Palm trees are a ubiquitous sight on golf courses in the Southeast. Unfortunately, it’s common to see them pruned incorrectly and/or improperly fertilized, particularly if they are growing in sandy soils. Here are some simple steps you can take to keep your palm trees healthy and looking good.
Prune Only When Necessary
Typically, dead and dying fronds are cut off to help improve a palm’s appearance. If there are green fronds at or below the bottom of the canopy on a line from 3 to 9 on the clock they will likely also be cut off in an attempt to reduce the number of times the palms are trimmed each year. Some courses also do an unnecessary “hurricane cut” that removes even more palm fronds due to concerns about flying branches during a storm. These practices can create a dangerous situation for palm trees, as nutrients that were being utilized from the lower leaves are no longer available. If fertilizer treatments are not increased to meet the palm’s needs, it will start scavenging nutrients from leaves closer to the crown. Ultimately, this can lead to the death of the palm.
Certain palms, like coconuts, can have healthy green fronds that grow almost straight down toward the ground while others like royal palms naturally shed fronds, effectively pruning themselves. It is important to know how each palm typically grows and prune them accordingly. Unless a palm frond is blocking something, it makes little sense to chop it off if it is still green. This can weaken the tree and predispose it to disease and insect damage.
Maintain Sufficient Nutrient Levels
Often, potassium and magnesium are not available in sufficient quantities in sandy soils and frequent applications may be needed to prevent the lower palm fronds from becoming necrotic or yellow. Most palms used on and around golf courses will exhibit potassium deficiency starting at the leaf tips and working its way up the frond. Date palms can exhibit potassium deficiency symptoms but they also show magnesium deficiency by turning lemon yellow along the outer leaf margins.
Knowing the fertilizer requirements of the various palms on your property and pruning them correctly is important if you want to keep them healthy and beautiful.
Southeast Region Agronomists:
Chris Hartwiger, director, Agronomy – chartwiger@usga.org
Jordan Booth, Ph.D., director, USGA Course Consulting Service – jbooth@usga.org
John Rowland, Ph.D., agronomist – jrowland@usga.org
Chris Neff, agronomist – cneff@usga.org