PUMPED up palms ... opinions please?

[Jim1NZ]

Those photos are amazing, what about herbicides as a cause?

 

[Ekka]

Oops sorry mate not t/r for stem fractures, what about r/r (stem radius/root ball radius) for wind thrown trees?

Do any fail at ground level where the pumping up thing occurs or are they all wind thrown with a root-ball intact?

The roots ball doesn't come out of the ground, it just snaps off.

Herbicides, maybe, but personally I doubt it very much.

I honestly wonder, is the palm actually being raised ... are the roots pushing it up out of the ground? I know it defies common reasoning for trees but these are palms ... but then what about the palms that are growing in sand like at the beach, Florida, etc ... no way compaction.

Can anyone get pics of palms doing this in sandy spots?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I looked skimmed a search on "palm basal rot"

Here is one on Ganoderma

Ganoderma Basal Stem Rot
The basal stem rot (BSR) of oil palm caused by Ganoderma boninense is the most serious disease of oil palm in Malaysia. Under severe infestation situations, more than 50% of oil palm stand can be lost to the malady.


Effective cultural and biological control methods have been developed to manage the disease. For the former, the proper deboling and shredding of oil palm debris during replanting and timely removal of infected palms in existing stands have brought about effective management of disease inoculum. In prime-aged infected palms, soil mounding has been shown to prolong productive life of such palms.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AMF) have recently been experienced to be able to confer protection to nursery inoculated palms that were subsequently planted in Ganoderma endemic fields. Wide-scale use of AMF is expected to further delay if not prevent infection of palms replanted on fields previously devastated by Ganoderma.

The fore-going IPM practices have clearly freed oil palm planting from over-dependence on the use of pesticides thus greatly increased susatainability of oil palm cultivation.
​

There were referances to Fusarium and a few other common necrotic fungus, along with Ceratocystis (dry but rot) which is the genus of oak wilt, if I remember correctly. Text is abundant, good photos a dirth.

I ran out of time to look further. One thing I've had some sucsess is to find a researcher and send the pictures with a link to the site asking for comment or a direction to look further.

Here is the initial searchhttp://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/redir.htm?r_fcid=408&r_fcp=top&qcat=images&qkw=palm%20basal%20rot&&advanced=1&msAdultWarn=1

 

[Ekka]

Here's a pic of one I TD today, notice how the roots were in a confined spot and growing over the paving ... the one on the right was pumped up but not receeding.

The one on the left was fine.

 

[soutz]

Mate this has got me fired up,the more i look at palms round my neck of the woods the more im seeing this pump up and as you have shown palms right next to each other can be fine or pumped up. have visited palms .org to figure this out . how bout enhanced prop root growth due to over feedining?

 

[Ekka]

Hey, check out this prize specimen I saw today.

It's a double stacker!!?? WTF

 

[Sprig]

Thats wild ekka! I can't believe nobody's pinned this one down yet, I spent several hours the other day googled 'palm diseases trunks', after about 14 pages of links I fell asleep, gah, I sure know a lot more about palms and other sicknesses that I never dreamed of, nothing resembling this stuff though, some of the fungal things are close (the 'g' one for example) but the deadliest ones have other things going on I don't see here, like growths and funky foliage. It is making me think more and more about possible old damage or mis-planting when young, and I still am thinkin' dog pee in the back of my head (no no am not fixated lol). They seem to be quite sensitive and can harbor multiple diseases at the same time too, wtf, the cat in me has gotten curious lol. I am wondering if maybe it is an acidity thing, being sensitive trees it wouldn't take much, from what I understand, to be slightly out on one tree and not another. The one in your last pic obviously carried on for a fair while after it was damaged (or infected, what ever the heck it is), or exposed, or what-ever, so something may have been corrected at some point, be nice to know the history of the gardening around them, fertilizer usage, lawn trimming (like could some of them have had organic matter left around the bases at some point that over did the nutrients, am thinking as in burned them?)?, killing the outer layer of tree?). Could it be as simple as a genetic mutation? Has anyone submitted this info and samples to one of the local universities or to one of the palm sites that research (U of Fla. comes to mind). Would it be possible for one of you gents to post some pics of cross sections (at the stump and length-ways)?I'm going back to my fence again and watch and see what you guys come up with. opcorn:
opcorn:

 

[foodforests]

Hey Ekka,
Have you come up with anything about this phenomena yet? I have noticed that it is a pretty common feature on palms of just about every kind here on Maui. I haven't noticed any pattern to where and how it is occuring though...

 

[woodchux]

Looks like they dampen off, like over moist seedlings will do.

 

[Ekka]

Nope, so far I got nothing only guesses.

 

[Cornubia06]

Is it not just a case of decayed receding stubs?

Obviously the first whirls of fronds to have ever been removed or naturally shed or is it shod? would have been at the base, right? So, logically the stubs left at the base would be the oldest therefore being the first to decay and recede, giving the illusion of the root ball being pumped up.

Is it possible that putting out aerial roots is the palms natural reaction to having its inner bits exposed?? Or maybe like the formation of buttress roots for added stability?? (excuse the technical terminology ).

When all that fiberousy, decaying, stubby cr@p was still attached round the base of the trunk, surely the palm would have been using those same (now exposed) roots to draw in minerals, moisture, nutrients etc that is harboured in it. When the stobs drop off or get knocked off, is the palm searching out with those now aerial roots or maybe even roots that were dormant to find a new source of tucker ???? Ha Ha Ha, I know I sound crazy but its just a theory

I see it a lot here, maainly on phoenix and washies. Never seen one go over or snap tho.

 

[Ekka]

Well this is good, it's a global phenomena.

Not all recede. Some get the pumped up look but actually gain root ball and space ... mainly washys and pheonix do that.

Cornubia06, if you can some pics would be good.