It looks like water stress to me. I would soak them every morning. Some anti desiccant should help too. Were they kept indoors before planting?

Providing your palms with a little bit of water every day is not watering them. When you water, water the plant well; really saturate the soil to some depth so that the plants' roots can get to the water. If your just watering a wee bit each day, it's useless because most of it is probably evaporating in a New Mexico minute. Regular and deep watering is especially important to a plant you have just put into the ground because it hasn't had time to root yet. Also, it would help if you applied a layer of mulch to the area around the plant to maintain soil moisture. After you do water (well), wait for the surface soil to begin to dry before rewatering. These palms look like they're really thirsty. It's probably not too late to save them, especially with the cooler (more humid) fall and winter weather coming. PS. Also, lay off any fertilizing until these palms start to recuperate. Good luck!

looks like radiant heat from the wall maybe sorta cooking them, till new acclimatized(sp?) foliage comes out your sorta stuck with it, maybe water a little more as well.

Hi, wineandlobos:
I gave up on young filiferas; couldn't water them safely. Now trying filfibusta, no sweat! If attempting again on filifera, I'd use subterranean watering, as they usually have in habitat. Best wishes, merrill

What is subterranean watering, I do have a Wash.Robusta and I've never had a problem with it.I think it maybe the watering, I work 2 jobs and I dont really have too much time anymore so I try to give them a quick watering around noon which is already hot and come to think of it, the water probably never soaks in too deep,sometimes when I dig a hole I have to water where Im digging 3 to 4 times just to dig cause the grounds so hard and the water seems to dry up quick.but thanks for all input.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I have seen your posts here and pics as well, for at least a year now, and I have always noticed that not only are your palms suffering, but I have noticed nothing else growing around them.It might benefit you to get your soil checked. Contact your local county extension agent or find a local university and send a soil sample to them to have your soil checked for deficiancies.Some nurseries will do it as well. Unless your spraying or treating your soil with herbicides, you should have at least a few weeds trying to grow around the area. I see something similar a lot in North Texas where old oil fields were in previous years where salt was surfaced and in a lot of cases disposed of on the surface and nothing will grow until the soil is either removed or heavily ammended with organic material.Here, it's called salt scald. I agree with the mulch, but I think you'll be money ahead to have your soil, or dirt if you will, checked before you plant anymore palms. They always look as if they are just totally burned up. I am assuming of course that you acclimate your palms from nursery grown shade to full sun? It's apparent the heat is extremely high there, and the block wall is sending even more heat out, but you can overcome that by covering the soil with grass sod or mulch as suggested. Ground cover is a must of some sort to retain moisture and cool the soil. Best wishes to you, cause I know you have been trying really hard to make this work ! Just my thoughts.

wineandlobos:

Everyone is completey correct about the watering. While these may be desert palms, they do love water.

I live in Southern Ontario Canada (about 1 hour west of Toronto). So it takes extra care to keep these palms happy.

And watering IS as important as fertilizer, really, more even.

When you water a little bit every day, you can be assured that NO WATER is getting down the the bottom of the roots.

What we did from day one, is to water only 2X a week, but a good DEEP watering. What that means, is that I'd set up the hose and adjust the spray to cover the entire root ball area. I'd let that run from 1/2 hour to 1 hour, 2X a week.

I would also provide those poor palms with proper palm fertilizer and some Epsom Salts (unsented) that you can get from Walmart. Throw a full cup of Epsoms around the soil where the roots are. Water DEEPLY.

If you want to save those palms, I truly believe that you need to start this immediately.

OH and don't water at noon.... worst time.

Water either early in the morning (best time) or as with us (we don't have morning time) in the evening. A good deep watering 2X a week.

Also, what is your water like there? If it's city water, does it have lots of Chlorine in it? Most do at this time of year.

If so, I would HIGHLY recommend setting up a filter to get rid of the chlorine.

The chlorine in the water can actually sicken many plants and especially palms, because it kills the necessary bacterias and mycorrhizal fungi that the palms require.

Since we started to use the filters (we use just 2 Home depot type Rain Fresh filters, both with Carbon filters only) we have noticed all plants much thicker, healthier and certainly happier.

If you don't know where to get some fertilizer and Mycorrhizal Treatment, try www.treehelp.com.

We buy all our stuff from them and the palms are very happy.

Hope that helps and hey! SAVE THOSE PALMS! :)

Too much heat coming off of those bricks and ground, too little water

PRIOR MESSAGE:Hi, wineandlobos:
I gave up on young filiferas; couldn't water them safely. Now trying filfibusta, no sweat! If attempting again on filifera, I'd use subterranean watering, as they usually have in habitat. Best wishes, merrill END QUOTE

Hi, wineandlobos:
What I meant was that most native filifera I've seen grew where the soil surface was perfectly dry except in very rare cases of rain fall, but the water table underneath was very high. Using emitters under the surface would seem to approximate this in captivity. Suggest you dam* near flood it, keeping the surface itself dry, and preferably in direct sun. Best Wishes, merrill

IF YOU WILL BACK TRACK TO YOUR OTHER POST YOU WILL SEE I RECOMMENDED GETTING A 5 GALLON BUCKET AND FILL IT WITH WATER PUT A HOLE AT THE BOTTOM AND LET THE WATER DRIZZLE FROM THE BUCKET THAT WAY YOUR GAURANTEED A GOOD DEEP WATERING .

donray-i do have lots of weeds growing in my yard,i just get rid of them and I have some cactus,agaves,yuccas and an oleander that do good,along with my robusta and a windmill, 2 of my other windmill look rough from winds,but maybe I need to amend it more and Im going to do some mulch and try out tophers idea with the 5gal bucket.The uv forecast always says very high or extreme so Im sure there taking a beating with the sun and heat off that wall and hopefull in the winter this will help since the sun shines over 330 days a year.I just noticed my european fan in the front yard is getting brown tips but I have never had a problem with it,is this again a water issue,I have let up on the water lately cause its been raining the past couple of days and is expected for the next 7 days, but it only rains a few minutes and not very hard,I trimmed the fronds on the suckers last month and they are growing fast.heres a pic and I thank yall for all the info on helping keep my palms alive,Im a newbie if you cant already tell.
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Our climates aren't that different. I have about 400 washies at my tree farm in 3 gallon containers which I soak every other day, but I have to provide them with at least a couple hours of mid-day shade or they start looking pretty bad. They are about the same size as yours. Is there any way you could provide them with some shade in the afternoon until they get a little more mature? The mulch will help keep your soil from drying out too much and maybe try slow watering for a little longer or tophers idea will work good too. I can also give you a link for trickle or drip systems if you think you might want to try that?The timers I use are inexpensive and just put a control valve to suit your volume you need to keep them moist.The wall will be a big benefit for you in the winter months. I will give you a couple of these that are grown in the heat with lots of sun(filibusta and filiferas) if you'll handle the shipping if those don't make it. Just email me and we can go from there. I have robustas, but very small seedlings.
palmerosatreefarm@sbcglobal.net

donray-thanks I really appreciate it,thats very nice of you to offer to send me a couple palms,Ill let you know if those dont make it.I just layed down some mulch and Ill see if I can figure out a way to get it some shade in the afternoon.thanks again.

I didn't even think about the afternoon shade.. great idea and now that I remember, that is what we did our first year too. If I can find a picture, I'll post it.

But all we did was to buy a roll of black window screening (material, not metal). It blocked about 30% or more of the sun's direct light.

We just put up some stakes, screwnailed supports and just stapled the screen over that.

In your case, small shades would work. In our case, we covered an area of about 11'x11'.

Shade and water... your palms will bounce back.

I think they'll come around. Look at the very last picture posted and look at the shade line from the house and look at the fronds in direct sunlight compared to the ones in and near the shade. Got a sunburn going on. Our Lowes sell a roll of shade cloth in 50 and 75% in 6'x 12' that you can use also. I have some that's been up 3 years and looks as good as the day I bought it.

Wine&Lobos,

1) The palms are sun damaged.
2) The new foliage looks improved over the original foliage.
3) Many times I disagree with "topher", but I think he has provided and excellent solution. I would BUY a 5-gal bucket over at HD and make some 3/16 to 1/4 inch holes in 1 quadrant of the base. Fill it and set it out in the morning to drip irrigate the palm. As September sets in, the soil will stay warm but the sun angle will decrease and newer foliage will be even better.

-que le vaya bien.

this is what I found out about the sun here on some website-

-full sun is not the same as full sun in many other places. Our high, dry environment increases solar intensity and exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Both the elevation and lower moisture content of the air can contribute to the burning of the plants.

new update---my californias are finally starting to fan out after all this time, but slowly.I water more now.

I believe that as you head into autumn, the leaves will start looking better.