast before and they didn’t damage the bud. We do still have 6 inches of spears poking out. I appreciate any advice to help it survive.

I am so fed up with the dysfunction of Los Angeles County we are planning to just rent the place upon rebuild and transplant all my plants to San Clemente. Was trying to beef them Up for that eventual move. This really delayed it now if I manage to bring it back to life again.

Just keep up the water. Very good chance it will come back. Not much different than when people prepare for a hurricane, or when we get a freeze that completely defoliates.

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona