Droopy king palm

I recently purchased a king palm to replace one that died in our yard. The new king palm is beautiful with nice upwardly arching fronds. When I compare it to the palms that are in my yard, they look very droopy by comparison. Does anyone know what would cause my palms to droop? They are in an area that gets 10 minute spray irrigation three times a week, plus, I deep water the palms once a week. The temp this summer has been in the 70's - no hot weather, and we have very heavy clay soil. So I am wondering if maybe too much water and poor drainage would cause this droop? The palms are growing quickly and have had several new fronds this Summer, but the new fronds open up and droop. Here is picture of my palm looking droopy.

Here is a picture of the new palm. It is the same size as my original palms but it doesn't droop like they do. I'm sure after it is planted it will start to look like my original palms. But I would rather have the old palms look like this new palm :)

The only thing I could think of was that perhaps irrigation water was getting into the crown. My Kings really hated this and not only drooped, but the fronds browned quickly. I have them on a drip now, so they are starting to come back.

Yes, he's right, do not get the crown of Phoenix palms wet with hose water, Ed

There are number of King Palms in town 13 miles from me
and it is very unfair they grow perfectly and freeze in my yard
(not surrounded by concrete next to the Guadalupe River).

Anyway, this admonition got my attention:
"do not get the crown of Phoenix palms wet"!
I have a brown Phoenix Roebellini pictured in my
thread "Frozen Palm Pics". Is there any chance this
got murdered by the downspout I have situated over
it (from gutters I just put up to prevent cold rain from
falling in my new hot tub)?

It would have had cold melting snow coming down off
a metal roof for a few hours. Thought it would be good
for it to get the extra water since it doesn't grow
during droughts and mini-booms during rains.

If you mean Archontophoenix alexandrae for King Palm, the one in the photo looks very sad. They generally like a lot of water and even grow in swampy ground. Hard to imagine the problem could be too much water. Mine do better where it's wetter.

Rain water won't hurt them, Ed

Regarding the King palm at the top, it could be drainage problem that is the cause. You mentioned you have clay soil - which does not drain well. As tropicbreeze mentioned, Kings love plenty of water and I give mine plenty and it is also doing well. You may have to check out if you have a drainage problem first before considering other causes.


Mike