Need Help! My New Palm Tree Is Dying! (landscape, growing, palms)
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I picked up a Christmas Palm on June 12th from my garden center and it was planted that day by local landscapers. I was instructed when I paid for the palm tree to purchase a bag of palm soil and a bag of palm fertilizer, which I did. I was told to mix 1/2 of the fertilizer with half of the soil at the bottom of the hole for the tree and the other half for the top of it, which I had the landscapers do. Also, I was told by Lowes to add in a bag of Miracle Grow Organic Top Soil, which has nutrients in it as well. I have been heavily watering the tree daily as instructed and am nervous for a couple reasons.
1) The leaves are fraying/splitting off on the ends and are also getting spots.
2) The landscapers planting the tree were skeptical about adding fertilizer to the newly planted palm tree and said in their opinion it's best to wait for six months to do so.
3) Since the palm is in a raised bed, perhaps I have been overwatering or underwatering it.
I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what is going on with my palm and what might need to be done so that I can make sure it lives.
Are you sure it's a palm?- the symptoms you describe, "fraying/splitting at the ends", and later in the same sentence, "getting spots", lead me to believe we could be dealing with a deciduous tree.
I’m not familiar with growing the Christmas Palm as it’s typically only grown Hawaii and South Florida and I would suggest posting in the garden forum. That being said leaves fraying on the ends seems like normal mechanical damage caused by storms. Is it just the older bottom leaves, or are the newer leaves in the crown also looking sick?
I think that was way to much fertilizer which can burn the roots. They recommend at most a handful of timed release worked into the soil. I have planted a few and I just put a handful on the top. This was the advice I got from professional palm growers in my area that raise palms for a living. Also don't overwater it. I put a bag of pine bark nuggets on top of mine to retain the moisture
What country are you living in and what is your climate presently like there? Christmas Palm (Adonidia merrillii), also known as the Manila Palm, is a tropical tree native to the Phillipines and it needs a tropical climate like what is found in the Phillipines or Florida or Hawaii for it to grow outdoors.
It sounds to me that your palm has been given way too much fertilizers and nutrients which are now burning it from the roots up.
If you will respond and provide information about your geographical location and the height of the tree and the approximate size of the root ball it might be possible for somebody to tell you how to remedy the problem.
A short enough period has gone by that it might be possible to still reverse any damage that has been done to the tree and bring it out of shock but I suspect you might have to take it back up out of the ground and make amendments to the soil it was planted in before it can be transplanted back into the ground. IF you are in a tropical location.
Otherwise, if you're not in a tropical location you may have to return the tree to the sellers and replace it with something more suitable to your outdoor climate and soil conditions, or else plant it in a large container that will be kept indoors.
The root system may have been damaged at time of planting.
Get a second opinion on the fertilizer you used.
You need good drainage around your Palm and regular watering but physically check the top soil around your Palm is getting dry before watering again.
Any chance that palm has a warranty on it in case it doesn't make it?
But from all the stuff I have planted in my own yard(s) in various states, I've never fertilized anything at time of planting. Have only fertilized after the plant/tree is established. Pretty sure they told us that too in my master gardener class I took. Also, from what you have described, I doubt a newly planted needs to be heavily watered every day. I would cut way back on the watering as has been suggested.
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