Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmo
Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone could help with this?
I have a Torbay Palm which seems to have struggled during the freezing conditions ..
Normally the lower leaves will dry out and fall off which obviously forms the 'trunk' of the plant as they do so. The new leaves are all stiff, healthy and the newest ones are pointing skywards ..
My poor palm is now just a mass of limp leaves and they are all drooping downwards .. I have noticed that quite a few of these in neighboring gardens are exactly the same as mine too.
Can anyone offer any advice here as it would be a real shame to lose the poor thing .. It is now about 9 years old and was doing really well until now ..
I was wondering if I need to remove all of the obviously dead leaves (which could possibly just leave me a trunk!)
Or .. do I just leave it alone to see what happens ?
Thanks very much.
Dave.
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Hi Simmo, Yes, alot of Dracena palms will have lost thier 'tops' especially in your part of the world. Normally when this happens the trunks are still alive and will, shoot from the base again. Often, these shoots take a while to appear, so, please be patient. Its possible that the whole thing has been killed
trunk as well, in which case, obviously it will not shoot. Sometimes the trunk base and root underground will still be alive so dont dispair, you've got nothing to lose by waiting and just seeing what happens !!
I would cut the top off, just beneath the leaves and then just see wether or not any shoots appear. Often they produce lots of shoots at the base and then we advise that when these shoots appear strong, you remove all but 3, this will result in a plant with 3 trunks and these trunks will grow quick quickly. Down here in Falmouth, most of these Dracenas have 3 trunks from where they too died back a few years ago and virtually without exception, shot again from the base. As soon as you see healthy shoots appear, you can them cut down the trunk to just above these new growths.
hope this helps, Lannerman