Posted by Caribbean Landscape Ltd on October 21, 1999 at 14:34:50:
In Reply to: Damaged Palm Trees posted by Irene on October 17, 1999 at 18:22:12:
All palms are monocots,in laymen terms, this means that two of the characteristics they have are that they have two critical growing areas.
These are the terminal bud (known also as the heart of the palm) and the root zone. Should eiter one of these areas become severely damaged or broken then the palm will die.
Unlike dicots they are unable to regenerate new terminal buds when they are broken or cut away.
Hurricane force winds will cause the bud or root ball damaged and often snap it away from the trunk of the palm.
The difficulty come in determining those that are dead from those that are damaged.
Our advise is to reduce the amount of pressure on the palms by removing all fronds that are leaning and spray both insecticides and fungicides into the bud area and the root ball area.
Coconut palms will put out one frond every two months in the winter months and one will be able to determine the palms status in two to three months.
Remember that the more care these palms get at this time the better they will respond so give lots of T.L.C.
Good luck, and we hope this helps you a bit.
Robert Myers.