What does my Sylvestris need?

[ThunderMoon]

Hi All,

This is my first post. I've tried to educate myself on this site the last few weeks from the collective wisdom here. That being said, I don't know if I'm on the right track with this, and I would love some advice on protecting our investment.

Our first palm tree, a Sylvester Palm with 4 clear feet of trunk was installed by the local nursery on April 2nd. We hand-selected this tree a few weeks earlier and I think it's beautiful, but I'm concerned that it needs something to flourish. More water? Magnesium sulfate?

We're in the Florida Panhandle, north of Panama City. Our soil is very sandy and drains very quickly.  We're also in the midst of an historic drought. 

Our instructions from the nursery were to use a hose on low flow into the basin for 40 minutes, 4 times per week. When I spoke with the owner of the nursery two days ago (and shared photos), she advised me to increase the watering to 5 days per week, 30 minutes twice a day.

I am aware that the lower branches yellowing/browning are probably transplant shock and that I'll probably lose them anyway. What I am concerned about are fronds that are reddening/yellowing/browning 6 or 7 levels up.

What's also noteworthy is that this seems to be primarily affecting the east side of the tree much more than the west.

 

Any suggestions on how to proceed with caring for my tree are greatly appreciated!

 

Damien 

 

[Hu Palmeras]

Beautiful palm tree, my friend. It looks like an Indian Phoenix sylvestris. They are magnificent palm trees. I only have two.

[awkonradi]

Welcome to PalmTalk!  Overall, your palm looks very good!  Was your palm grown in a box, or was it transplanted from the ground?  This detail may help PalmTalkers wiser than me recommend when to start fertilizing, which I think probably is not now.  From your description of your soil and current drought, and your pictures, I doubt that watering considerably more would hurt, and I think that it might help control the limited tip browning that is evident now.  Hopefully some Panama City area PalmTalkers will comment.  We must have several.

[ThunderMoon]

22 minutes ago, awkonradi said:

Welcome to PalmTalk!  Overall, your palm looks very good!  Was your palm grown in a box, or was it transplanted from the ground?  This detail may help PalmTalkers wiser than me recommend when to start fertilizing, which I think probably is not now.  From your description of your soil and current drought, and your pictures, I doubt that watering considerably more would hurt, and I think that it might help control the limited tip browning that is evident now.  Hopefully some Panama City area PalmTalkers will comment.  We must have several.

Thank you! So I think it was grown in the ground at a tree farm. They had it in the ground at the nursery as well. I don't know how long it was at the nursery, but I don't imagine it was very long. They seem to do a lot of business and the lot isn't super large. 

[JLM]

Given the soil is already well draining as it is and with the current drought in place, I would definitely follow the most recent watering instructions from the nursery. It might not hurt to give a light dose of fertilizer too. Make sure to get palm specific slow release fertilizer. Sunniland for palms works well for me, it can be found in just about any box store garden center. Would do a little less than the instructions on the bag calls for, just enough to give it a little boost.

[Hu Palmeras]

It's a beautiful specimen, my friend. In Miami, they sell them as luxury palm trees, alongside Medjool and Zahidi date palms.

[ThunderMoon]

Here's another photo of a bottom branch. This one has its own "thing" going on, with several leaves dead on one side. Is this unusual? 

Generally speaking, would magnesium sulfate help with the yellowing? Or is it too freshly planted for something like that? 

 

Thanks,

Damien 

 

[Hu Palmeras]

These are elegant palm trees. They are dressed in majesty.

[Merlyn]

@ThunderMoon it's pretty common to see random frond and leaflet death after transplant.  After all, they probably used a backhoe to dig it up, and they certainly had to tie up the fronds with a rope.  And then wind damage on the truck will show up a week or so later.

in general it looks pretty good.  Don't cut anything off until it is dry and crispy brown.  The palm will "eat" the oldest fronds for nutrients, so they'll turn yellow pretty soon.  The watering seems reasonable.  I would move the hose around randomly to make sure it soaks all the roots.  Something like a half handful of Sunniland Palm 6-1-8 is probably safe.  Too much can burn new roots, so in general "less is more."

The next week is probably pretty toasty, dry, and sunny.  I'd expect some more yellowing.

[awkonradi]

3 hours ago, ThunderMoon said:

Here's another photo of a bottom branch. This one has its own "thing" going on, with several leaves dead on one side. Is this unusual? 

Generally speaking, would magnesium sulfate help with the yellowing? Or is it too freshly planted for something like that?

Your palm actually looks VERY GOOD for a palm that you understand was dug out of the ground recently, and then transplanted on to your property.  I think the browning is minor, and it is consistent with mild transplant shock.  I think you should keep your palm well watered, and you probably should not fertilize if for a while.  But, it would be good to hear opinions of more expert palm growers, and preferably some with familiarity with your soil conditions.

Edit: Listen to Merlyn more than me.

[ThunderMoon]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

@ThunderMoon it's pretty common to see random frond and leaflet death after transplant.  After all, they probably used a backhoe to dig it up, and they certainly had to tie up the fronds with a rope.  And then wind damage on the truck will show up a week or so later.

in general it looks pretty good.  Don't cut anything off until it is dry and crispy brown.  The palm will "eat" the oldest fronds for nutrients, so they'll turn yellow pretty soon.  The watering seems reasonable.  I would move the hose around randomly to make sure it soaks all the roots.  Something like a half handful of Sunniland Palm 6-1-8 is probably safe.  Too much can burn new roots, so in general "less is more."

The next week is probably pretty toasty, dry, and sunny.  I'd expect some more yellowing.

So as far as the parts that have turned brown completely, the last photo as an example: Should I be using clippers to remove the dead leaflets? They feel like they're barely hanging on by more than a thread. Or the fronds where the last foot is completely brown and shriveling? Or is it better to wait until the entire frond is dead and cut that off all at once? 

For entire fronds, my current plan is to let the nursery do that so they can maintain the diamond cut look. Or is that something that really a novice can learn pretty easily?

 

Thanks,

Damien

[Merlyn]

@ThunderMoon if you really dislike the brown leaflets you could snip them off with scissors.  On a Phoenix that's usually a recipe for getting stabbed repeatedly with thorns and the pokey leaves.  Usually it's better to leave the entire frond on there until it's completely dead and brown and crispy.  Then cut it off at the boot.  Doing a diamond cut isn't too complicated once you get the hang of it.  I'm sure there's some YouTube videos on how to do it.

As far as fertilizing, the general rule of thumb is to avoid fertilizing for 2-3 months after transplant.  Many PTers suggest using fish emulsion or seaweed fertilizer first, followed later by granular fertilizers like PalmGain or Florikan.  I've planted stuff from 1g up to 30g in my yard and never had a problem *lightly* fertilizing within days of planting.  If you only have one or two palms, then the expense of PalmGain might be okay.  I've generally used the Sunniland 6-1-8 and recently switched to their 8-0-10 Tree and Shrub.  

For a mature in-ground palm, the rule of thumb is 1.5lb of 8-2-12 for every 100sqft of canopy area.  So for a 12' diameter Sylvestris, that's 6*6*3.14=113sqft.  So roughly 1.5lb * 113/100 = 1.7lb of fertilizer 4x per year.  If you use a lower concentration fertilizer (like Sunniland 6-1-8) you'd just add 30-40% extra, so you get the same total N and K.  FL soils are generally high in P, so you can ignore the middle number.

For transplant shock, I moved this Sylvestris from the backyard:

To the front yard using a shovel and wheelbarrow with very few roots:

After planting you can see I diamond cut the lower fronds off to balance the root loss:

2 months later it had "eaten" the lower set of fronds and pretty much stabilized:

At that point I cut off the brown fronds and gave it a normal dose of fertilizer.

[ThunderMoon]

@Merlyn Thank you!

[Hu Palmeras]

Phoenix palms are beautiful, truly admirable. I hope you manage to buy more varieties, like Reclinata or Theoprasti. Also Roebellini, but hopefully they're purebred.