Queen Palm Trunk Rot?
 

I recently had a tree service tell me that my Queen Palms were infected with a disease that rots out the trunk. If we didn't cut them down, they were destined to collapse on themselves or split and fall over. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there another solution, I really hate the idea of cutting down my trees!

Probably ganoderma, or "butt rot". If you have to remove the palm, you cannot replace it with another palm because the disease gets into the soil, and will pass into the new tree.

We had ours cut down for same reason. Also, three or four of our neighbors. Not really sure if true but queen palm is high maintenance so let them do it. That was about two years ago.

The guy who trims our queen palm seed pods showed me a problem with one of them. You could just peel sections of the "bark" off with your fingers. He suggested removal in case the problem could spread to the others. When he cut it, there was a large section of dark brown inside that ran almost the entire length of the trunk. This tree had always seemed a little "sick" in that the new fronds didn't rise straight up from the crown. Instead, they emerged and hung down in an arc.

From what I've been told and read, cutting the palm down is the only solution and, as was said, not replacing it with another palm in that spot. This has been an ongoing problem with Queen Palms in TV for several years and is spreading. Good landscapers try to convince their customers to not plant Queen Palms. Unethical ones recommend them, knowing that the odds are they will have to be replaced in a few years. At least that's how I see it.

Totally agree!!!!

No Queens in this zone

Sylvester Palm
We are the champions

Ok Rocky!!!:boxing2:

The Queen Palm that you have is dying, and you need to remove it before it falls, it is a certainty 100% that it will. The solid advice given to you in this thread is factual. It happened to me, and two neighbors of mine.
Once you come to this realization and have it removed the better off you will be, Queen Palms are a nuisance and this particular part of Florida is not Queen Palm Friendly.

So sad to hear this. When we bought our home in Hadley in 2012 one of the things that really attracted us to the neighborhood was driving down Ambrosia and seeing all those beautiful queen palms. I hope they survived the freezing temps the other night and don't suffer from a rotten butt!

The problem is it can take 2 years to show signs of the cold temps.........

queen palm trunk rot
 

We came home one day and the tree was not standing, it had fallen down between our home and my neighbors. We were so lucky it went that way and missed the houses. We then found out that Queens do great down in Miami area but up here it gets too cold for them in the winter. They are not good for this area. Wish someone had told these new yorkers before we purchased.

It's possible it could be "Ganoderma" but usually you will see a conk on the side of the trunk where it is rotting if it's that. A conk looks kind of like a mushroom growing on the side of the trunk where it is rutting. It starts out just white, and as it matures it will have a reddish brown color on top and white under the surface.

I have seen Queen Palms rotting from the inside out the last 2 years. What I have seen is from the hard freeze we had in 2010, it takes 1 to 2 years for it to show up depending on the temp during the freeze. The temperature was at 17 degrees for a few hours the one night and we were close to loosing all the Queens in The Villages. I have seen it happen several times, where you didn't see a Queen Palm alive until you got south of Tampa.

I made a post on this months ago, a Queen Palm retains a lot of water in its trunk and when we have a hard freeze below 20 degrees it actually freezes the water inside the trunk, this kills the tissue inside the trunk and it starts to rot from the inside out, and it will not show up for some time.

Also if your irrigation happens to run during the freeze, and you happen to have an irrigation head hitting the trunk, you just created even more of a problem by icing up the trunk. I tell all our customers when I talk to them about a landscaping job what plants and trees will work in this area.

If you look around when you are driving here in The Villages, you will never see a Queen Palm planted anywhere on their property. In the 30 years I have been in this business I have seen it happen 3 times. Some people just like the looks of a Queen so much, they will roll the dice and plant them anyway even though I have told them what might happen. To each their own, it's their money and their home, all I can do is guide them.

How do Pindo Palms do here? We have a large one in our front yard so am wondering.

Like I quoted and others " Queen Palms " Do Not Like Cold Weather and they will not Survive Here, Short Term....Yes...Long Term " NO " End of Story