Hi guys I’m in the Sacramento, CA area and recently got my king palm planted on Friday. Looks like it is experiencing some transplant shock, and I just wanted to see if this amount is to be expected. Palm was in 30” box and transported from San Diego last Tuesday and planted in the ground on Friday. It’s been hot (90-100) here and during the open air trailering from San Diego. First picture is how it looks today, second yesterday, third on Saturday, and fourth on Friday. Current watering schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday with 90 minutes on 5 gph worth of drippers. On Friday and Saturday I also manually gave the tree bigger waterings. Tree was planted in a 36x36x30 hole with Kellogg palm mix soil and a light application of Sunniland slow release fertilizer. I also planted an 18’ coconut queen hybrid the same day with the same setup. It doesn’t look like it’s affected by transplant stress as much as the king palm.

I’d like to know if this is normal or if I should adjust anything to help out the king.

It should be fine, just let it get used to its new home. It does look like a couple of leaves have a little sunburn. It will sulk a little but it should be fine and in a year or so you won’t even notice it had sulked. You may lose the odd lower leaf. From what I can see is that the top crown of growth and new leaf is ok.

Water water water. King palms are semi-aquatic and are literally impossible to overwater but very easy to underwater, especially in hot weather. Daily watering would not be out of the question. Wood mulch would be much better and healthier for the palms than the icy white rock mulch.🙂

The Archontophoenix palms are very root sensitive . Most times new plantings can show a bit of struggle , especially in sunny , hot weather. They are water lovers , for the most part , so keep them hydrated . They will adapt , eventually. Some are faster than others , many factors determine how rapidly. Yours look healthy so , with time , should be beautiful there . I agree that the wood chips would be beneficial , rather than the highly reflective white rock . Harry

Thanks guys for the reply. I’ll manually check the soil with a moisture meter and water manually if needed between the dripper schedule.

I agree about the white rock. Unfortunately when the pool was installed and I was landscaping in early summer the palms weren’t available then for planting. In order to “finish” the backyard for 4th of July, I spread the white rock. Now that the big palms are in, a lot of that white rock will be removed and under canopy palms and gingers will be planted as well as ground cover like mimosa strigillosa.

11 hours ago, happypalms said:

It should be fine, just let it get used to its new home. It does look like a couple of leaves have a little sunburn. It will sulk a little but it should be fine and in a year or so you won’t even notice it had sulked. You may lose the odd lower leaf. From what I can see is that the top crown of growth and new leaf is ok.

10 hours ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Water water water. King palms are semi-aquatic and are literally impossible to overwater but very easy to underwater, especially in hot weather. Daily watering would not be out of the question. Wood mulch would be much better and healthier for the palms than the icy white rock mulch.🙂

7 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

The Archontophoenix palms are very root sensitive . Most times new plantings can show a bit of struggle , especially in sunny , hot weather. They are water lovers , for the most part , so keep them hydrated . They will adapt , eventually. Some are faster than others , many factors determine how rapidly. Yours look healthy so , with time , should be beautiful there . I agree that the wood chips would be beneficial , rather than the highly reflective white rock . Harry

45 minutes ago, Norcal Palms said:

Thanks guys for the reply. I’ll manually check the soil with a moisture meter and water manually if needed between the dripper schedule.

I agree about the white rock. Unfortunately when the pool was installed and I was landscaping in early summer the palms weren’t available then for planting. In order to “finish” the backyard for 4th of July, I spread the white rock. Now that the big palms are in, a lot of that white rock will be removed and under canopy palms and gingers will be planted as well as ground cover like mimosa strigillosa.

Moisture meters for home use are pretty much garbage and can't be trusted. The old farmers trick to measure soil water content is to just push a dowel rod into the ground, it will go down fairly easily as long as the soil is moist, so if it becomes hard to keep pushing before you're at least 12" deep, you need to water more.

11 hours ago, Norcal Palms said:

Thanks guys for the reply. I’ll manually check the soil with a moisture meter and water manually if needed between the dripper schedule.

I agree about the white rock. Unfortunately when the pool was installed and I was landscaping in early summer the palms weren’t available then for planting. In order to “finish” the backyard for 4th of July, I spread the white rock. Now that the big palms are in, a lot of that white rock will be removed and under canopy palms and gingers will be planted as well as ground cover like mimosa strigillosa.

That white rock albeit is not good for the soil as it’s not going to break down and feed the soil, but it will reflect light for good growth in summer. But not so good in winter for being white not absorbing a lot of sun for thermal mass, black rocks another story they are great for cooler climates in winter for thermal mass.

Some nice wood chip is a treat for the garden!

As others have said lots of water. Archontophoenix in multiples are less sun tolerant than singles as they compete for water and nutrients. Cunninghamiana is the least sun and heat tolerant of the genus save Purpurea. Coming from San Diego they haven’t seen real heat down there so your days are probably 20 degrees hotter than where your palms just came from so it will take some time to acclimate but with lots of water they will get there.

I saw your video on Gary Gragg's YouTube channel. Congrats on the new palms!
In my opinion, it will be a little rough for the end of this year and hopefully winter will be kind, but going into Spring, the roots will have had a shot to get more established. Once they've been in the ground for 3 years, they will look awesome!

San Diego and Sacramento are different climates. San Diego has a very temperate climate. It usually does not get above 80. Sacramento is much hotter. Its possible that the fronds are scorching from the sun. I'm currently acclimating my kings to the sun by placing them in full morning and noon sun. From what I have heard once they get acclimated the new fronds will not scorch as easily, at least that's what I have heard.

On 8/26/2026 at 4:55 PM, James B said:

As others have said lots of water. Archontophoenix in multiples are less sun tolerant than singles as they compete for water and nutrients. Cunninghamiana is the least sun and heat tolerant of the genus save Purpurea. Coming from San Diego they haven’t seen real heat down there so your days are probably 20 degrees hotter than where your palms just came from so it will take some time to acclimate but with lots of water they will get there.

Hmm, My multi’s handle full sun better than singles because they each offer some protection by shading each other but I water all my palms really well.

Nothing to add here other than to confirm you need to ditch the scheduled water and water daily! Not just once, but twice a day. You don’t need to do deep watering, as the palm roots are not yet spread out. So the best is to water then daily twice. In the morning and before sunset. Especially the first month of planting to reduce the shock as much as possible. No fertilization for now. Just maybe fish emulsion. Good luck!

On 8/28/2026 at 2:30 PM, Jim in Los Altos said:

Hmm, My multi’s handle full sun better than singles because they each offer some protection by shading each other but I water all my palms really well.

Hey Jim, I’m a bit hotter and I think my inland sun is more fierce than yours. It’s interesting I have 23 various Archontophoenix: all of the subspecies: Alexandrae, Cunninghamiana, Maxima, Myolensis, Tuckeri except my Purpurea are hybrids. Only my multiples struggle where especially in late summer their new leaves open with brown streaks along the leaves. None of my singles experience this no matter how hot it gets. I water copiously so it isn’t a watering issue. Perhaps elevation is a factor too as I am at 2100 feet.

6 hours ago, James B said:

Hey Jim, I’m a bit hotter and I think my inland sun is more fierce than yours. It’s interesting I have 23 various Archontophoenix: all of the subspecies: Alexandrae, Cunninghamiana, Maxima, Myolensis, Tuckeri except my Purpurea are hybrids. Only my multiples struggle where especially in late summer their new leaves open with brown streaks along the leaves. None of my singles experience this no matter how hot it gets. I water copiously so it isn’t a watering issue. Perhaps elevation is a factor too as I am at 2100 feet.

James, It might surprise you how close our average daytime highs are to yours. :)

Average highs and lows are not indicative of some of the common extreme temps that inland Southern California sees during late summer through fall. Not to mention , the lack of humidity during Santa Ana events that are much more common than even Central California sees. Of course , this year is an exception with very high humidity combined with consistent high temps. But that’s just how weather can be , unpredictable . Living on the ocean for 15 years taught me that …..the hard way! Got my Fanny handed to me more than once! Harry🙄

On 8/28/2026 at 5:30 PM, Jim in Los Altos said:

Hmm, My multi’s handle full sun better than singles because they each offer some protection by shading each other but I water all my palms really well.

My experience is in agreement with Jim's. I am in florida so different climate but we have sandy soil that dries out fast. Any wet loving palm in my yard does better grouped with other palms. The part shade reduces heating of the leaf. When sun heats the leaf, the plant releases water from stomata to keep it cool. Burn happens when the plant cant release enough water to keep it cool. Watering is great but has its limits when the roots cannot take up enough water fast enough to replace transpiration. You can take those archies to the arizona desert and water them all you want, they will look terrible in full sun. I have to laugh at my self for thinking archies wou;ld take the arizona sun and heat with the low humidity. As a strategy I grouped my wet loving palms so they shade each others roots and foliage at some point in the day. As palms establish big root systems they become much more resistant to the overheating and desication that causes burn. In florida, my triple alexandre are spaced 2 1/2' plus apart center to center and took 110mph winds from Milton with zero lift, so their roots are quite strong. The first roots to die upon drying are surface roots because the top of the soil column dries out first. This is why I like to shade the root areas of my palms from sun. The sun dries out soil on top by heating it.

4 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Average highs and lows are not indicative of some of the common extreme temps that inland Southern California sees during late summer through fall. Not to mention , the lack of humidity during Santa Ana events that are much more common than even Central California sees. Of course , this year is an exception with very high humidity combined with consistent high temps. But that’s just how weather can be , unpredictable . Living on the ocean for 15 years taught me that …..the hard way! Got my Fanny handed to me more than once! Harry🙄

Those extremes are not restricted to just SoCal. We’ve had 100° plus temperatures here too at any time in summer and into early autumn. We just don’t have the Santa Ana winds to go with those high temperatures.

38 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Those extremes are not restricted to just SoCal. We’ve had 100° plus temperatures here too at any time in summer and into early autumn.

We just don’t have the Santa Ana winds to go with those high temperatures.

This, is correct.


This is not.. Bay Area / N. Cal has it's own flavor of " Santa Anas "..
https://www.surfline.com/surf-news/diablo-santa-ana-winds/67827

https://www.kqed.org/news/11139448/lessons-from-the-east-bay-hills-fire-25-years-later

That only caveat is that communities located along the west side of S.F. Bay, such as where you're located, aren't as effected by them, ....compared to communities on the east side of the bay ..or down in San Jose.