Hi there,

I have an outdoor pygmy date palm with 3 heads in my front yard in San Diego. One of the heads fell over completely today due to the storm rain and winds. I had a small support strap around the 3 heads before but that snapped under the weight of the one head falling.

As you can see the roots of the head that fell took some damage, and some of the roots look torn. All of the bases of all three heads look very skinny, weak and like they have potentially rotted.

I spoke to an arborist briefly on the phone who told me it would be better to lift the palm back up and give it support than to cut and re-plant it, so that's what I did. I temporarily am using a couple chairs to give the head that fell over support to stand back up, as well as the other head next to it that is leaning over and at risk of falling as well.

My current plan is to install a permanent support system to replace the step ladder and chairs I'm using now. I also bought some Miracle Gro Shake n Feed for Palms. I haven't given it to this palm yet but would that help give the palm nutrients to heal? Is there anything else I can do to support it in reconnecting its roots, and eliminating the root rot/fungus?

Any help is appreciated to help save this palm, thanks in advance

p.s. Just realized I should have posted this in the "All things gardening" forum since this isn't an indoor plant, maybe an admin can help me move it?

I don't have a lot of experience with outdoor palms. Mine do best when I leave them alone.

Your outdoor plants should not need fertilizer unless you want to encourage fruit production. Never fertilize a plant that isn't completely healthy. You will only add stress and hasten it's demise.

No, don't fertilize. That will add more stress to any already stressful situation.

The arborist is right, you have done everything you can. The stem would not re-root on its own but, because the cambiun layers of palms are in bundles in the center of the trunk, not on the edge, it may survive as it is. If its too damaged, it will die but will take a few months, maybe not until next summer. It will have to be supported forever as I doubt the outside, support structure of the trunk will ever heal.

So sorry that happened! For future reference, plants growing in the ground outside are a bit outside of the realm of the potted (and often inside) plants discussed here in houseplant forum. But it's wonderful to be able to welcome you to the site!

This is fairly typical of Pygmy Date Palms unless they are planted a few inches deeper than they are in the pot. Normally they produce more anchoring roots from slightly above the crown. You do not have a root rot, just a weak trunk. Staking is the only way to handle this unless you make a raised planter around it to cover the crown so it can produce more roots.

Great thank you everyone for the advice. I don't mind staking it forever and potentially giving it a raised planter so it can produce more roots as mentioned. What's the best way to go about that while making sure I don't do more harm than good?

I appreciate the feedback on using the Miracle Gro, sounds like that's a no go for any plants that are in distress. Do you recommend it for strong plants in general? I bought a bunch and was thinking of spraying my whole garden with it (the healthy plants and palms). I'm not concerned about bearing fruit so much as I just want to keep my plants happy and healthy (I lost 4-5 plants in my garden this year so trying to better educate myself how to take care of each of them.).

I know this belongs in the outdoor plant forum, meant to post it over there but not sure how to move it now 😅

It's no big deal but if you decide you would like to move this discussion, you can click "suggest a change" at the bottom, between the last post and where you would type a reply, and follow the instructions from there.

Miracle-Gro is fine for everything. Lots of people use it and are successful, as long as you FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. Organic gardeners hate it, but they hate all synthetic fertilizers. There are palm specific fertilizers that include micronutrients that palms use a lot of. In your location you can fertilize any time of year, unless you are in a 'frost pocket'.
The less you move the trunk, the more likely it is to survive.