Constantly Wet Conditions Lead to Disease

Here in South Florida we are all wondering if we will see any heavy duty tropical weather this year. If and when it comes, will it arrive as a tropical storm or a full-on hurricane? Who knows for sure; I certainly don’t but I am comfortable with the notion that sooner or later weather will head our way bringing lots of rain and perhaps, inundated conditions. This thought breeds a bit of concern about our Date palms and the theme is one you need to know because of the reoccurring nature of the beast.

The very condensed version of this story is as follows; Inundated conditions that are not quickly alleviated by drainage can often result in the proliferation of naturally occurring colonies of a soil borne pathogen called Pythium. Pythium is very common in our soils but it will not normally become damaging unless the colonies are allowed to grow to an injurious level. In my experience, constantly wet conditions that persist for a period of 7 days or more are going to start things headed in the wrong direction where Pythium is concerned. Where you experience these conditions an unscheduled soil drench using either Chip Co Aillette or Subdue is a smart move. I have a lot more on this topic but suffice to say you can avoid problems with your landscape and with your Date Palms by doing the drench. You should only need a single interim application and it should not be all that costly. Pretty much anyone with an ornamental PCO can do it so please, if the rain comes down in buckets and for an extended period of time, give your material a break and do the drench. For more information please go to the Professional instruction section of the website and download “Disease Establishment & Eradication”. This document explains quite a bit about the common problems you might face, what to do about them and why.

Hopefully you have already removed the seed and lowest fronds from your Date palms. This trimming should have been done in late May or early June and is pretty much all you need to do to prepare your palms for Hurricanes. It should require no more than 1 hour per palm and dramatically reduces the level of canopy damage your palms will suffer in the event of a storm.

Please see to it that this simple maintenance is performed and good luck with the season. We are here if you need us and stand with you on good days and tough ones alike!