Palm trees are dying. Is there a way to help save them?

Palms belong to the division of flowering plants known as the monocotyledons. Their anatomical structure is more similar to a corn plant than to an oak tree, which has important implications for palm health. Each stem of a palm has a single apical meristem (bud or heart), and once that tissue is damaged, death is likely, especially for single-stem palms.

What are the symptoms of a damaged/dying palm?

The symptoms vary depending on the palm species, but are most often related with excessive yellowing or browning of the canopy from the oldest to the newest fronds (leaf of the palm), wilting of the inflorescence (seed/flower pod), premature fruit drop, and finally death of the apical meristem (bud) of the palm.

What are the reasons behind the damage?

There are a lot of reasons why your palm might be looking bad. Despite the natural climate and environment that are perfect for their nurture and growth, palms can be damaged, sometimes fatally, by various diseases, fungal infections, and insect infestations. Diseases and intense infestations weaken the palm tree, expose it to the secondary infections and can kill it quickly!

The red snout-beetle (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) is considered a major pest in the palm plantations. It usually infests palms younger than twenty years. Larvaes can dig up holes in the trunk of a palm tree up to a meter long, thereby weakening and eventually killing the host palm.

Originally from tropical Asia, the red snout-beetle has spread to Africa and Europe, reaching the Mediterranean in the 1980s. Its presence has been reported and confirmed in Greece.

Since palm stems have no vascular cambium, they are essentially devoid of secondary growth. Therefore, palms cannot repair injuries to their stems, and diligent effort must be made to prevent injuries that provide opportunities for insect or pathogen invasion of the trunk.

How do I protect my susceptible palms?

The main control method is through the application of a systemic insecticide. We offer you the most reliable solution to save your palm trees! The treatments we use are ecological – we don’t use phytosanitary products and chemical methods, but ecological treatments that respect the environment and human health while saving the palms. The treatments take only between 20 and 60 minutes.

Besides being fast, the treatments we implement are clean because they do not leave any harmful or toxic residues either during or after use. What’s most important, they are safe for the operators and the population and can, therefore, be used in public and private places. Finally, our treatments are 100% effective because they can be used as preventive, curative and disposal method.

Did you notice some of the symptoms on your palm trees? Save your gorgeous tree which produced you shadow for years before more damage is made! Contact us on welcome@vitaverde.gr or visit us at Eurotech Building, office 62, Thessaloniki.