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.