Someone associated with Massey told me today that the company injects certain chemicals in the trunk to kill the disease. It's the first I've heard of that remedy.

I'm going to. Thank you for the heads-up.

Florida Extension Service agents will tell you that Queen Palms have no chance to survive long term in The Villages. Yet the landscapers keep selling them.

It's the "quick fix" style of landscaping... they're tall and cheap. I hope my neighbor's falls forward and not sideways over our den.

Kitty consistently provides this forum with good information about what is available to us Villagers through the Sumter County extension.

I have attended a couple of the meetings where Master Gardeners speak or answer questions as a panel. On Monday I stopped by the annex with a question about a perennial that is in my yard. They were so helpful and gave me a nice book they have put together, The Florida-Friendly Landscaping Guide to Plant Selection and Landscape Design.

At one of the panel discussions I bought a book, Gardening in Sumter County Month-By-Month. It says September is the time to fertilize palms with an 8-2-12 +4 palm fertilizer. The +4 is magnesium. I did this myself last time with a palm fertilizer I bought at a nursery here -- Fairfield I think it was and I am almost sure the brand was Howard. Can't swear to either of those statements though, but the info is easy enough to track down.

But please keep in mind that I cannot imagine any way you could fertilize an ailing Queen Palm out of its swan song.

I am a stranger in a strange land of gardening here. Midwest girl that I am. But, at least, I know enough to know what I don't know. I am enormously impressed with what the local extension office and the Master Gardeners here try to do for us. (I feel like they are trying to save us transplants from ourselves.) :coolsmiley:

Thank you, Kitty, for keeping us up-to-date on the extension service.

Laurie, there is a master gardener class starting in Couple of weeks. If you are interested, contact office to apply!

I wish the timing worked for me, but it can't right now.

They told me about the class when I was at the annex Monday and I was really surprised to know it is available to anyone interested.

You see, I am in awe of Master Gardeners and I had assumed that to be in the class, you had to come in with some kind of prerequisite-- like being a Master Gardener back where you came from. (I don't know why I thought this. :shrug:)

So anyway, even though I cannot go to this session, I wanted to post here in case there are any others who might have been making the same wrong assumption I was. Turns out we're good to go if we want to.

Kitty, I have always heard that you should not fertilize a plant that is in distress. I wonder, does this hold true for palm trees?

Don't trust any vendor that knocks on your door especially about your trees and landscaping. I had to put a NO Soliciting sign on my window because they want to cut my Queen Palm down, true they are not suitable this far north. I sent a picture of my Queen Palm to the extension and they agreed to leave my diseased looking tree alone and it's beautiful.

Cost of cutting trees
 

We had three palms, cost $225. No disease with ours, we were sick of mess and endless maintenance..... It was a happy day when they were hauled off!... When landscaper asked us how much cutting they needed to do.. The ole boy informed them that they needed to be cut 2 inches below the ground!...Ha!