Drive any street in Brandon, Riverview, Carrollwood or South Tampa and you will see queen palms, and you will see the problems: crowns with stunted, crinkled new fronds, brown fronds after a cold snap, and the occasional palm that died from the top down. Queen palms are not bad palms. They are cheap, fast and graceful. They just need the right care in Tampa Bay soil, and sometimes the right answer is a different palm.
Problem 1: Frizzle top
Frizzle top is the most common queen palm complaint in Hillsborough County, and it is not a disease. It is a manganese deficiency. The newest fronds emerge small, yellow-streaked and frizzled, with dead tips that look scorched, while the older fronds still look fine. Left alone, each new frond comes out smaller than the last until the bud dies.
It happens here for two reasons. First, much of Tampa Bay is built on fill and shell that pushes soil pH up, and manganese becomes unavailable to palms in alkaline soil even when it is present. Second, manganese uptake drops in cold, wet soil, which is why frizzle top so often shows up in late winter and spring.
The fix is manganese sulfate, not magnesium (an easy mix-up; magnesium deficiency shows on the oldest fronds as a yellow band along the edges with a green center). Broadcast manganese sulfate under the canopy and water it in, and use a proper palm fertilizer with micronutrients on a regular schedule so it does not come back. Recovery is slow because damaged fronds never repair; you are waiting on new ones. Do not cut off the frizzled fronds while you wait, because the palm needs every bit of green it has.
Problem 2: Potassium deficiency and the "hurricane cut"
The other nutritional problem you will see on queens is potassium deficiency: older fronds with yellow-orange spotting, translucent flecks and dead, frayed tips. Lawn fertilizer makes it worse, because high nitrogen pushes growth the palm cannot support. So does over-pruning. A queen palm trimmed into a feather duster has lost the old fronds it was pulling potassium from, and the deficiency accelerates. Only remove fronds that are fully brown, and never let a crew cut above the horizontal.
Problem 3: Cold damage
Queen palms are rated for zone 9b, and inland Tampa Bay is zone 9b, so they survive, but the mid-20s burn the fronds and the low 20s can kill the bud. Coastal Tampa, St. Petersburg and Apollo Beach stay warmer. Brandon, Valrico, Lutz, Wesley Chapel and anywhere with open, low ground gets colder on a still night, and that is where queens look roughest by February.
After a freeze, leave the damaged fronds on until new growth appears in spring; they shade the bud. If the spear leaf pulls out easily or smells rotten, drench the crown with a copper fungicide to slow bud rot and wait. Queens often push a new spear by May if the bud survived.
Problem 4: Fusarium wilt, Ganoderma and lethal bronzing
Two diseases kill queen palms outright in Tampa Bay. Fusarium wilt shows as leaflets dying on one side of the frond stem first, often on one side of the crown, and it is spread by pruning tools that were used on an infected palm. There is no cure, so the defense is sanitized tools and not replanting a queen or a Mexican fan palm in the same hole. Ganoderma butt rot shows up as a shelf-like conk at the base of the trunk. It is also fatal and also soil-borne, so that spot should not get another palm. Lethal bronzing, the planthopper-spread disease that has been in Hillsborough County for years, kills queen palms too. Fronds turn a bronze color from the bottom of the crown up, fruit drops early and the spear collapses. Preventive trunk injections from a certified arborist are the only protection, and an infected palm should come out quickly so it does not feed the insects that spread it.
A quick diagnosis checklist
- ✓Newest fronds small, streaked and frizzled: manganese deficiency, treat with manganese sulfate.
- ✓Oldest fronds with a yellow band along the edges and a green center: magnesium deficiency.
- ✓Older fronds with orange-yellow flecks and frayed, dead tips: potassium deficiency, stop the lawn fertilizer and use a palm blend.
- ✓Fronds brown all at once after a cold night: cold damage, wait for spring.
- ✓Leaflets dying on one side of a frond, then one side of the crown: fusarium wilt, remove the palm and sanitize tools.
- ✓Shelf-like growth at the base of the trunk: Ganoderma, remove the palm and do not replant a palm there.
- ✓Fronds bronzing from the bottom up with the spear collapsing: lethal bronzing, call an arborist.
What to plant instead
If you are replacing a queen or planning a new yard, these give you the same feathery silhouette with fewer headaches:
- ✓Mule palm: a pindo and queen hybrid with a queen's look, better cold tolerance and none of the frizzle top reputation. Costs more per foot; worth it inland.
- ✓Sylvester palm: heavier, more formal, cold hardy into the low 20s, and rarely short of nutrients if fertilized once or twice a year.
- ✓Pindo palm: for smaller spaces, cold hardy into the teens, silver fronds, slow and tidy.
- ✓Sabal palm: the native, indestructible option for a natural look.
If you still want a queen palm, and there are good reasons to, plant it in a group of three at staggered heights, keep lawn fertilizer away from the root zone, and put it on a palm fertilizer schedule from the first month.
What replacement costs
Removing a dead queen is mostly labor and haul-away. New palms are quoted by size, delivered and planted, with a $500 minimum and a trip charge for Hillsborough County that we quote by county. Prices may differ, so request a quote for your exact number.
Let the Tampa Bay team look at it
Send a photo of the crown and the base of the trunk through our quote form and our Tampa Bay team will tell you whether it is a fertilizer problem, a cold problem or a replacement. We plant in Tampa, Brandon, Riverview, Valrico and across Hillsborough County. Call or text (239) 799-5594.