Bottle Palm collapse

Maybe rot at the root or soil line, like my spindle had two weeks ago? It done 'n rotted out. It's gone. Mine that is..

That's a scary looking spider!

No idea what is wrong.

Rot?
I've scratched soil away from its base, don't see anything weird.
Sorry your spindle rotted, Adam.

Spider?
😆 Sheesh, didn't even see that when I snapped the pic. 😆

Barb

I don't know Barb.........hope it pulls through. Plants are funny. Cameron sent me some Protea seed and it grow fine last year and started growing again this year.........I repotted it 2 weeks ago and both plants appear to by dying? This _ucks. I babied those and not they'll be dead soon.

PS, they look worst today than this photo.
<img src= >

Hmmm...my guess is a fungal infection in crown. Do you have any fungicide you can use there?
Again, just a guess.
For what it worth, my three bottles are doing quite well.

Barb - I had something similar happen to my Chinese Fan Palm. Of course there were 2 plants in one pot, but they lived for years with no problem. Last winter one started to die down. No fungus, no insects, the soil seemed not to wet or dry. It seemed to look the same as yours does now. It didnt grow for months and months. Long story short, I had to spray it and soak it. Within 2 days it started to grow with vigour, and the one that was dying stopped doing so. IT still, almost a year later, has done nothihg, while the other is growing strong, but it isnt dying.

Turned out I wasnt giving it nearly enough water. I Put it in that pot like 10 years ago, in 100% orchid mix ( the crappy kind with a ton of compost and peat) and even when the soil felt "ok", it wasnt wet enough. I still dont understand how mine would "rot", when too dry 😯

Seems like a root issue and if it is,that spear may never move again,
that is odd Barb-I am having a similar experience with one of my
Thai giant....it looks like a slow death is in the offing...... 🙁

Mysteries everywhere it seems...damn!

I poured some 3% hydrogen peroxide down into the spear, also around its base/soil.
Soil feels cold to the touch, yet the dark brown pot gets morning sun. Strange
Been in this tall pot since last September.

Gonna check if the drainhole is plugged by a critter.

Then, rather than watch it die a slow death, I might repot it, washing off all the old soil.
If it's going to die anyway, can't do any harm trying that.

Tim, sad about your Protea.
Erik, put my name on one of yours 😆
Jesse, maybe one became "dominant" ... do palms do that? yeah, rotting when too dry is an enigma.
Jim, sad to just watch it croak...are you going to dig it up and wash soil off roots?

Thanks for the input folks.
Will let you know...

Barb

From 4 years ago when it looked like this:

<a href=" http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/3041520299/" title="DSC01835 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC01835"></a>

cutting away to expose undamaged tissue...basically nothing left but a wet sponge!

<a href=" http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/7488332712/" title="001 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="001"></a>

<a href=" http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/7488341682/" title="002 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="002"></a>

Even down here, when I poke, it's all soft and water runs out:

<a href=" http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/7488337594/" title="003 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="003"></a>

RIP my favorite palm. 😥 👿

Barb

Sorry Barb, what happened to mine exactly happened to yours.

Thanks Adam.

I'm convinced the culprit was that new tall resin (fiberglass) pot that I moved it into last September.
Despite a large drain hole, and not watering too much, I think the soil stayed wet too long.
And temps were cool too, so roots didn't warm up at all.

Sob.

Oh well, back to encouraging my seedling Bottle Palm to grow 😆 😆

Barb

Thanks for the post-mortem and pathology report.
My bottles still look good. However, both of my triangles died in late winter. I suspect they were not draining as well as they should have. Live & learn.

Oh no Erik, both your Triangles?
What an awful year for some of us.

My bottles still look good.

I'm now looking at a seedling bottle palm and wondering...ha ha...how old I'll be when he's as big as the one that died.

It's such a toss-up getting them into big tall and narrow pots and trying to not have too much soil "size" for the palm.

From now on, every big pot I buy will have 10 more drain holes drilled in its base.
Gawd, I'm getting too old to keep learning.
We all hate to lose a loved palm.

Barb

What soil did you use, the sunshine mix? Im starting to find that stuff really slow to drain. YEs, it does drain well, just sortve, slow. I usually wait a year before repotting, unless its an obvious choice to do so (like that CIDP you repotted last year).

You ever think of adding gravel/rocks in the bottom to falicitate drainage?