[Arid_gardener] queen palms

[Dick]

This is little more than a stab in the dark on limited information, but, I'll make an educated guess that your irrigation practices are at fault. The standard practice is to add water in a tight trench close to the stem where there are no feeder roots to take in moisture and maintain its foliage especially during hot dry weather. 

With proper irrigation, feeder roots are more apt to be concentrated in a area referred to as the drip line, If you used a stick to draw a line around the tree defining the outer reach of the fronds, that line would roughly be the center of a broad band where most feeder roots are concentrated if irrigation is in the right place. Make a shallow trench around the stem. The center of the trench should roughly be the drip line.

Put a hose in the trench with the flow adjusted to maintain a shallow water table in the trench untill you can sink a soil probe easily at least 30 inches deep several places in the basin around the tree. It may, depending on the density of the soil, take several hours or more to soak to that depth.

Dont irrigate again until the soil is dry 2 to 3 inches below the surface or when you can detect a slight droop of the fronds. Drooping is a sign that there is not enough moisture to maintain turgidity or unusually hot weather causes  transpiration at a rate faster than the root system can keep up. Recovery from the latter is quick. The lack of water has lingering symptoms.

If you cannot trench the drip line, pick several spots around the tree where you can let a hose trickle, moving the end successively around the tree . . . or use a soaker hose.

In Las Vegas, hot dry weather sucks moisture from foliage rapidly. If that is faster than feeder roots can replenish it, wilt or droop results. From my own experience, queens require more water. At least, sagging fronds are more obvious.

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
University of Arizona
Maricopa County Cooperative Extension

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Stephen Greer 
  To: Arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu 
  Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2007 10:04 PM
  Subject: [Arid_gardener] queen palms


  I have many different palms growing in my yard here in the southern portion is of Las Vegas.  The main question that I have is what makes the queen palm leaflets droop?  I noticed in L.A. or San Diego the queen's leaflets are erect and fluffy.  How can I get that effect for mine?  Please give me a call 702 528-3313, my name is Cordell or you can e-mail me back at 


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