Hey Marine,

I think that is a fungal disease. Use Bonide Liquid Copper Fungicide Concentrate. It is an organic fungicide. Use .5 to 1 ounce per gallon of water then spray it all over the leaves and trunk. Use a handheld spray bottle that any nursery should have. Treat your palms with it as soon as possible in the morning after the sun has been up for a couple of hours. Treat again in 7 - 10 days, and then stop to prevent any copper toxicity. Copper is very good to prevent and stop fungal problems in palms, but too much is not good.

Also, in about a week or two, I would apply some Soil Mender Liquid Seaweed 0-0-1 ratio natural fertilizer concentrate at a rate of 1 ounce per gallon of water. Get another spray bottle for this and label both of your bottles. You can spray this on the leaves and drench the soil with it. Coconut palms sometimes get a potassium deficiency which causes a necrotic spotting effect on the leaves and then they start to shrivel up. Apply this again in about 2-3 weeks.

In June, I would apply a good organic 6-2-4 or 12-4-8 ratio fertilizer that has all the necessary micronutrients. Apply as a granular soil fertilizer and water it in really good. Do this again in mid to late October and again in late February. I have gone all organic with my palms and all my plants, and they look great now, better than ever.

John
mr.coconutpalm@yahoo.com

Thanks coconut palm! :) I'll have to make a trip to the stores and look for all that. What type of fungus? I was hoping it wasnt that.

- US_Marine

Hey Marine,

It looks like it might be Helminthosporium-complex leaf spot fungus on the leaves in the first two photos and maybe Pestalotiopsis leaf spot on the rachis in the third photo. The fungicide I recommended should take care of it. I recommend it first and foremost because it is an organic fungicide. If that doesn't work, I can recommend another stronger non organic fungicide, but hopefully the organic one will work.

If the grower or Home Depot use overhead irrigation, it can cause the spread of the first fungus from one palm to another. Also, the cool conditions that you have in California during much of the year is not good for the foliage of coconut palms, which is why you want to keep your fronds and trunks as dry as possible whenever watering in the cooler months. If you live in an area of warm summer highs and warm summer lows, then keeping the fronds and trunks dry is not as critical in the summer. You shouln't get your fronds wet in the evening even in the summer though, since fungus can set in on wet foliage overnight.

John

Thanks for the help John :)

I actually went and got some fungicide today. I didnt find copper fungicide but I did find "daconil". I sprayed the underside of the fronds and the stem with the spots and parts of the stems nearby. I almost think I sprayed too much. Anyway how many times should I spray it and how often?

I hope I dont lose this palm or any other. The leaf spot is starting to occur on the the new dwarf. I sprayed it as well. I wouldnt be surprised if Home Depot watered them over head and too often. I never water over head and I try to let soil dry out before watering. Often times I have to water daily in summer. Its usually in the high 90f's and 100f are pretty common. My oldest coconut palm hasn't got infected :) It is growing pretty fast now, so I dont think it will be weak enough to catch it. But I'm watching just in case.

- US_Marine

The copper fungicide is the best, since copper is a necessary micronutrient for palsm and it helps them to recover from a cold or in your case cool winters. The other fungicide I was going to recomment to you is Triple Action 20 by Consan. I haven't used it in a while since I have gone all organic with everything, and I have lost the part of the instructions that tell how to use it with palms. I think I mixed .5 ounce of the fungicide in a gallon of water and then sprayed it on with a simple handheld spray bottle. I am not familiar with daconil, so you might want to contact your local County Extension Office and talk to the Horticulturist about using it with your palms.

As far as how many times to treat your palms, I would use it once and then wait a week or two and see if it stops or slows down the leaf spotting. If not, then use it again, then stop, because with fungicide, it is possible to apply too much.

John

P.S. Check out my latest reply to your other post here on Garden Web. I think you and other California COCO NUTS (pun intended, LOL) will find it interesting about some palms possibly producing coconuts as far north as Puerto Penasco along the northernmost part of the Gulf Of California!

So far it looks like it might have stopped the leaf spot but its still too early to tell. If its still growing its not as fast. Hopefully this cures it. And hopefully it dont infect my older palm. But I doubt it will, that palm should be strong enough to not get infected.

- US_Marine

Sorry to jump in so late, it looks as if you already bought your stuff, however my suggestion is to always treat first line with neem oil, a multipurpose funcicide, miticide, insecticide. Copper is good but can be toxic in large amounts, I use it however as a 98% organic gardener myself, I use it sparingly. I've heard mixed messages as to whether it's organic or not. Neem oil has always worked very well for me and because it's multipurpose, you can use it just about anything, black spot and powdery mildew on roses, scale, spider mites, etc... I would buy the concentrate, It's about twice as expensive for double the volume of the small spray bottle, but will last a long time. I believe it's about $15 for concentrate vs. about $6-7 for the spray, but you only have to use about a teaspoon per sprayer bottle. I've had mine for years and I use quite a bit of it. I spray all of my plants with it before they come in for winter, I think it smells good too although my wife disagrees.

Its cool, more info the better.

- US_Marine

Is it just me or do the spots not look as bad as they did? They also dont seem to look any worse. To be on safe side I am gonna spray one more time in a week or so.

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Can't wait to seen signs of life when it starts pushing up the spear. The one pictured below had no set back from being repotted about a year ago. It continued growth like nothing happend. I'm pretty sure this one is here to stay :)

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The green spears coming up out of ripped weed cloth and under the cage is actually baby washy's. And lesson learned about weed cloth: even if its staked in the ground well wind will still rip it. Bermuda grass and washy's are sharp enough to break through, and any little hole becomes a bigger one fast.... lol well you learn as you go :p

- US_Marine

Hey Marine,

Your palms look really good and will probably continue to recover, but like you were planning on doing, spray them once more with the fungicide in a week or two (in the morning on a warm day a couple of hours after the sun has come up is the best time).

That older palm of yours, the Golden Malayan, looks great! It's my favorite variety, with the Hawaiian Tall a close second, which also has the beautiful golden orange petioles and coconuts like the Golden Malayan, but has the growth habit of a tall, with the swollen base and curved trunk.

John

Would be nice for it to recover. But if not I tried.

I also like the golden malayans. Although sometimes I think it should be greener I know they are naturally a light green color. They sure do make you think they are sick or nutrient deficient.lol.

Once they start getting bigger and all fronds are mature they look quite stunning. Looking at my oldest coco now makes me miss the first coconut I ever got, had it about 4 years... Its almost like looking back in time except this one I think is healthier and already bigger at its age then the one before.

- US_Marine