Queen palm spear pull round 2

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Winter’s well over for me at this point and I was happy that my backyard queen had no issues considering I protected it well. I decided to not protect my front yard queen, which is similarly a young seed grown palm about 2 years old, as a test of its hardiness. Winter ended and I saw it relatively unscathed only the spear being damaged which i assumed was just because it was more tender growth. Fast forward to today I got suspicious of the lack of new growth, and welp the whole spear pulled out. I started peroxide treatment and i’ll keep it up daily but i’m wondering should i do a trunk cut or wait it out? I’m not strongly concerned but I don’t want to lose this palm either.

[SeanK]

A fellow Floridian can better tell you how quickly these recover. For me, it come down to cost. Queens are very cheap. I would opt for a larger one in 10" or 14" pot.

[happypalms]

If I get a sick palm in my garden or spear pull even runt palms, depending on how rare it is. I just dig them out. Not wasting precious grow time on something that’s most likely going to struggle all its life or eventually die. Only the toughest for this garden. The same for cold protection, nothing in the way of cold protection if it lives it lives, you save a lot of heartache and you also make way for new palms not wasting your time on struggling palms! 

[PalmatierMeg]

On 3/29/2026 at 8:49 PM, SeanK said:

A fellow Floridian can better tell you how quickly these recover. For me, it come down to cost. Queens are very cheap. I would opt for a larger one in 10" or 14" pot.

Agree with @SeanK but ditch the queen altogether. Syagrus romanzoffiana is a Class II invasive in FL with no redeeming values, No self-respecting nursery stocks it anymore. It hates our alkaline coral shell rock soil and sweltering climate, is a water/fertilizer hog and drops large, smelly, rotting seeds all over yards then leaves you with 1,000s of sprouting seedlings to pull up. I lost all mine to fusarium wilt - tragic at the time but good riddance in hindsight.

I suggest you replace your crippled queen with a mule palm, which while a bit more expensive than a queen (highly prone to wilt) is cold hardier, and, wonders of wonders, is sterile so not invasive. Sometime cheap isn't worth the effort. 

[Allen]

On 3/29/2026 at 7:04 PM, TropicsEnjoyer said:

 i’m wondering should i do a trunk cut or wait it out? I’m not strongly concerned but I don’t want to lose this palm either.

No trunk cut on that one

[TropicsEnjoyer]

I know there’s a lot of anti queen sentiment around here but i’m really not looking to drop money on replacements. I know they’re invasive and such but I want a fast growing palm and I like the look of a well treated queen, and I grew both of them from seed so im somewhat personally invested in them.
 

A bit of more bad news though the one in my backyard has spear pulled as well. I’m going to do more peroxide with that one. I’m really just wondering how long should I wait on peroxide for results before I take more drastic measures. I know trunk cut is not optimal but I did it last year for my backyard queen and it recovered, though with my luck lightning struck twice.

Worst case scenario one or the other dies I’ll plant a date palm in its spot I have way too many date palms waiting to jump in the ground. Or something else if space does not permit.

[Allen]

8 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

I know there’s a lot of anti queen sentiment around here but i’m really not looking to drop money on replacements. I know they’re invasive and such but I want a fast growing palm and I like the look of a well treated queen, and I grew both of them from seed so im somewhat personally invested in them.
 

A bit of more bad news though the one in my backyard has spear pulled as well. I’m going to do more peroxide with that one. I’m really just wondering how long should I wait on peroxide for results before I take more drastic measures. I know trunk cut is not optimal but I did it last year for my backyard queen and it recovered, though with my luck lightning struck twice.

Worst case scenario one or the other dies I’ll plant a date palm in its spot I have way too many date palms waiting to jump in the ground. Or something else if space does not permit.

I don’t like to trunk cut if you’re cutting off green fronds to do so. 

When To Trunk Cut A Palm
https://youtu.be/KQ9zPxk5EjY
 

[SeanK]

11 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

I know there’s a lot of anti queen sentiment around here but i’m really not looking to drop money on replacements. I know they’re invasive and such but I want a fast growing palm and I like the look of a well treated queen, and I grew both of them from seed so im somewhat personally invested in them.
 

A bit of more bad news though the one in my backyard has spear pulled as well. I’m going to do more peroxide with that one. I’m really just wondering how long should I wait on peroxide for results before I take more drastic measures. I know trunk cut is not optimal but I did it last year for my backyard queen and it recovered, though with my luck lightning struck twice.

Worst case scenario one or the other dies I’ll plant a date palm in its spot I have way too many date palms waiting to jump in the ground. Or something else if space does not permit.

I like some of the PHX palms but with lethal bronzing in FL I would avoid those. I think @PalmatierMeg has a good idea. Go with a queenish mule (green petioles).  If you're growing your own, grow something up to a stout 14" pot size first.

[PalmatierMeg]

Sentiment plays no part in this issue. The State of Florida deems queens to be Class II invasives and discourages their use as landscape palms. Fortunately more and more people are paying attention and seeking palms less likely to inflict environmental damage. One benefit of all the major hurricanes we've experienced since 2017 is that these storms ultimately take out sickly, neglected and aging queen palms. They've been dropping dead ever since Ian in 2022 and are not being replaced. Win-win.

[Merlyn]

I trunk cut some Bottle and Spindle palms, but they have a LOT of existing mass (stored energy) and had been completely defoliated.  The results are still TBD, but questionable.  I'm not sure I would cut anything off that's green.  On my spear pull Elaeis I just filled it up with H2O2 and hope it survives.  On small ones like Alfredii [same size as yours) they are both defoliated AND spear pull.  I am probably just going to trash them, as the chances of survival are very low...or at least I think so.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Got growth pushing out on one of mine. Fairly quick recovery with just daily peroxide. A pretty reliable weed.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

My front yard queen has similarly shown positive progress. I can see the next frond pushing out from the old petiole, a bit scrunched up and ugly but greenish. Seems that they recovered very quickly, no need to spend money on new palms (but not needing does not mean I don’t want to haha). Simple peroxide works wonders sometimes.