Xtremehorticulture

Save My Pindo Palm!

Q. Is there any way to save my Pindo palm?   This Pindo palm has yellowing coming from newer palm fronds and is very small for a ten-year-old palm. The yellowing is nutritional but can be aggravated from watering too often, poor drainage from the soil surrounding the roots, salts or a lack of fertilizer and any combination. A. Looking at the picture, very poor growth of this young palm and most of the center leaves are yellow. I am guessing this palm is growing in soil covered by rock and perhaps was not planted properly.             The soil after a few years, reverts to its desert origins, the chemistry of the soil changes and plants have trouble finding available nutrients. This is what some native desert soils can look like; almost zero organics, hard to dig as cement, and very poor drainage. Adding organics to the soil at planting time, like compost, is a partial solution. Covering amended soil with rocks and never adding anything more causes the soil to revert to its origins.             Perhaps they are watered too often and the soil is not given enough time to drain. This “drowns” the roots, suffocating them. Putting “good stuff” like compost mixed in the soil at the time of planting is important. They “open” the soil and improve drainage as well as provide nutrients.             Now on to watering. I am believe in giving plants plenty of water when they need it and not giving them “tiny sips” of water daily. Giving tiny sips of water is a “Hail Mary” attempt at landscape irrigation. Some landscapers and many landscape architects now install drainage pipe vertically in the planting holes around palms. On top of that, they specify surrounding the root balls of palms with sand. This forces the palms to rely on conventional fertilizers for their nutrition.             A young palm a few years old should get 10 to 15 gallons each time it’s watered. This time of year, watering once a week should be enough. This is a Queen palm planted in the Eastern Mojave Desert. It shouldn’t be planted here in the first place. The Mojave Desert is too harsh of a climate for Queen palm. But this yellowing is signaling its need for better nutrition. The poor nutrition could be the result of watering too often and poor soil drainage of water.             Even if yellowing is caused by watering too often, it can be corrected with liquid fertilizer sprayed on the leaves. The problem is not knowing which nutrients are causing the problems.             Use a shotgun approach when applying fertilizer sprays to the leaves. Products like Miracle Gro, Ferti-Lome, Jobes, each have a line of powdered fertilizers that can be mixed in water and sprayed on the leaves. Look for a smorgasbord of nutrients listed in the fertilizer. Miracle Gro is one example of a water soluble fertilizer that can be sprayed on plant leaves. There are many out there.             This is another example of a water-soluble fertilizer that can be mixed with water and sprayed on the leaves of plants. This shows you the three numbers.. Sometimes four.. That appear on these fertilizers. These numbers would be okay in this case but I would like to see the last number closer to the first number in this particular case. Use distilled or RO water and not tap water. Add a teaspoon per gallon of liquid “baby soap” or Castile soap and foliar iron to the mix. Spray the fronds on top and bottom until they begin dripping. Repeat this spray two or three times a week apart. This is an example of a “soap” or detergent that helps move the fertilizer inside the plant leaf. Very important when you are spraying fertilizers on a part of the plant with no roots. I like this particular one because it is plant-based and all-natural. But you can use Castile soap and mild soap made for babies. I wouldn’t use liquid dish soap unless it doesn’t have any perfumes or hand lotions.             Take 2, one cubic foot bags of compost and apply it to the soil beneath the palm. Do this once a year or replace the rock under the palm with woodchips. This helps improve the soil over time.             Do not water palms daily. Water them like you would any other landscape tree.

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Queen Palms Must Be Treated Like Queens If They Are to Survive in the Desert

Queen palms planted in front of a casino dead after winter freeze in Las Vegas Q. Hi, I’m a follower of your blog and I have two questions if you don’t mind answering them.  First, what is your overall opinion of queen palms in the Las Vegas climate?  It seems like every winter they struggle but eventually come back in the late spring, early summer.  My second question is, what is the best water requirement for a 15 gallon queen?  Is it best to have a few 4 gallon emitters over an hour time or many 1 gallon emitters over a few hours?  I’m just curious what is the best way to water them.  Also do I water every other day or 3 days a week in the summer months?  I would greatly appreciate a response!  Thanks in advance A. Queen palm is not the best choice in palm trees for our climate in general. This is a harsh environment for them particularly our very low winter temperatures, our lack of humidity, strong dry winds and poor soils. Once we recognize this then we can begin to address the situation and determine if a queen palm is a good choice for us and what we will have to do to get it to work here. The absolute worst thing you can do with a queen palm is put it directly into a very our harsh climate, fully exposed to the elements and not amend the soil or amend it very little.             If you were to plant it in our desert environment then you would try to find a place for it out of strong winds, protected from extreme winter low temperatures and amend the soil adequately at planting time and use organic surface mulches that break down and improve the soil over time. This is hard to find here in Las Vegas so planting them here will have poor results unless you can find this ideal micro environment; not impossible but hard to find. Queen palm planted in rock/desert landscape and yellowing or chlorotic due to poor soil conditions             Palms are high water users in the small space that they occupy. So water does not have to be applied over a large area but should be applied in an area equal to at least half of the spread of their canopy. The water should be applied so that it soaks the soil down to about 24 inches each time you water.             The soil should never go totally dry and surface mulches will help in this. Also planting understory plants that require more frequent watering will also help. How many gallons does a 15 gallon palm require? About 7 to 10 gallons each time you water or about half to 2/3 of the volume of the container (even though a 15 gallon container does not hold 15 gallons).             Four emitters would be good in a square pattern about a foot from the trunk. How many minutes (or hours) should you run it? I don’t know. Depends on your emitters. If these are 2 gallon per hour emitters then 60 to 75 minutes.             The other question to answer in watering is how often. You are asking about a one day difference in your watering. I really cant tell you that without knowing more about your soil and how much water it holds. If it drains freely and doesn’t hold much water then every other day now. If this is a soil that can hold a bit more then every third day would be good.             Why don’t you try using a houseplant soil moisture meter to help determine the how wet the soil is before you irrigate. Once you do this a couple of times it will become more intuitive about how often to water.

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