Again, a lot of these things are a reaction to economics and some by availability. Some are a reflection of values at the time. Used ties were a very cheap construction material that allowed people to manipulate grades in big ways at comparatively low costs. This is what is now going on with modular block walls. Bark mulch was a byproduct of the timber industry and got to be useful re-use of a waste product (it used to be very cheap 50 years ago). It eventually became a commodity on its own. Now other waste products (old fences, pallets, and some demo material) are ground up to supplement or replace bark mulch. It is helped along by the values of the time which include the notion that recycling a waste product is "the right thing to do". It always helps when these materials are making somebody some money as well. Recycled tires are definitely more embraced by eco-superheroes than by high end consumers. This is a head scratcher to me when I visit a town owned park that has this under a swing set adjacent to a salt marsh. The stuff is kicked around everywhere, looks bad, and smells. I don't know how you can clean it up without removing an equal volume of soil effectively doubling the volume of waste. I don't get the idea of why dumping it here is better than dumping it somewhere else. But, some people felt they were saving the world doing this. I'm sure they will blame "industry" for misleading them. Availability also affects fads when something that was not widely availably becomes widely available and people react to the novelty of it. Red lava rock in the eighties, bright colored dyed mulch, strong colored concrete pavers, granite cobbles from India, ornamental grasses, ... These existed for quite a while before they became widely available. When they did become available a lot of people rushed be on the cutting edge of doing "new things". Novelty goes a long way, too. I'm fascinated by the way western cities and the people in them find so much beauty in colored concrete pavers and modular blocks while here in the Northeast they are viewed as extremely cheesy and tacky. Even multi-million dollar homes out there are fully dressed out with it. What is embraced here is possibly old and passe there.

Cactus dude, its all good. If you're not familiar with mid Atlantic and Northeast Beach culture, its radically different than going to a beach in California. California is more about day tripping to the beach. It's a year round beach climate and people go there to surf or picnic or watch the sunset. Here, our beach season is short. Businesses have three precious months to make money for the entire year. Rent is VERY expensive. Anything that sets you apart from your competitor or makes your place look more "beachy" will help make the season. Tourists generally don't do day trips either, as most of the east coast cities are a few hours drive from their favorite beach resorts. So visits are often in increments of every weekend, entire week's vacation or entire seasons renting a house (often year after year or generations). Repeat loyal customers are big business. The thousands spent on "disposable" palms can translate to hundreds of thousands for the beach club, bar, mini golf or restaurant. Same for the garden center that sold the palms and installed them. Growers too.

Thanks for the information. Its good to know that its just fungi and can be dealt with. I'll be sure to loosen the top soil in all the affected pots. I feel much better now. The rain also brought out the little caterpillar looking worms. They are voracious eaters. I found them before they did too much damage. I sprayed the palms with volk oil, and that seems to have taken care of that problem. As far as what I'm going to do with the palms, I'll probably sell most of them. It all started with my just wanting to see if I could germinate a few seeds I gathered from a tree in my front yard. I thought it would be nice to have some smaller palms in decorative pots which could later be planted in the yard. I had heard that it was difficult to germinate the seeds and that it was a lengthy process. With that information, my expectations weren't too high and would have been happy just to be able to have a few germinate. I was in for a surprise. When 70 plus germinated, I decided to plant them all in little plastic cups not knowing if they would all actually mature into plants. Well, to my surprise they did.....lol. I guess somewhere along the way I developed an "emotional attachment" to them and felt a responsibility to nurture them along and watch them develop to their full potential. I think they'll continue to do great if the hurricanes stay away. I've also branched out and have a crop of about 40 sagos now. I love gardening and my little "crops" provide me with a lot of enjoyment. Thanks again for the information of the fungi!

Hey Jim, I live in Mississippi just south of Memphis, TN. The Foxtail has to be 11' tall and all of the ceilings in my house are low with the exception of the master bedroom and I'm not about to tote that thing upstairs. So unfortunately, bringing it inside is not an option. I will most likely put it in the garage but I'll have to lean it over. From all of the information I've received here this palm is so delicate I may have trouble with it living in the garage. But, I only paid 50 bucks for it and the Roebelenii so if they die I'm not out much. The two Phx Rob's I have are pretty good size and I will put them in the dining room if I see the garage is too cold for them.