PLASE HELP! - Royal Palms with Hurricane Damage

[Percy.Labrada]

Hi, I live in South Florida and I have several Royal Palms (about 10 feet high trunks) that were damaged by Hurricane Wilma about (2) weeks ago. The trunk and roots were not damaged but I am most concerned about the 2 trees that have no leaves remaining. Will they recover? Is there anything that I can do to help them? These were beautiful trees! Any response will be greatly appreciated.

[Mike]

Nitrogen is the fertilizer element that is supposed to add green, leafiness (at the expense of fruit/flowers IMA). Fish emulsion and alfalfa are two natural sources.

I have snowbird friends en route to the peninsula as I write.

[Toni]

We all have scads of palms whose future is in question. The only thing you can do is wait. If the tree has sufficient reserves it will very soon push forth a new frond. If it was of questionable health to begin with it may not recover.

I have not yet fed any hurricane stressed plants. I am watering on a regular schedule and assuming temperatures stay high enough I will feed at the first sign of new growth.

If any palms have remaining green fronds do not remove them- leave them on until they brown completely. Palms translocate nutrients from old leaves back into the tree, so any green frond is valuable. If the tree was stripped of all its fronds, you can only wait.

-- Toni South Florida USA Zone 10b

[sockiescat]

We all have scads of palms whose future is in question. The only thing you can do is wait. If the tree has sufficient reserve it will very soon push forth a new frond. If it was of questionable healt to begin with it may not recover.

I have not yet fed any hurricane stressed plants. I am watering on regular schedule and assuming temperatures stay high enough I will feed at th first sign of new growth.

If any palms have remaining green fronds do not remove them- leave the on until they brown completely. Palms translocate nutrients from old leaves back into the tree, so any green frond is valuable. If the tree wa stripped of all its fronds, you can only wait.

-- Toni South Florida USA Zone 10b

am sorry to hear that u all had so much damage from that hurricane my thoughts and prayers go out to all of u. the one thing that i would do is just sit and wait like toni says. above all do not fertilize your trees because it would only put the under furthur stress if u do. the best thing to do is to keep them wel watered, try and catch some rainwater if u are able to so as to giv them a more natural source of water. i would wait at least a good month before i would start to fertiliz your trees again or u might start with light fertilization if u notic really significant top growth otherwise just sit and wait thats all can do. good luck. sockiescat

-- sockiescat