Trouble with Pindo palm in Houston TX

[iconoclast]

Hello, last spring we purchased 2 Pindo palms from the same vendor. We planted them about 20' apart so their should be no difference in soil conditions. One of the palms is dark green and healthy. The other one has yellowish colored stems and the frown tips start to dry out and then eventually it moves to the entire frown until they turn grey and die. I have tried spraying it with liquid copper for about 5 consecutive weeks and sprinkled some granular palm fertilizer around the base. While the dying frows has slowed somewhat, over the winter, the tree doesn't seem to be recovering. 

Has anyone seen this condition before? Is it a fungal infection? It is possible to save this tree or should I just take it out and start over? I don't want to watch it die for another 2 years and then have to start over then. Thanks for any help.

 

 

 

[JLM]

Do you have sprinklers that might hit the palm everyday? If you do, that might be your problem.

Only other thing I might could think of would be petiole/rachis blight. But, maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in on that.

Welcome to PT @iconoclast!

[Harry’s Palms]

It looks like it is one of the silver variety , maybe the other is green. These can go either way. That is about the age mine started going silver. Now it is full silver and I like the look . Your other one could still turn silver like this one . Harry

‘Butia Oderata , silver

[iconoclast]

On 3/28/2026 at 9:03 PM, JLM said:

Do you have sprinklers that might hit the palm everyday? If you do, that might be your problem.

Only other thing I might could think of would be petiole/rachis blight. But, maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in on that.

Welcome to PT @iconoclast!

No sprinklers. Thank you.

[zero]

On 3/28/2026 at 2:41 PM, iconoclast said:

Hello, last spring we purchased 2 Pindo palms from the same vendor. We planted them about 20' apart so their should be no difference in soil conditions. One of the palms is dark green and healthy. The other one has yellowish colored stems and the frown tips start to dry out and then eventually it moves to the entire frown until they turn grey and die. I have tried spraying it with liquid copper for about 5 consecutive weeks and sprinkled some granular palm fertilizer around the base. While the dying frows has slowed somewhat, over the winter, the tree doesn't seem to be recovering. 

Has anyone seen this condition before? Is it a fungal infection? It is possible to save this tree or should I just take it out and start over? I don't want to watch it die for another 2 years and then have to start over then. Thanks for any help.

I'm guessing that you have gumbo clay and/or alkaline soil.  Butia prefer well draining soil.  When I had a Butia in Spring, Texas I had some hard clay but I mound planted it and it did fine.  They're pretty variable also so two palms might tolerate the same conditions differently.  In San Antonio I had four Butia planted and one in the front yard reacted differently to the others.  It pushed yellow new growth after being in the ground several months.  It was in an area with more alkaline soil.

[iconoclast]

On 3/30/2026 at 10:14 PM, Fusca said:

I'm guessing that you have gumbo clay and/or alkaline soil.  Butia prefer well draining soil.  When I had a Butia in Spring, Texas I had some hard clay but I mound planted it and it did fine.  They're pretty variable also so two palms might tolerate the same conditions differently.  In San Antonio I had four Butia planted and one in the front yard reacted differently to the others.  It pushed yellow new growth after being in the ground several months.  It was in an area with more alkaline soil.

It is clay soil but we supplemented it pretty well with organic material. Thanks for the reply.

[Las Palmas Norte]

3 hours ago, iconoclast said:

It is clay soil but we supplemented it pretty well with organic material. Thanks for the reply.

I've wondered about amendments to the soil and what people do to achieve that, only because I've never practiced this method. Would I be correct concluding that prior to planting, the immediate area in the planting zone is modified to enhance drainage conditions more suitable for the palm? If so, then how effective is this when the poor unamended soil is in close proximity? With the the native ground still prone to holding excessive water, one could quite easily deduce water would permeate the amended plant root zone regardless.  The dynamics of water tells me it flows to the path of least resistance. Assuming this does provide any measure of improvement, the continued growth of the root system would reach poor soil, prolonging the inevitable original problem.

Curious.