Barb,
Was still solid, although a bit damp. Some mold was evident behind the leaf bases.
I have no idea if this will help 😀 Will post the results either way.

Kent,
Your story triggered flashbacks to a traumatic experience I had last summer............... 😆

Steve

Hey Steve,
any chance the cats DID pee on it (despite the mesh?) 👿

I often place fairly big rocks on top of the soil, not for cats, but to prevent top-heavy plants in pots from falling over in high winds.

But I've heard rocks work to prevent cats piddling on soil.
Barb

Barb,

I hope not 😆 A good point though, will keep an eye on things.

Steve

any chance the cats DID pee on it (despite the mesh?)

That's exactly what I was thinking. My old cat....God rest his soul.....got a chinese fan of mine. No his death had noting to do with the palm..LOL.

PDP are still the toughest palm for me to keep alive during winter. I have better luck with a Majesty palm!!

Someone else said they couldn't grow a PDP...forget who, yet they successfully grow everything else.

The only thing I remind myself about my PDP is not to let it get as dry as my other palms.
Every couple of days I sprinkle a cup or so of water just to keep the top of soil from drying out.
If I let the top of soil go really dry, it wilts and sulks for two weeks.

Sheesh, could the chinese fan have poisoned your cat? 😯

Barb,
I have found the opposite to be true with every PDP I have had. Keeping the soil moist has led to fungus problems time after time for me. My current one is doing a bit better this winter. I have it growing in VERY well drained soil in a pot just big enough for the root system and water it once a month. We shall see......

Craig,

opposite to be true with every PDP I have had

That's what's so frustrating sometimes. I follow somebody else's cultural info and mine croaks.
They adopt mine, and theirs croaks. AAARGH!

So we'll blame (or credit) cats! 😆
Barb

Just a bit of a followup......................

Had no luck getting rid of whatever was eating away the crown 😐
kept trimming away material until there was, well.... nothing left 😀

Ended up cutting that trunk out, the other one in the container still looks good.

The others have been growing all winter, the challenge is getting them acclimated to sunlight again when they go back outside.

Steve

Steve,
Thanks for the new pics.

Since your other "two-some" is doing so well, we can rule out that these need to have pups separated from the mother.
Besides many mature pictures I've seen show PDPs in groups of 2, 3--even 5. So that's not the problem.

A darn shame, Steve, to have to cut that all the way down.

It'll be interesting to see if the remaining one will, from a shared root system, now put on a real growth spurt.
Barb

Hi Barb,

These are separate plants, it's just the nursery practice of throwing a pile of seeds in one container that gives us all these doubles,triples,etc.
Here is an interesting tidbit,

Interestingly enough, all the cultivated plants are single trunked, yet in the wild, they are all clumping, and single trunked specimens haven't been found.

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Phoenix/roebelenii.html

Here's a link to the true clumping form, Phoenix roebelenii var. reasoneri
http://www.palmsnc.org/pages/palm_detail.php?id=123

I do like the look of solitary Palms in containers, hoping the one that's left will do well!

Steve

Thanks for the links, interesting trait that in the wild they're never solitary.

I hope your remaining palm in that pot will astound you with its growth this year. 😀
Barb

too bad about the stem. oh well. if there were no challenges to this hobby it would be no fun. I mean, imagine if all your palm trees grew to 10 feet tall with no problems and no work. That would not be any fun. It is a shame when you lose a nice tree, but now you can look for another one.