Greeting everyone, Our 20-year old European Fan Palm appears to be having trouble and I'm looking for opinions on what is happening and how to correct.  This year the fans are opening right away before they have a chance to grow out and we're getting a cluster of open fans with maybe 3-6 inches of stem.  Any ideas?

@Mark S. ordinarily I would think small fans might be a crown infection, but you'd see some severe distortion or browning with a crown infection.  The leaves look fairly normal in the photo, just small.  Is that correct?  No "accordion leaf" or dead brownish spots, or distorted shape or color?

What have you been doing for water and fertilizer?  Have they suddenly gotten a lot more sun than previous summers?  Maybe they are just hungry for fertilizer and water?

I have seen palms do this before and never figured out what it was . Most grow out in time , some it is more serious . I don’t think , in your case , it is a nutrient issue . I have never fertilized my solitary form Chamaerops before and it is fine , pretty tough palm. The coloring on yours looks good too , unless there is something the pics don’t show  , as @Merlyn says. Are all the stems doing it? Harry

On zooming in on the photo, there is one new frond that looks distorted.  I'm guessing it came out maybe a couple of months ago.  It shows some signs of either a crown rot or a transient Boron deficiency:

I'd make sure your palm fertilizer has a trace amount of Boron in it, just to be sure.  Typical amounts may be around 0.02% or so.  Usually there's enough Boron available from decomposing mulch or other plant matter around the palm.  In a dry area like AZ you might be using rock or something else around it.

Hey everyone, thank you for your prompt responses and questions.  To answer a few.... we have had a particularly hot summer here in Phoenix with prolong periods of 110+ temps beginning in June.  I put down a palm fertilizer about a month ago and gave it a deep soak but not sure about the boron or micronutrient content (I'll have to go back and look).  This is the first year we've had this issue and this most recent crop of frons have produced about 4-6 dwarfed frons and two of them died (turned brown) almost immediately.  Another photo attached taken from a different angle.  

Thanks again,

MarkIMG_1996.HEIC

The Forum does not take the HEIC extension. Change the photo extension to:   jpg.

110F and 0% humidity are brutal conditions for almost any palm. Chamaerops evolved in Europe and environs and AZ summers likely present them with difficulties. Are they in direct sun? I would carefully monitor their watering and fertilizer. When do you fertilize and with what? 

If you are having problems with micronutrients, try to find Southern Ag's Essential Minor Elements in granular form to spread around any palm that is having nutrient problems.  For example, FL soils are woefully deficient in potassium (K), Boron (B), Iron (FE), Manganese (MN) but oversupplied with Phosphorus (P), Be careful when watering in fertilizer so it doesn't burn the roots of your palms.

Here's the photo @Mark S. attached...


 

@Mark S. if you can see the newest spears growing out, are they solid and normal green color?  I have a Licuala Grandis next to my front door.  It had a crown infection in early spring, and a frond grew out and basically died at about 10 inches out of the crown.  I treated it with hydrogen peroxide and Daconil, and a couple of months later it started growing new fronds.  The next two grew out small like yours...roughly half of normal. 

I would check the new spears and make sure they look "normal."  If not, squirt a little hydrogen peroxide in there and see if it bubbles up.  If so there is still a fungal infection in the crown.  

Thanks for sharing your experience.  All the frons are clean and green.  They appear perfectly healthy, just stunted.  Only two frons died early on but there are now about a half dozen that are new and healthy. 

My chamaerops did pretty well in AZ at those temps but it was protected by a block wall from the late day sun.  Boron deficiency is caused by alkaline soil, and you may have alkaline soil in some spots in your yard.  Does this palm see late day sun and if so how close is it to the wall? I smell a boron deficiency but it could be your watering schedule.  In the heat they want a deep soak 3x a week.  If you have drippers water for longer 4-5 hrs will get it down deep in the clay I saw there.  In AZ soil, its not the gallons but the time that determines depth of watering.  Many people out there do not water long enough and its especially damaging in the heat as watering depth is critical in the heat.  Mine did open early at times.  Evaporation happens so fast on th ehot gravel/ground there that watering should be 4-5 hrs after the sun goes down starting at 10pm or later.  IN the high heat, I sometimes took a manual rainbird sprinkler after sundown to cool things down and add some moisture.  110F is a temp that very few palms like, p. dactylifera and washingtonia filifera take it.   Chamaerops not so much.  Key here is how much sun and how much late day sun and how close to the wall.  The concrete block really heats up at those temps, very desiccating.  And as you know the hottest time of the day is 4-5pm pm or so so add late day sun heating the plant and the wall to those 110F+ temps and you have a palm killer for many palm species.  Water deep which means 3 to 4 2 gallon drippers around the plant for 5 hrs well after sundown