How to Save Dying Palm Trees

Question: Hello. I live in southern California and I’m trying to save my palm trees that are brown and look dead. How can I revive them? I think I over pruned them, and put the Palm food pebbles too close to the trunk and caused the roots to burn. I tried fixing the problem by watering the palms more, and putting Palm Steaks into the ground as the directions told me to and I still do not see any healing to my palm trees.

How do I revive my palm trees? We are trying to sell our house, and I am desperate to get my Palm trees healed. Any help would be much appreciated. I was lucky to find such an informative site on Palm trees as yours after searching for info on this issue for a few days. Thanks for your time.

Answer: It sounds like you have multiple problems. Pruning too many leaves can send the palm into a shock. You need to give it some time to recover. There is not much you can do to reduce the stress. Applying too much fertilizer can cause a root burn and kill your palm. It is usually the “fast release” formula that can do the damage. If you use a slow release fertilizer, it should not damage the roots.

If you over-fertilized your tree, you need to water the fertilized portion of the soil to flush out the fertilizer. There is a danger of over-watering your palm, but if you have fast draining soil, it should not be a problem. After flushing out the fertilizer, return to a normal watering schedule. Applying more fertilizer at this point will make matters only worse. Your palm is already damaged and will need some time to heal. ~Susan Brian

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