It needs a bigger pot, more water and less sun.

All members of the Phoenix family love hot full sun, so the brighter the better. Magnesium was a great start. Increase the light, and fertilize with a high nitrogen (first number) and it will eventually bring back the color. If it is REALLY rootbound, you can go up a notch, but they don't really mind being rootbound. Gregb in Tampa Bay where it finally rained (some, well a little) today!

Thanks so much for the responses.

I've got some 8-6-6 plam fertilizer. Is this fine?

Also, what do you mean by "go up a notch"? Put it in a bigger pot?

Thanks again.

I think the reason Alex suggested less light is because you went from low light to strong sun without an adjustment period. Yes, they like full sun, but must be acclimated first. If it's root bound... "go up a notch", meaning next pot size up.

I wouldn't worry about the sunlight adjustment UNLESS you are going from really low to really high. Phoenix have needle-like leaves to combat this, and small surfaces (as opposed to broader-leafed palms) to help with transpiration. What I saw from the photo was poor nutrition. Palms are heavy feeders, even if they are rather slow growers. Magnesium greens'
em up, but 8-6-6 will help even more. Greg

Phoenix do like full sun. However, most nursery stock like this is grown in shaded houses or under shade cloth. The leaves would need a couple of months to acclimatize to the sun.

I'm not sure that you can "green up" palms like you can grass or dicotyledons. If you could, you could cure various spot problems or "frizzle top" after the fact. This is not the case.

Depending on where they are shade grown, they acclimate quickly. Here in FL, shade grown material means 50-60% shade but with full exposure. It is very bright. They acclimate almost immediately, because the difference is not as great as up north where light levels are so low in winter. Our 27S sun is HOT HOT yet, most everything I plant takes immediately without problems, and I lost my two big trees in '04 hurricanes. Proper nutrition will green up a plant in a few weeks - not perfect - but a big improvement. Add the nitrogen from rainfall, and plants will respond fast. There is a HUGE differencee between growing in FL/SoTx/HI and the rest of the nation. You get suburn here in Jan...Greg

I am planning on buying some roebelenii (three of these) for a new semi-oceanfront house.

Would like some suggestions as to how to be successful in this location. What is the real low winter temp for roebeleniis that they can manage at? Right now I am being advised to do the following for these on the Outer Banks:

- place indoors for Dec, Jan, Feb and March
- water daily (??????)
- provide a gro-light when they are indoors (indoor room is east-facing and will have a LOT of natural sunlight)

Can they tolerate ocean/salt spray?

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thx,

Cathy

They're good to upper 20's in th open or under trees. Maybe lower 20's against the house. I've heard of some in Gainesville, FL recently, but I think that the winters have been mild.

With all respect to Alex they may be able to survive some exposure to the 20s but it will severly defolitate them. Frost is the rule of thumb I follow. I have seen them defoliate (except for the newest un-opened fronds with a simple frost. I do everything I can to keep frost from hitting mine. I have one large one that weighs over 200 lbs with the pot. I had to put x-mas lights in the foliage and cover it with a sheet last October when we had a freek cold front with snow (probably bottomed out at about 30). I was leaving town for the weekend and did not have the opportunity to move it in for the winter until I got back. So I say do everything you can to keep them from the freezing point. They have very thin and tender leaves.

Having grown roebellinis for years AND seeing them all ove the area including the colder areas north of Tampa Bay, they are reliable to the upper 20's even w/frost. If protected from frost, they can take 27F without burning (canopy, against a house, covered etc) but below 27F it will get severely burned. It recovers quickly but will not take it below 22F at all. In 1989 it hit 23F at my old house which had few trees. All the roeb's burned in my neighborhood but all came back. However, at my school I teach (15 miles north and rural) it was 19F and they never came back, except for a few odd ones here andthere. They are for bright, sunny spots and struggle in shade. Like most Phoenix, they can go rather dry between good waterings. The area they are from, Laos/Vietnam has wet/dry seasons. Greg in newly WET Tampa Bay

My tree is getting worse... half of it looks practically dead... it lost most of its foliage and whatever's left doesn't look good/strong either. Here are two pics:

Sorry, the quality is not the best. To recap, I fertilized it with magnesium sulfate about 2 months ago because it turned yellow, and then fertilized with 8-6-6 palm fertilizer about 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, in august I was away for about 3 weeks during which time the plant got very little water, so that probably didn't help either.

Can anyone guess what is happening here and suggest a fix? Should that one dead-looking trunk be cut off at this point? Or is the whole thing doomed?

When outside I would take that pan under the pot out from under it. How wet is that dirt ? they don't like to be soaked. I was trying to tell from your pic if your palm has frizzel top but it does not look like it.In Fl the problem can be a manganese problem and of course the other minor elements as well. When you fertilize make sure its a good mix for palms. Here is some good advise I found on the internet.I got this from university of fl web site. "Palms have different nutritional requirements than other landscape plants. When palms are important, landscaped areas within 30 feet of large established palms should be fertilized with a 4-1-6-2 Mg (N - P2O5 - K2O - Mg) ratio fertilizer (an 8-2-12-4 Mg is an example of a fertilizer utilizing this ratio). N, K2O, and Mg should have equivalent percentages of each nutrient in controlled-release form. Using a fertilizer with a ratio other than that specified may induce or accentuate nutrient deficiencies in palms.Because palms are highly prone to several potentially fatal micronutrient deficiencies, any fertilizer applied to them should contain 1-2% Fe and Mn, plus trace amounts of Zn, Cu, and B to prevent these deficiencies"

Does this palm branch out into multiple stems?