small Robusta spear-pull recovery

[RogerBacardy]

Spear pulled in May when it otherwise seemed to be growing



pulled out spears



sawed through trunk and added H2O2, and within days..


a few more days later:



a week later (now 2nd June)


another week later:



since then it has sent up another 5 or so leaves, the first 3 of which were tiny. I guess the Robusta had run out of energy and needed to photosynthesise in order to create full size leaves.




This pic was taken this morning (24th of August, 3 months after the spear pull):

[RogerBacardy]

If you look carefully, you can see the tiniest full leaf that it sent up in late June, when I presume it had depleted its energy reserves. This leaf is on the bottom right.

[Dave Brown]

That is a very good recovery Roger , even for a Washingtonia which is one of the better palms for coming back. Normally the smaller they are the less likely they are to survive.

[RogerBacardy]

Spear pulled with mushy centre again, had to saw through again to get beneath the rot and do the old H2O2 trick. I guess the minus 11/ minus 12 it endured was too much for it.

_MG_3857.jpg

This time I had to saw even lower. It is now wider than it is tall!

_MG_3855.jpg

You can see it recovering as it was flat after I sawed through.

[Simba]

Certainly a fighter you have there...

[Dave Brown]

That is incredible Roger. It just shows the power of Washingtonia recovery. I think you need to do the honourable thing now, and be prepared to protect it next winter Keep us updated

[HenrikDK]

What is the h2o2 trick? and how do you use it ?

[Edo]

Incredible, indeed.
Hopefully it will get acclimatized in one of the next years.

Best,
Edo

[redsquirrel]

i am green with envy,someone else who can get a washy through albeit slightly damaged.i have to build a large raised bed before i try again as our soil is just too wet for them

[RogerBacardy]

Has grown a bit more

_MG_3858.jpg

The bad news was that rot set in and it spear-pulled, due to the unusually low temperatures in early December. The good news is that since Xmas it has been almost frost free here. Only a handful of overnight frosts in 2011 so far and with the current warm temperatures the washy is recovering earlier than it did last year. It is currently like summer here and everything is early. My basjoo has been unwrapped since Jan with only fleece for a few nights since.

Spear pulling is when cold temperatures cause the vulnerable new growth to expand and the cell membrane is ruptured (water expands when it freezes) causing mushy tissue. However, as this is concealed within the plant you don't see it and the plant usually starts to rot until it dies.

So after winter I gently tug on the central spears of my vulnerable palms to see if the tissue is mush. If the new growth spear-pulls then I know that it has turned to mush and I need to focus my attention on stopping it rotting any further. The plant will want to grow, but if it can't grow faster than the rot can spread it will die, which is why I saw the old growth off to bring air to the new growth and to remove any more mushy tissue. Then I apply H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) which is a disinfectant to kill germs and hopefully stop any more rot. I then cover the plant if rain is forecast and pray for sunny days to kick-start some new growth.


If I hadn't have paid £25 for this palm a few years ago I probably wouldn't be bothering.. I also have similar problems with some of my cordylines, which are on the brink of losing their growing points, but I might just be saving them by eradicating the rot using a different technique (no sawing).

[Dave Brown]

I think if the crown is dry rot does not set in and the damaged bit dries out, but in our climate that is pretty difficult to achieve.

What % H2O2 are you using I know some have used 6% but I find 3% works on softer plants.

[RogerBacardy]

I think you're right. Keeping it dry seems to be vital to the recovery. Difficult though, as even morning dew can make it damp. So I've sat an upturned14" clear plant saucer over the stump to shield it from rain and morning dew. Also shielded it from some bird cr@p too! Cover is off right now.

3% H2O2 (6% diluted) is what I used, but that's not to say 6% wouldn't have been more effective.


Will have to learn the best way to protect it next winter rather than all this remedial action. What i'm doing (fleece and a pop up greenhouse) clearly isn't working! Perhaps the pop up greenhouse stifled the airflow too much although I did leave it partially unzipped.


Maybe I need to make something akin to your plastic parasol using wood and a bit of polycarbonate

[Dave Brown]

A rain shelter (overhead canopy) is good, but I think with the weather we had last December the rope lights were very important. They just added that few watts of heat around the growth point to stop any freeze in the crown.

[mumfie]

roger i have a question:

i've sawn a couple of trachies this year with some success. however, in both cases, after sawing i could still see concentric circles from where the new growth eventually emerges. what happens if you saw so low that you just see a large circle: not lots of circles. is that too low. i'm talking about a waggy where i've had to go almost to the base to irradicate soft rotting material.

[Dave Brown]

Sounds like you have cut into the growth bud. If you have it may be curtains. I would have suggested cutting back a bit then pouring H2O2 in to oxidise any other rot.