Sago Palm Problems

My Sago is having some problems this year. Some leaves on the fronds are turning yellow and then eventually brown. I have some done a little research into Sago problems but I'm pretty sure it is not Scale (nothing on underside of fronds) and does not seem to look quite like the way Frizzle Top is described either. Any ideas? Up until now I just gave it a little Epson Salt and occasionally a few shakes of Palm fertilizer and it has seemed to work.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

I had the same problem once with 2 large ones I had and they finally died. I do know past few years there was some Asian desease that spread thru them.
Maybe if you contact your local extension agent they could help.
Or the UF plant desease dept.
Hope you can save it.
Bonnie

It's this http://www.plantapalm.com/vce/horticulture/asiancycadscale.htm
Big Problem in all Florida now . I use systemic insecticide and no longer a problem .

kgint
When this bug hit here five years ago I was at my wits end as nothing worked . Oil, hard core pesticides NOTHING worked I watched my 3 foot plus girl starting to die a slow death I was out of fertilizer for palms at the time and was into Roses and had a ton of the systemic rose and pesticide food and tossed it around my girl and then they died and actually went away ! Use it to this day and just look at my Girl with her native Orchid in tow .
I'm certainly not a master gardener but this pest reproduces in the ground I think putting down a granular systemic insecticide breaks this nasty bugs life cycle . Believe me I tried everything organic and NOT so organic for this problem .

This message was edited Jun 23, 2012 5:55 PM

kgint
Please discard all info I gave you .

it may just need to be fed. i don't see the typical asian scale symptoms on the picture.

A friend that owned a sago nursery had a state inspector come through and tell her she couldn't sell any about 2 years ago. She was really ticked. Had to pile them all up and burn. Hope its past now cause I know some nursery's kept right on selling them dueing that time frame. Go figure.
I got 2 little ones from somebody at last plant RU and I'm going to try again with them on either side of my driveway. I don't give up easily.
Happy week to all.
Bonnie

i still see people planting them around here. i don't know where they're getting them but when i left south florida nine years ago, every single one i saw there was dead or dying and they were still putting new ones in......

We have beauties here in Jax.
Sidney

I put coffee grounds around mine. So far, that has kept them healthy.

Bonnie, yours came from me. DH brought home a large, mature sago a few months ago from a jobsite. It had several pups that we separated and potted up, and which are doing well. The momma plant stayed in a pot until this past Saturday when we finally put it in the ground, but not before detaching another 8 babies! She is very prolific.

Thank you all for your replies - sorry I was away for a bit.

Yes, I don't see any scale on the bottom of the leaves. Next door neighbor suggested coffee grounds to prevent it so I have been applying liberally for about a year (hoping my coffee habit wasn't the cause of the problem). I do see quite a bit of scale on Sagos in my area.

You can't really see from the photos but this guy has three other pups. One of them has really been affected and I trimmed off all of the branches. The main plant has splotches of it and the others have none and are green and healthy.

I did purchase this particular Sago about two years ago so it is right in that window of time. My neighbor next door has beautiful Sagos, the neighbor across the street, not so much ;)

I am going to bump up the fertilizer and maybe try a systemic insecticide for this issue. I usually don't use much insecticide but I did see a big, fat grasshopper on it this morning so he very well could be the culprit.

With the incredible amount of rain we have been having in the Jax area lately, I have a new set of shoots coming up so I am crossing my fingers.

Thanks again!

I have 3 small segos (all were pups that I removed from the Mother) under 4" of water right now. Hoping they do survive. My larger ones are on higher ground.

It's a nutrient imbalance problem, specifically the potassium and magnesium. Cycads are sensitive to the proportion of the elements they are given (which is why giving Epsom Salts- Magnesium- can make it worse). What the photo shows is a potassium deficiency. Give it a certain amount of Mag sulfate without a corresponding amount of Potassium and a potassium deficiency is created. The best fertilizer to use on Cycads ( and also all Palm species) is Lesco 8-2-12-4. Dr. Tim Broschat of U.F. worked with Lesco to develop it because there was no adequate palm fertilizer available on the market. This is NOT the Lesco "Palm and Tropical" fertilizer in a pink and white bag available at some big box stores! The Lesco 8-2-12-4 is available through John Deere Landscapes stores. Also, DO NOT use Florida Finast brand 8-2-12-4. Florida Finast's nutrient sources are actually toxic to palms! Better to use NO fertilizer than to use that brand.
Fertilize with Lesco 8-2-12-4, don't supplement with Epsom Salts (or anything else) and realize the canopy has to regenerate. The fronds showing the imbalance will not revert.