Weird Frond Breakage on Majesty Palm - what could be causing this?

[Ras]

Palmtalk:

Hoping someone could provide some guidance. My majesty palm fronds have been bending and collapsing about half way up the spine (see pics below). Surprisingly, this is consistent with about 4 red banana plants that are on the same side of the house which is mostly shaded (pics also below).

What could be causing this behavior??

Some notes below...
- location is SoCal (inland empire)
- all plants are on drip irrigation (daily for 5-10 mins depending on temp)

- all plants are planted in gopher baskets as gophers are a menace here

- I attempted to "tie up the fronds" to keep them from bending, but that did not work

- I fertilize with soluble palm fert about 1X/month

- some other plants in the same areas (White BoP, Cordyline) not showing the same effect

- temps have cooled down from Summer Heat, but still consistently in high 70s to 80s, with a couple of 90s here and there

- I posted the same in the "tropical looking plants" forum, but haven't heard anything concrete back yet

 

Thanks is advance for any tips!

[Harry’s Palms]

Hard to say . Plants look healthy enough , my guess would be animals or wind. My very tall Ravenea ( Majesty ) gets shredded whenever there is a wind event. Harry

[Ras]

29 minutes ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Hard to say . Plants look healthy enough , my guess would be animals or wind. My very tall Ravenea ( Majesty ) gets shredded whenever there is a wind event. Harry

Thanks @Harry’s Palms. No wind issues on this side of the house as it is shielded pretty good. I do have squirrels in the yard, but somehow only seeing this impact on this small part of the property.  Quite the mystery...

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Ras said:

Some notes below...
- location is SoCal (inland empire)
- all plants are on drip irrigation (daily for 5-10 mins depending on temp)

- all plants are planted in gopher baskets as gophers are a menace here

- I attempted to "tie up the fronds" to keep them from bending, but that did not work

- I fertilize with soluble palm fert about 1X/month

No answers on why those leaves are breaking like that except to say that it looks like either wind or physical contact with something snapping them (animals) as Harry observed.  On a different note, I did see a couple of items in the notes that I copied above which drew attention.

The drip irrigation at 5-10 mins daily sounds like too high a frequency and too short.  Consider similar overall duration, but broken up into longer station run times ever 3-4 days unless we are in a Santa Ana.  The goal is to encourage deep roots by deep watering.

Second item is the soluble palm fertilizer about 1x per month.  Consider a slow release palm fertilizer once a quarter.  You will be less likely to burn your palms accidentally and can get slow release with micros.

Regarding your issue, perhaps the issue will go away as they grow.  They look like relatively recent plantings.  Good luck.

[Ras]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

No answers on why those leaves are breaking like that except to say that it looks like either wind or physical contact with something snapping them (animals) as Harry observed.  On a different note, I did see a couple of items in the notes that I copied above which drew attention.

The drip irrigation at 5-10 mins daily sounds like too high a frequency and too short.  Consider similar overall duration, but broken up into longer station run times ever 3-4 days unless we are in a Santa Ana.  The goal is to encourage deep roots by deep watering.

Second item is the soluble palm fertilizer about 1x per month.  Consider a slow release palm fertilizer once a quarter.  You will be less likely to burn your palms accidentally and can get slow release with micros.

Regarding your issue, perhaps the issue will go away as they grow.  They look like relatively recent plantings.  Good luck.

Thank you @Tracy