I live in Houston, TX and my Queen Palm in my front yard is getting brown leaves. It is early fall, but I didn't think palms changed colors. What is happening? What should I do? Is it ok? This is my first Palm tree and I have no clue what to do. Thanks, jhstephens
try maganese fertilizer(labeled as palm food) that will green it up big time,look at the directions,depending on the diameter of its trunk you may need more than on bag
Thank you for replying. It is recent. I just bought the house in April so all of the landscaping is brand new. It has just started getting some brown leaves. The whole tree isn't getting brown, but a couple of stems are defintely dying off.
Brown leaves won't "green up" with fertilizer. Brown leaves are dead and can't be revived. Often newer palm plantings exibit a transplant shock and will react this way. Once new roots establish themselves, they'll push new leaves to replace the ones lost. Cheers, LPN.
Hi Jhstephens, Congratulations on your new home! If the new emerging fronds are turning brown then you have a problem. If it's the older fronds then it could be transplant shock as LPN has stated or just the natural dying off of older fronds. Got any pictures? Newt
Thanks, I never thought about transplant shock. Can I still use the fertilizer? I have already inserted root fertilizer steaks in the ground. Would the palm food be too much? Thanks for the help Jhstephens
I don't have any pictures, but they are definitely the older fronds. This particular tree (I have two) has not had many new fronds to grow that I noticed. As I asked LPN, should I go ahead and fertilize it with the palm food although I have already inserted root fertilizers in the ground? Would this help the situation? Thanks so much! jhstephens
It sounds to me like you are asking if you should use palm fertilizer while there are fertilizer stakes already in the ground. I'd remove the fertilizer stakes and not use them again. I've seen them burn the roots of trees and palms. I wouldn't add any additional fertilizer unless a soil test indicates it. That might be a good place to start. Remove the stakes and do a soil test after a couple of good rains so the fertilizer will be diluted and hopefully not still in the soil. Contact your local extension service for a soil test. http://county-tx.tamu.edu/ Newt
I'm with Newt on this one. People always rush to fix a percieved problem with fertilizer. I'd wait until spring before fertilizing for top growth. Root growth should be foremost during the initial faze and top growth will follow. A soil test certainly won't hurt either.
