Frozen palm trees in Florida update - Start trimming yet?

[Skenny]

Continued from my previous thread here: 

 

The current progress on them has each not showing green new growth on each trunk and green on the existing fronds.  There is a lot of really dried and drooping brown fronds at the lower end of each of them.  Is it time to start cutting or is it still not safe?  I have the fertilizer ready to go as well to put around the base.  Handful on each trunk is the advice I got so if thats right I'll do it later this week and get it watered in.  Main concern now is what to do with the brown completely dead fronds on these things to try to start sprucing things up out there as they look quite bad at the moment but also dont want to do anything that will harm their recovery so looking for some opinions on what to do.

Here are the photos.  Tree 1 has the most drooping down now with several of the fronds touching the ground.  Tree 2 and 3 have similar brown at the lowest part of the trunks and those will be on the ground soon as well.

Tree 1:

 

 

 

Tree 2:

 

 

 

 

Tree 3:

 

 

 

[Las Palmas Norte]

The dry, brown parts are dead and can be trimmed off. Don't remove any of the green or slightly discolored parts of the fronds, as unsightly as it may seem. It will recover rather quickly if cared for.

[Skenny]

1 hour ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

The dry, brown parts are dead and can be trimmed off. Don't remove any of the green or slightly discolored parts of the fronds, as unsightly as it may seem. It will recover rather quickly if cared for.

Okay so cut the fronds that are completely brown?  Cut back at the trunk?

Some of the fronds are brown at the ends but have green middle stalk parts, not sure the right word, but like this:

Leave ones that look like this alone? 

I'll start with cutting the ones that are fully brown and laying at the bottom.

[Harry’s Palms]

Whatever has color , other than crispy brown , leave on there. When you fertilize , add some garden soil and use a claw to work it in . Make sure the mix is damp before fertilizing and keep the fertilizer away from the trunk of the palm. It looks like you are on your way . Harry

[Merlyn]

I have a few similarly colored ones...22.5F isn't great for Pygmy Dates!  I cut off anything that is completely brown and crispy, and leave fronds that are partially green.  Sometimes I will but off the dead end of a frond, just to give airflow to the crown of the palm.  Only things that have some green are actually contributing *new* energy to the palm.  But live frond stems with just burnt leaflets still have some energy stored that the palm might "eat" for nutrients.  So I kinda waffle on "cut off anything that's not green" versus "only cut off stuff that's totally crispy dead."

I would definitely clean your pruners between palms, to avoid accidentally transferring diseases.  I lopped the top off of a badly burned Bottle palm and it was all rotten and bright pink...like "pink rot" colored.  Needless to say I trashed the whole thing immediately and cleaned the saw and blades with rubbing alcohol.

[Skenny]

16 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Whatever has color , other than crispy brown , leave on there. When you fertilize , add some garden soil and use a claw to work it in . Make sure the mix is damp before fertilizing and keep the fertilizer away from the trunk of the palm. It looks like you are on your way . Harry

For the fertilizer where should it be spread if not by the trunk?  Is there a general area to get it in so it will work for the tree but not by the trunks themselves?

15 hours ago, Merlyn said:

I have a few similarly colored ones...22.5F isn't great for Pygmy Dates!  I cut off anything that is completely brown and crispy, and leave fronds that are partially green.  Sometimes I will but off the dead end of a frond, just to give airflow to the crown of the palm.  Only things that have some green are actually contributing *new* energy to the palm.  But live frond stems with just burnt leaflets still have some energy stored that the palm might "eat" for nutrients.  So I kinda waffle on "cut off anything that's not green" versus "only cut off stuff that's totally crispy dead."

I went with the crispy route and left everything that had any green on it at all, I went under every one I cut and made sure there was no green all the way back to the trunk itself.  If there was green in any part of the frond I left it, except for one or two I cut by mistake. 

For what is left on there, the brown fronds with the green stalks, will they ever go green again or will I just need to repeat this trimming over the next few weeks as any remaining nutrients in them are used up?  If you look at the photos, especially tree 2's update below, you can see the stalks on the fronds are green while everything else about them is brown.  The internet tells me the green part is the petiole.  I don't know all the lingo yet.

Here is how they are looking now to compare with the original photos.

Tree 1:

 

Tree 2:

 

Tree 3:

 

 

[Harry’s Palms]

Mix it in about 2” away from the trunk inside the drip circle.I use an organic EB Stone fertilizer on only a couple of palms , the rest don’t need it . It is the one for Hibiscus and Palms. Harry

The newly amended soil is damp and ready for fertilizer . The fertilizer should not go up against the trunk . I use a claw to mix it in.The EB Stone stuff is pretty fine and mixes in easily .Then I put wood chips over top . This Roystonia Oleracae is one of the few that get the treatment due to the zone push on this one . The Syagrus and Phoenix Roebelini to the left don’t need it in my climate. Try not to mound up the mulch or wood chips against the trunk . 

[Harry’s Palms]

The brown fronds will not turn green . You will have to wait for new fronds for green to appear. Harry

‘The lower fronds on these are beginning to yellow but the newer fronds are green . This happens in late summer to Fall when we have warm , dry days . I wait until they much worse before trimming.

[Skenny]

For the brown ones then, at this point do I just continue to monitor and when the whole thing turns brown all the way to the trunk continue to prune just like I did today?  They should slowly turn fully brown?

 

For fertilizer I have the standard Sunniland stuff from Lowes.  For trees this small how much should I be putting around the base?  The measurements are always about trunk size, do these count as two trunks each so double the amount?

[Merlyn]

@Skenny I can hardly see any green stuff, so keep in mind that the green needs to see the sun to generate new energy.  Cutting dead ends off the fronds might help, if the brown stuff really is blocking the sun.  

For fertilizer I might use about 2-3 handfuls of the Sunniland 6-1-8 per clump.  That's a highly scientific measure, obviously.   I've used Sunniland 6-1-8 for years, and recently switched to their Pro 8-0-10 Tree/Shrub.  It's actually slightly cheaper per pound of Nitrogen and Potassium.  

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Sunniland-50-lb-All-Purpose-Fertilizer-8-0-10/1000007606

[Mazat]

On 3/23/2026 at 3:12 PM, Skenny said:

Continued from my previous thread here: 

 

The current progress on them has each not showing green new growth on each trunk and green on the existing fronds.  There is a lot of really dried and drooping brown fronds at the lower end of each of them.  Is it time to start cutting or is it still not safe?  I have the fertilizer ready to go as well to put around the base.  Handful on each trunk is the advice I got so if thats right I'll do it later this week and get it watered in.  Main concern now is what to do with the brown completely dead fronds on these things to try to start sprucing things up out there as they look quite bad at the moment but also dont want to do anything that will harm their recovery so looking for some opinions on what to do.

Here are the photos.  Tree 1 has the most drooping down now with several of the fronds touching the ground.  Tree 2 and 3 have similar brown at the lowest part of the trunks and those will be on the ground soon as well.

Tree 1:

 

 

 

Tree 2:

 

 

 

 

Tree 3:

 

 

 

Skenny, yes, cut off all the completely brown parts right away. It needs air for oxygen and the sun’s warmth and light. Be sure to leave the other green and yellow fronds; their energy flows back to the heart.

As Merlyn, PalmasNorte, and Harry already mentioned. Yes, fertilizing is good—just as Merlyn explained. I’m not familiar with that brand of fertilizer, but he is and has had good results with it. Keep your chin up—plants thought to be dead often survive; she’ll come back! Good luck!

Warm regards from the far north on Lake Constance, Switzerland

Mazat 

[kinzyjr]

@Skenny Get the light saber out.

[Mazat]

6 hours ago, Mazat said:

Skenny, yes, cut off all the completely brown parts right away. It needs air for oxygen and the sun’s warmth and light. Be sure to leave the other green and yellow fronds; their energy flows back to the heart.

As Merlyn, PalmasNorte, and Harry already mentioned. Yes, fertilizing is good—just as Merlyn explained. I’m not familiar with that brand of fertilizer, but he is and has had good results with it. Keep your chin up—plants thought to be dead often survive; she’ll come back! Good luck!

Warm regards from the far north on Lake Constance, Switzerland

Mazat 

Las Palmas Norte 🌴🤗

[Skenny]

So when everyone says to remove all the brown I thought I was supposed to leave anything with green, so should I trim more?  When I say things are green this is what I mean:

From the outside it looks brown but when you get up close and into the fronds themselves you can see green.

This is what it looks like from a few feet away.

 

But get in there and this is the green I am talking about

 

 

 

On the fronds themselves while all the leaf parts are brown the center stalk still has green coloring

So do I keep cutting or leave it?  This is my first time trimming one of these so want to make sure I am not cutting off too much, but then with what people are now saying also need to cut off what is not needed so the new fronds can grow properly.

[Allen]

1 hour ago, Skenny said:

So when everyone says to remove all the brown I thought I was supposed to leave anything with green, so should I trim more?  When I say things are green this is what I mean:

From the outside it looks brown but when you get up close and into the fronds themselves you can see green.

This is what it looks like from a few feet away.

But get in there and this is the green I am talking about. On the fronds themselves while all the leaf parts are brown the center stalk still has green coloring

So do I keep cutting or leave it?  This is my first time trimming one of these so want to make sure I am not cutting off too much, but then with what people are now saying also need to cut off what is not needed so the new fronds can grow properly.

 

You don't have to cut the petioles all the way to the trunk, for the newer ones you can leave them a foot or 2 long.  Trim all diseased stuff off and spray entire palm with copper fungicide.

[Skenny]

Is this more of what everyone had in mind or did I do too much after doing too little before?  I did another trimming of the fronds based on the responses.

 

 

With the fungicide and disease comment, now that I was able to get in and take a closer look I am seeing small white spots coating everything and the new green fronds have big black and brown spots all over them.

Can I just go to home depot and get this and then spray it all or do I need something special?  I did a search for copper fungice and this was the first thing I saw.

[Merlyn]

@Skenny I personally wouldn't bother with a copper fungicide at this point.  The only real risk (IMO) to the palms is a crown rot.  If you've done a crown drench of hydrogen peroxide, copper, Daconil, or Mancozeb, then it's just going to take a while to grow out.  Spraying the whole palm with copper might not be any benefit, and copper fungicides are phytotoxic in big doses.  I'd mark the newest spears with a sharpie while miraculously avoiding getting skewered by the thorns.  If it's moving, you are in good shape.

As far as pruning, that's pretty much what I did to my double in the backyard this evening.  I cut any totally dead fronds.  I cut the ends off of ones where it was green rachis/stem/petiole.  I just picked a spot a few inches further out from where it went from green to brown.

This is before:

And after:

I left the top ones on the left trunk, even though the ends were totally dead.  That's only because I didn't really feel like getting out a stepladder to reach them.   

[Skenny]

I haven't done drenches of anything yet on any of the trees.  I did cut the one much farther back today and that's when I saw all the white powdery looking spots all over the fronds and the darker brown and bronze looking colors on the green that is growing, which made me worry that its all infected now or something.  My one tree now looks closer to yours in terms of how it got trimmed so I guess I'm headed in the right direction.

[Merlyn]

@Skenny i zoomed in on your photo, and the only white powdery stuff I could see was either tomentum or ramenta.  Is it just the white stringy stuff?  That shows up naturally as stringy white bits.  It's generally on the midrib of leaves on Roebellini, but sometimes on the edges of leaves too.  Sometimes it looks like a bug.

The leaves in the photo might be just cold damaged, but also twisty like a boron deficiency.  If future fronds grow out distorted then I'd add a little boron in addition to the fertilizer.

[JLM]

Heres mine from last year. This damage occurred after a historic snowstorm, which dumped 7-10 inches at my location and I had an ultimate low of 12F. Despite full cold protection, the fronds still burnt to a crisp.

First photo is from April 17th, 2025. They were still recovering from spear pull at this point. I had not cut anything yet.



By May 4th, 2025, I had cut as much dead stuff off that i could. I did cut a lot of green petioles which maybe i shouldnt have done but whatevs



By June 9th, 2025, I had trimmed them again to get rid of the half fronds once it had grown out to a decent point.



And finally by November 6th, 2025 they looked the best they have ever looked since planting.


The point of all this is, these guys dont need much to make a full and very quick recovery. Plenty of water, fertilizer, and well timed trimming can go a long way.

[Skenny]

 

11 hours ago, JLM said:

Heres mine from last year. This damage occurred after a historic snowstorm, which dumped 7-10 inches at my location and I had an ultimate low of 12F. Despite full cold protection, the fronds still burnt to a crisp.

First photo is from April 17th, 2025. They were still recovering from spear pull at this point. I had not cut anything yet.
 

Am I taking the "leave anything that is green" part too literally then?  From these photos it looks like if the fronds are not green then cut them off.  I'm looking at them to see if there is any green anywhere at all on any part of the frond and leaving it.

From the first and the second photos posted right above it looks like you cut everything that was basically dead.  I tried to highlight it here

 

So on mine, for example, I should be cutting off all this brown then and leaving just the few green fronds at the top?  They only each have a couple that are still green, I left all of this because it had the smallest amount of green on the stalks and that was it so sticking with the dont cut anything green I left it all.

11 hours ago, Merlyn said:

@Skenny i zoomed in on your photo, and the only white powdery stuff I could see was either tomentum or ramenta.  Is it just the white stringy stuff?  That shows up naturally as stringy white bits.  It's generally on the midrib of leaves on Roebellini, but sometimes on the edges of leaves too.  Sometimes it looks like a bug.

The leaves in the photo might be just cold damaged, but also twisty like a boron deficiency.  If future fronds grow out distorted then I'd add a little boron in addition to the fertilizer.

Here is a fresh picture of the white I am seeing

[JLM]

4 hours ago, Skenny said:

 

Am I taking the "leave anything that is green" part too literally then?  From these photos it looks like if the fronds are not green then cut them off.  I'm looking at them to see if there is any green anywhere at all on any part of the frond and leaving it.

From the first and the second photos posted right above it looks like you cut everything that was basically dead.  I tried to highlight it here

 

So on mine, for example, I should be cutting off all this brown then and leaving just the few green fronds at the top?  They only each have a couple that are still green, I left all of this because it had the smallest amount of green on the stalks and that was it so sticking with the dont cut anything green I left it all.

Here is a fresh picture of the white I am seeing

Whether you cut it how I cut mine or the way you have it now probably won't make a difference besides needing to cut more later. Don't be afraid to cut off half a frond. Cut it back until there's solid green on the rachis or the petiole, whichever comes first. Here's a diagram on what is the petiole and what is the rachis:

If you do decide to cut more despite green petioles, make sure to sanitize tools in between use for each individual palm. Sanitize, cut as much you need to off one palm, sanitize, repeat step 2.

There really is no right or wrong way to go about it. Well, I guess the only way to do it wrong would be cutting everything off haha

Also, the white spots you're seeing look completely normal to me.

[Merlyn]

@Skenny I zoomed in on the stem area, it *might* be mealybugs.  If you have a cheap 10x or 20x jeweler's loupe, you can check to see if it's just a "normal" part of the petiole.  If they brush off easily then it could be bugs.  Some Roebellini have more "spots" than others.  I think @JLM is right that it's normal.  it doesn't look like a fungus to me.