Trachycarpus Fortunei Spear Pull

[OriolesRock100]

Hi all, I went out today to check on my plants, and noticed the spear on my trachycarpus fortunei looked a bit off, so I tugged on it, and it came out pretty easily.  I was a bit shocked, because I babied it and did not let it stay outside under 25 degrees F at all this winter, and it seemed to make it through the winter unfazed. It looked great, no cold damage on the fronds at all, and it was even pushing out growth immediately when the temps started to warm up. About 2 weeks ago, I repotted it into a bigger pot to give it some more space, is it possible that could have caused the spear pull? Or did I just get unlucky and it caught some fungal disease or something as the temps warmed? I treated the crown with a good dose of copper fungicide, which I am planning to apply once per week. Really hoping this one manages to pull through, since it was thriving so well until now. I also had a needle palm spear pull and die, but I was pushing it a bit for it's first winter, so I assumed it was my fault. Maybe it was our Spring being too wet? My sabals had no issues and are all pushing out new growth - even my tiny potted palmetto seedlings, which got babied way less than my fortunei and didn't ever come inside above 20 degrees F. I'm curious if anyone has any idea what is going on here.

[Allen]

25 is pretty high to spear pull as I usually say around 21 on small ones but it should come thru

[OriolesRock100]

5 minutes ago, Allen said:

25 is pretty high to spear pull as I usually say around 21 on small ones but it should come thru

Yeah what I thought was weird is that it seemed happy all winter, even starting growing rapidly when it started warming. I think it must've got a fungal infection, not necessarily from cold damage. I'm hoping it can pull through with the copper fungicide. I'm assuming I should keep it dry until a new spear starts pushing? Unfortunately, this seemed to happen at a bad time then 😆 I'll have to keep it under a grow light inside for the time being

[Palmensammler]

Might be a problem that you kept them in pots. My small ones planted outside are untouched after 10° F / -12° C and lots of rain when it wasn't that cold.

But it will make it. Keep dry,  don't water from above and give it some time.

Eckhard 

[Fusca]

Yes, having in a pot makes a difference.  Other factors possibly at play as well.  In case you missed this thread of mine, I had 4 species of juvenile palms spear-pull at 27°F which is very warm considering their cold hardiness.  In my case, the afternoon high was 90°F just 36 hours prior to the freeze event.

 

[SeanK]

I'll give the usual advice.

Hydrogen Peroxide twice a week. Keep the soil properly watered and give it until July 4th. 

Cheers -

[OriolesRock100]

35 minutes ago, Fusca said:

Yes, having in a pot makes a difference.  Other factors possibly at play as well.  In case you missed this thread of mine, I had 4 species of juvenile palms spear-pull at 27°F which is very warm considering their cold hardiness.  In my case, the afternoon high was 90°F just 36 hours prior to the freeze event.

 

Yeah, now that I think back on it, the fact that it started growing so quickly when the temps warmed up combined with us going back and forth between low to mid 70s and then dipping below freezing along with a good amount of rain, might have been what did it in. I'm hoping it should be able to recover well, I guess I will have to be more careful if it is in a pot next time. I just thought it would be a little more hardy and robust with it being a trachy fortunei and all (my sabal palmettos took more cold than it did and didn't even flinch)

[Chester B]

16 hours ago, OriolesRock100 said:

Yeah, now that I think back on it, the fact that it started growing so quickly when the temps warmed up combined with us going back and forth between low to mid 70s and then dipping below freezing along with a good amount of rain, might have been what did it in. I'm hoping it should be able to recover well, I guess I will have to be more careful if it is in a pot next time. I just thought it would be a little more hardy and robust with it being a trachy fortunei and all (my sabal palmettos took more cold than it did and didn't even flinch)

I think you're probably right. 

People in colder zones report small Trachys spear pulling pretty often.  The good thing is the chance for recovery is very high.

[MIKE82397]

I had 3 about that size in pots spear pull a couple years back. Definitely can attribute it to “coldish rain” All recovered perfectly fine with the h2o2 treatment. No problem once in ground and established but I still try to keep winter precipitation out of the spear area on all my palms.

[OriolesRock100]

I took a flashlight and checked the hole where the spear pulled from, and it looks sort of white and fuzzy in the crown (hard to take a clear picture of). Is this the fungus that caused the spear pull I'm assuming? It wasn't there after the initial spear pull when I applied copper fungicide on Monday. Should I reapply the copper fungicide or try H202 this time? I won't be able to get my hands on H202 until tomorrow evening, but I can reapply copper fungicide now if that will help... I fear this is not a good development for hopes of this palm recovering. On the bright side, the fronds are still green and the rest of the palm is not showing any signs of decline yet...

[OriolesRock100]

I just sprayed some hydrogen peroxide in the crown (enough to fill the crown completely) and it was fizzling and bubbling, and I came back in about 10 mintutes and it was gone, either evaporated or absorbed. I hope that's a good sign. It's kind of hard to see what is going on in the crown since the palm is still pretty small, but the white stuff is still there in some form (not that I expected it to magically disappear with the application of H2O2). I will check in a few hours and see what happens.

[OriolesRock100]

This afternoon, I can visibly see some growth pushing. I gently pulled out about half of the white stuff with tweezers (which I assume is what's left over of the fungus after it died from the H2O2 & copper fungicide). Going to continue to keep it inside under a grow light until the spear has emerged from the crown more. Finally a promising update!

[MarkC]

I’ve grown many trachy’s in a NJ zone 7a/7b. I’ve had numerous spear pulls, and never lost one trachy from the spear pulling alone. I always cut them back and they respond well and continue pushing new growth. 

[OriolesRock100]

Just wanted to give an update - the trachy has recovered very nicely, and it is growing pretty quickly again, as if nothing even happened 😅 Thanks to everyone for the feedback, happy to have had this palm survive! Next spring, I will be extra cautious if we get another long, rainy, cold spring.

[Zone7Bpalmguy]

1 hour ago, OriolesRock100 said:

Just wanted to give an update - the trachy has recovered very nicely, and it is growing pretty quickly again, as if nothing even happened 😅 Thanks to everyone for the feedback, happy to have had this palm survive! Next spring, I will be extra cautious if we get another long, rainy, cold spring.

That is a great recovery there! Good job! 👍