Florida people. Will my Queen palm come back from the frozen dead? (Page 1/1)
maryjane APR 12, 04:09 PM
The big freeze back in early march seems to have killed off every palm tree in town including the 6-7 yr old one in my yard. I've already jerked my 2 citrus trees out of the ground but was hoping the palm would come back eventually. Only real reason I wanted it to survive was that it came from my brothers place down on Bolivar Peninsula. The 2 yuccas seem to have survived without a bit of damage.
Any chance?
Gary W APR 12, 04:50 PM
Once a palm has lost its foliage, there's very little chance. If it's not too tall, you can check near the top - that's where all new growth happens. If it's firm and new green shoots are forming, leave it be. If it's brown and mushy, it's done. Cut it down before it falls down. They do pretty well with fire, but they definitely do not like cold.

Edit: Yuccas are actually quite frost tolerant, and even citrus will survive though it will destroy fruit or buds. If the citrus didn't make it, I wouldn't hold out much hope for a delicate palm. Many of those species don't even do well in northern FL where it never gets below 40.

[This message has been edited by Gary W (edited 04-12-2021).]

82-T/A [At Work] APR 12, 05:30 PM
Concur with what Gary said. You have to look really carefully at the center of the tree at the very top (if you can look up there). If you see ANY green at all... anything new sprouting, then you're good. In the mean time, I recommend cutting off everything that is dead. Don't pull it from the tree, just cut it close to where it attaches to the tree to prevent any life from being sapped from what would be a new shoot.

As he says... if it's mushy, it means it's rotting from the inside and the tree is gone forever.
maryjane APR 13, 08:20 AM
Thanks. It's kind of mushy in the center top, & as I was cutting one of the dead fronds off, it pulled out of the crown and had a bad odor to it, so I guess it's gone.
2.5 APR 14, 04:51 PM
Have I woken up in an alternate universe where Maryjane has a tree he would like to survive?
Usually MJ is the go - to for tips and details on eliminating trees, photos of piles of them laying downed, maybe that was just the old property?

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 04-14-2021).]

maryjane APR 14, 07:08 PM
I'm still (for now) on the old property. It's not as if this lone palm was ever going to reproduce and/or spread and it was well away from my home and fences.
Down on the beach, certainly but here in my tight clay soil, not a chance.