Cycas bifida flush damage

[Brian]

Have any of you seen this type of damage during a flush? My Cycas bifida had been growing very quickly and recently put out an awesome 20 leaf flush. Before they were hardened off the wind came up and broke most of them off. The plant does not appear to have any rot so im hoping it will recover however I did apply copper based fungicide to the damaged area. Any recommendations would be appreciated,

Thanks

Brian

[Pedro 65]

Geez Brian, thats some nasty set back , but you've got it under control though, the trunk will have some "wobbly feature" in the future I presume?

"Nothing" compered to yours but 1/3rd of a new flush snapped off on our "small" C deb x din 2 yrs ago, its all good , the white leaf shows where it snapped a few yrs ago.

All "Best" with yours Brian,

Pete

[cycadjungle]

I looks like you had multiple heads and the broke right off. That plant is going to rot and die unless you take care of it right. I would use Daconil on the wound, and concert the would thick with the black tree sealer that I use for offsets. I might even have a tendency to want to use "great stuff" foam to cover the wound, but that may not be needed. Don't just let that harden up like Keith's offsets, you need to seal it to save it.

[Pedro 65]

I looks like you had multiple heads and the broke right off. That plant is going to rot and die unless you take care of it right. I would use Daconil on the wound, and concert the would thick with the black tree sealer that I use for offsets. I might even have a tendency to want to use "great stuff" foam to cover the wound, but that may not be needed. Don't just let that harden up like Keith's offsets, you need to seal it to save it.

The Black tree sealer is "Great" advice from Tom @ cycadjungle and I think more needs to be cut covered in fungicide then loads of Black tree sealer paint to let any water drain as It looks like a deep hole.

You will win Brian Pete

[cycadjungle]

Thanks for the back up. This is also why I suggested the great stuff. Even the tree paint thins out here in Florida when we get a lot of rain. Sealing and then the foam on top will make sure no moisture gets in. Roots and leaves will push right through that stuff so it works real all for several applications. It also works great for mass micro propagation of Zamia stem material.

[Brian]

Thanks for the advice Tom. I'm going to apply the tree sealer in the morning.

[Brian]

Well, I should have used Great stuff foam as Tom suggested. As Pedro noted there wes a deep hole and it just keep getting deeper no matter how much tree sealer I applied. I even tried to cut a channel so water could drain but the hole continued to grow.

 

 

 

[Brian]

Last October I took the decision to remove the Cycas and do major surgery. Here you can see how the hole just keep getting deeper.

 

 

[Brian]

This is how it looked once I got it out of the ground.

 

[Brian]

I then cut it in half with a sharp machete, removed all the rot, and soaked each half in a Banrot.

 

[Brian]

After allowing them to dry out for 24 hours, I then applied liberal amounts of tree tar and lime. 

 

[Brian]

After letting the tree tar and lime fully dry, I planted them in pure pumice and left them alone. 

 

[Brian]

This week we got our first rains for this years rainy season and to my surprise one of the halves is throwing out its first flush after the surgery 9 months ago. Im causiously optimistic that it is on the road to recovery. Keepng my fingers crossed.

 

[Pedro 65]

Good on you Brian for keeping onto it and looks like youve finally won, a great positive is now you have 2 large C ycas bifida. "Apologies"  for giving advice re black tree sealer, I eventually found  it way too thin based  so now I use the White which is very "thick paint"  and dries hard  and thick quickly, I apply it on all palm frond  petioles that I want to remove early to stop and nasties burrowing in and so far so good. Looks very much like youve "won" in the end, so congrats to you  a Keen grower that doesnt give up....

All best  Pete

[cycadjungle]

That's excellent. From the pictures, do I see that one half had the entire apex, which flushed, and the other half has no apex? Or did you split the apex and rid one came out first? If only one has the apex, you will start seeing little offset plants being produced by the leafbases, but that takes even longer. You might see new little plants still being produced 5 years from now.

[Brian]

Tom, I believe I split the apex in two. The orignial flush that fell off and damaged the plant appeared to be flushing multiple heads as you pointed out earlier. The plant never did this on prior flushes and only had one head. I cut the stem right down the center and it appeared that no apex was left intact. The apex of the recent flush just appeared a few days ago from what I can tell. 

Pete, once I split the stem in two and removed the rot, I applied tree sealer but it did appear to be too thin in spots, so in these areas I added lime which seemed to work very well with the tree sealer.

Ill try to post updated as thing progress.

Thanks for all the advice guys

[aussiearoids]

Monster sized caudex on that bifida ! Has me worried about the one I planted in the same hole as a

Borassodendron machadonis !

[yeye]

Hi Brian

Any news about your twin bifidas rescue?

[Brian]

5 hours ago, yeye said:

Hi Brian

Any news about your twin bifidas rescue?

The one half with the apex flushed strongly a few times. This is how it looked before the flush broke off just as it did on the orignial plant.  

 

[Brian]

The second half has several offsets at the base just like Tom had explained.

 

[Palm Tree Jim]

Glad to see this has worked out!

[yeye]

Very interesting thread Brian!good to know your bifidas are safe !! 

And bonus!!now several babies !

Olivier

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

On 9/20/2017, 8:25:29, Brian said:

The one half with the apex flushed strongly a few times. This is how it looked before the flush broke off just as it did on the orignial plant.  

 

You're saying it broke off again?

[Brian]

Yes it broke off again. Something wierd is going with the apex of the original plant. My hope is that this half will also start producing offsets.

 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

21 hours ago, Brian said:

Yes it broke off again. Something wierd is going with the apex of the original plant. My hope is that this half will also start producing offsets.

 

Yikes! Can't catch a break with this one.