A couple of very bad days this winter played havoc with a number of my Palms.  The worst is pictured below, a Trachy v Nainital.  I received it bare root in spring of 2020,  While its been green and sprouting a modest amount of fronds each year, it has added almost no height.  Anyway the first picture shows how badly it wintered.  Both spears that had stopped growing pulled. The white stuff in the second pic is H2O2 bubbling up out of the stem.  This level of foam has appeared 5 or 6 times.  (Once a month in the winter I had sprayed Copper fungicide into it. ) 

So where do I go from here? Keep poring H2O2 into the plant, or switch to copper fungicide (as directed) and see if something grows?

Or is it time for more drastic measures?  I've  seen videos of people sawing the tops off trachys to see if they reach live tissue.  

Any thoughts or tips or recommended videos?

Thanks

With the fact that all of the fronds are dead, and the spears are gone, I would take the drastic route at this point in time and trunk cut.

26 minutes ago, Chester B said:

With the fact that all of the fronds are dead, and the spears are gone, I would take the drastic route at this point in time and trunk cut.

Trunk cutting a Trachy!? I have only ever heard of one person attempting that in eastern Europe and the palm never pushed any growth and died. But I think another one he decided to leave (for comparison) pushed new growth again by the end of the summer.

I also think cutting the trunk of a Trachy screws up the growing point, so it will never push normal fronds ever again. I know Trachy's that have recovered from bad freezes that have had screwed up growing points from then on with tiny little irregularly shaped fronds, even several years after the freeze event. So cutting the trunk will probably screw up the growing point big time as well, but maybe I am wrong? Personally I would keep treating with H202 each month and hope a new spear pushes by July/August.

@newtopalmsMD Just curious, but what was your absolute winter minimum on the coldest night to do that sort of damage? And how many consecutive hours were you below freezing?

Ive seen banana joe on youtube has a trunk cut trachy and it has grew back, I guess it comes down to luck

 

@newtopalmsMD Stick your finger (gently) inside and see if you feel a spear pushing up. You won't see any growth until you consistently see 70's and 80's for several days off and on. Have you seen any weather like that yet? What was your coldest winter low? I've got 3-4 that spear pulled this year and all except one have spears emerging. Trunk cutting is only a last resort. I have successfully done this and saved palms with that method. Having said all that, this may be a weakling windmill and if you do lose it, look on the bright side, perhaps its replacement will be a lot tougher.  I generally only apply hydrogen peroxide a couple times, a few weeks in between. Usually after that, the spears start moving and give me a sign that the palm is recovering. Of course, all this is only my experience in a southern zone 7B climate. Best wishes. 

4 hours ago, Chester B said:

With the fact that all of the fronds are dead, and the spears are gone, I would take the drastic route at this point in time and trunk cut.

I agree. All the fronds are toast. Cut all the petioles, then lower it 2 inches.

Trunk Cut

16 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Trunk cutting a Trachy!? I have only ever heard of one person attempting that in eastern Europe and the palm never pushed any growth and died. But I think another one he decided to leave (for comparison) pushed new growth again by the end of the summer.

I also think cutting the trunk of a Trachy screws up the growing point, so it will never push normal fronds ever again. I know Trachy's that have recovered from bad freezes that have had screwed up growing points from then on with tiny little irregularly shaped fronds, even several years after the freeze event. So cutting the trunk will probably screw up the growing point big time as well, but maybe I am wrong? Personally I would keep treating with H202 each month and hope a new spear pushes by July/August.

Trunk cutting can & does work. Trachycarpus are one of the toughest in the palm family. The trunk will appear uneven for some time, but this is better than losing the entire palm. After 1-2 fronds emerge, the fronds should begin to appear normal again. Here's a 3-gallon Trachycarpus I performed a trunk cut on recently, this is how it looks today...

Keep in mind, the drastic cut can't be done repetitively ... or can it? I'd like to a survivor that get's a annual hacking.

Thank you all for the replies.  To answer UK Palm's question.  On Jan 26 the high was 37F and the low was 26F.  The next 4 days had lows of 6F 4F 3F and 2F and the highs were in the high 20's so never above freezing.  On Jan 31 the high got to 35F and the low was 11F.  There were also two days where there was rain during the evening and then below freezing temps at night around this time.  There was also a day with 40 mph wind gusts.

The micro climate is not great.  The good news is the trachy is on the east side of the fence pictured and the south side of a fence not pictured.  I also add a foot or so of oakleaves and pine needles every winter to protect the roots.  However land to the east, south and west are all higher while only land to the north slopes away from the palms.  The palms are near a pool, but that will have frozen during the cold snap.

The first picture has the small trachy in the foreground and a larger trachy in the background (planted with mature fronds in fall 2017, bought at big box store, no variant listed) which managed to keep some green and is sending up 3 spears of various sizes.  The sabal m cape hatteras in the picture has some little freeze burn spots on older fronds.  My brazorias, and Louisiana sabals had similar damage but the sabal birmingham,  second picture, which has always struggled, may have been done in.   My 5 needle palms, ranging from 6 ft. to 1.5 foot in height,  are all completely unblemished

One thing to keep in mind if you're starting out with a small windmill (< 15-gal size) they will need protecting in their first winter in the ground and will spear-pull at around 20°F.  After they're well established they can obviously handle much more cold.

Yeah Given its size i could have provided some protection without huge difficulty.  But I had planted is in 2020 and it had mature fronds then.  I'm guessing it just did not do well establishing a new root system in the 5 years in the ground.

 

Oh.  So in my weather discussion above, I was a week off in reading the history.  The first day should have been Jan 19 (not Jan 26) and the history runs through Jan 24.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/olney/20832/february-weather/2106763 

The prolonged cold gets these things vs. the ONE cold night where is might drop to 5F or so.  Not saying the OP didn't know this, but cold hardy temps are often misunderstood.  For example, two days of 35/5 are going to be better then 7 straight days of 30/10.  But then again, lots of variables. 

5 hours ago, CascadiaPalms said:

The prolonged cold gets these things vs. the ONE cold night where is might drop to 5F or so.  Not saying the OP didn't know this, but cold hardy temps are often misunderstood.  For example, two days of 35/5 are going to be better then 7 straight days of 30/10.  But then again, lots of variables. 

That's a good point Cascadia. For example, my winter low was 10'F but with three snows of 5.5" total (which is more than double my usual) and a cold spell that saw 72 consecutive hours below freezing. If you just saw my raw winter low, you'd think I escaped easily.  A few of the new spears and some older fronds show a little damage though on my windmills. But that's the trials and tribulations of palm growing in zone 7B. 

16 hours ago, Zone7Bpalmguy said:

That's a good point Cascadia. For example, my winter low was 10'F but with three snows of 5.5" total (which is more than double my usual) and a cold spell that saw 72 consecutive hours below freezing. If you just saw my raw winter low, you'd think I escaped easily.  A few of the new spears and some older fronds show a little damage though on my windmills. But that's the trials and tribulations of palm growing in zone 7B. 

Yup.  Same reason why Washys don't do that well in Portland.  Our winter temps are WAY above what they can survive.  But the "prolonged" cold/cool rain gets these things by March.

As a quick update and response to @Zone7Bpalmguy there is the tip of a spear that I can feel.  I'll give it a week or so to see if it is growing or just remnants of a previous attempt to grow.

 

Thanks

10 hours ago, newtopalmsMD said:

As a quick update and response to @Zone7Bpalmguy there is the tip of a spear that I can feel.  I'll give it a week or so to see if it is growing or just remnants of a previous attempt to grow.

 

Thanks

Good news. It should be a new spear. You'd be surprised how tough these palms are. Obviously it won't wanna do this every year but I think this time it may come out of it. 

I have one in the coldest part of my yard and it looks terrible after winter. Last year (2023-24) I trunk cut it prematurely, it was already pushing out new fronds that I didn't see and I just suspected the worst. Last year it did good and grew nice. This year, similar story, multiple spears pulled and a few days ago I checked it, didn't have any spears yet. So we will see on this one. 

I believe yours is on the mend, maybe baby it some next winter. Thanks for the update. 👍 

Update 

After two weeks of no movement of the spear on the trachy I took a saw to it.  Below are the pictures (nickel for scale).  The small beige  triangle about an inch below the nickel in the first picture is the only soft part.  The second picture sows what happened when I poured a little h2o2 on the area.  

Am I done now? or should I cut somewhat deeper?  (I've already fertilized with slow release fertilizer and mulched.) Anything else I should do?

 

Thanks

4 hours ago, newtopalmsMD said:

Update 

After two weeks of no movement of the spear on the trachy I took a saw to it.  Below are the pictures (nickel for scale).  The small beige  triangle about an inch below the nickel in the first picture is the only soft part.  The second picture sows what happened when I poured a little h2o2 on the area.  

Am I done now? or should I cut somewhat deeper?  (I've already fertilized with slow release fertilizer and mulched.) Anything else I should do?

 

Thanks

How much did you end up cutting from the trunk? 

If that part poking up is firm and not mushy you may be ok. It should start growing in a few days. If you get any rainy weather I would try covering it with a bucket or something. 

Probably an inch and a half to to two inches.  Unfortunately the middle part is kind of mushy.  And lots of bubbling from the h2o2  which presumably means more fungus lower down.  That's why I was wondering if I needed to lot lower

@newtopalmsMD If you're still finding a mushy middle then yes I believe you should cut a tad more (1/4-1/2" maybe at a time) of trunk until you reach solid material. If you never reach solid material then my guess would be the palm has already died. 

How tall was the trunk before surgery this spring?

A BJ X S that got hit hard this past winter. I kept cutting till all the mush was gone. Treated with copper fungicide. Added liquid fertilizer around palm to encourage growth. 

Thanks,  the trunk is about 3 feet tall///so lots of room to cut.  

On 4/18/2025 at 10:42 AM, MrTropical said:

Trunk cutting can & does work. Trachycarpus are one of the toughest in the palm family. The trunk will appear uneven for some time, but this is better than losing the entire palm. After 1-2 fronds emerge, the fronds should begin to appear normal again. Here's a 3-gallon Trachycarpus I performed a trunk cut on recently, this is how it looks today...

The same palm as of today...



June 9, 2025

21 hours ago, MrTropical said:

The same palm as of today...



June 9, 2025

Very similar to mine that's in bad shape that I spoke of above. Mine is producing fronds but miniature ones. Having said that, at least it's putting forth the effort. Hopefully they will produce some normal fronds in a month or so and have a long growing season.