To me it looks like it's drying out. How much water do you give it on the irrigation? In PHX, I expect it would need 5 gallons a few times aweek.

If it recovers a bit with more water, you can then add a little fertilizer.

Yes i agree with alex that guy needs a drink maybe even
a good flooding for about a week.

I have two 15 gph drippers hooked up to it. I water 4 days a week on auto irrigation, 22 minutes per water day. So it should be getting plenty of water, plus we have been getting monsoon rains too. I was worried because this palm is on higher elevation, so last year I added 3 1.5 inch pvc pipes that help keep water by the roots. I was thinking it has to be lacking some kind of nutrients. I last fertilized my palms in May with the granular fertilizer for palms that I bought from Home Depot.

Is there any good way to test if the water is enough? Should I dig below the surface to check moisture? I am just worried if I don't find the problem soon, this tree will not survive.

I bet those bricks make it hot around it too.

Yes, the bricks do get pretty hot during summer. My grapevines never seem to be bothered too much by them though.

I've got about 10 queen palms (in various states of health...8 of out 10 doing great...1 OK and 1 pretty unhappy).

My suggestions/learnings since I've become a queen palm owner:
--Manganese spikes are helpful (about $2 each). My tree guy suggests 4 per tree (I think it's a little overkill).

--Had the same problem of dry translucent fronds. I was told that I was over watering, it was a fungus, manganese deficiency. From what I've determined...it was none of the 3. I have 2 10 GPH drippers near by....both were barely on. I've opened them both up...will advise with how it turns out.

--The queens that are doing really well....have ground cover surrounding them....have 2-3 drippers that cover a wide area (primarily for the ground cover).

--I water every other day for 30 minutes. I have a 2nd program that will water for 60 minutes every 4 days. Queens seem to like a very deep watering...I think your irrigation could be set to have 1-2 days a week of extra irrigation

--From what I've read, established queen palms need ~25 gallons of water twice a week. So, my really dried out one was getting about 5 gallons over the course of a week. The healthy ones were getting nearly 40.

--The root diameter of a queen palm is approximately the size of its crown. You should water the entire root structure...thus as a tree grows....you need to spread the emitters away from the trunk. In your case, the emitters nearby are good (for the next few years).

--As queen palms are sub tropical in nature...they're not well suited to the desert (great). If any of my trees were to die, I would replace with a Mexican fan palm or simiar. There are 10 of these growing in the alley despite the garbage trucks and lack of irrigation...whereas we struggle to keep queens happy.

--Queen palms like acidic soils....maricopa county soils are pretty alkaline. I've read 1 cup of muriatic acid in 5 gallons of water will help the soil (should also help my hibiscus). A mature queen would need 10-15 gallons of this water. I haven't tried this yet. It was suggested that you water deeply the day before you try the acid water. You could also substitute vinegar for the acid.

--You could also try calling a certified arborist and see what a professional says. I'm really tempted to do that myself as 1 of my 10 queens is not too happy.

Hope this helps a little.

krannerd thank you for your reply. I think my problem is not enough water. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the obvious. This palm is in the highest point in my back yard. When I tried to soak the tree roots with the hose yesterday, I noticed most of the water was not getting to the trees roots, because of the grading. I plan to reposition my drip system farther from the trees base, and add two more pvc pipes in the ground so the roots can have extra water.

I know our PH here is very alkaline, so that will likely be my next step in diagnosing the problem. I just don't want to add any extra stress to a palm that is not quite as healthy as it should look.

I am switching from the granular plant food over to the spikes from now on. I will only have to use them twice a year instead of fertilizer 4 times yearly.

Does anyone know if additional maganese fertilizer is needed other than that in your fertilizer?