Hey everyone! I have a problem with my CIDP that I bought from Home Depot back in late June and planted it soon after. I have what seems to be bad leaf spot on numerous leaves but especially the oldest ones. It's so bad that it defoliates the leaflets but the new spear and leaves coming up are spotless. This palm did not skip a beat when I planted it. It's produced 6 or more leaves since summer and even though it's winter and it's not as fast, it's still pushing them out. I guess I'm trying to see if anyone has seen theirs do this and can get some input and help. It's in my front yard so everyone driving by can see it. Is it lack of fertilizing and this is actually a deficiency? Is it a fungus? Or is it transplant shock that's just showing up now? Can someone help?
That's pretty natural in palms. As new foliage is produced the older fronds eventually die off. With younger date palms like yours they do not drop the whole frond themself and you will need to prune them off (carefully avoiding spikes). As long as it's your old fronds yellowing and dying off don't stress. If the black spot does cover the healthier leaves too then a fungicde wouldn't go astray. We used to get black spot on Coconut palms (Cocos nucifera & Cocos nucifera var. Malayan) during winter in shadier spots but it generally grew out in the warm season. It never affected growth, just appearance, so to avoid excess chemical usage we let them be a bit ugly in winter.
