Almost ten years ago, when I started my garden, my landscape designer talked me into planting five large Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island Date Palm). He said that there was not a better show-piece tree that could be found for a San Diego yard. He said they were easy to care for and low maintenance past cutting off dead fronds once a year. Having seen them personally in many nice landscapes around San Diego and finding them to be one of the more magnificent palms myself, I was like, Sure, why not? After I saw the plans he had drawn up I was convinced I did indeed need five. Price? Irrelevant. I had already convinced myself I needed them.
Fast forward to today, and of those five I have two remaining. Three have died from Canary Palm Fusarium Wilt. Rewind a few short months back, to December, I took a photo of this seemingly healthy Canary Palm. But I have the eye of the tiger. That one-sided dieback is almost a certain sign your palm is in real trouble.
Here is my Canary Palm just over a month later. This disease can move quickly in some trees—as you can see here.
Here is one final picture of it before the tree removal crew started the process to oust it. It is a depressing sight to see such an old and majestic palm get a disease from which it has no hopes of recovering. Along with my three dead Canary Palms from Fusarium, there have been six others around the neighborhood that have also died from this disease.
So what is Canary Palm Fusarium Wilt? The scientific name is Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. canariensis. The “f. sp. canariensis” means it is species-specific, and in this case it only kills Canary Island Date Palms. While other palms can get this Wilt, it is usually not a death sentence like it is with the Canary. For more details, you can visit the University of Florida’s IFAS Extension website.
My Canary Palm most likely should have been removed sooner, but I had to schedule the right people for the job. This tree was planted behind my pool and I had no confidence in getting a crane into the backyard to remove it, as I was able to do for my other two dead Canary palms removed a few years ago. I am lucky that I have two excellent maintenance guys in whom I have trusted my yard for years now. Scheduling for big jobs like this can take some time, however. The process I show here is not ideal, but I really had no other choice.
The first step was to cut off as many fronds as possible and drag them to the waiting dump truck.
Here it is with most of the fronds now removed. This will make it much easier to chainsaw to the ground.
The next step was to break out the larger chainsaw. We also had to use one of the neighbor’s trees to tie a guide rope around my dying Canary Palm and his tree. This helped ensure the tree was felled in the exact spot we wanted. Everything went as planned and the tree crashed to the ground where we needed it to.
Once on the ground we could use the chainsaw to cut the tree up into smaller pieces. All these pieces had to be manually carried out—the smaller the pieces, the easier they were to remove.
With the first day drawing to an end, I was left with nothing more than a stump. Pretty heartbreaking when I think back to what was once there.
The next day (and the following day, to my surprise) was set aside to grind out the old stump and most of the roots. Many people will just cut the stump as close to the ground as possible and call it a day. They can then plant around it with shrubs to hide the evidence. I know of some that have even made a Tiki out of the old trunk. For me, however, this is a very important part of my garden and I will need to plant out the area in the future with more palms, so I couldn’t leave the stump and the roots where they were. Grinding had to be done.
The waterfall was covered with a tarp and the grinding area was blocked in with a sheet of plywood.
I was unable to get a large grinder up the hill so we had to settle with a smaller one. Here is the first rental we went through, to the right of the picture. The grinding took much longer then we anticipated. Towards the end of the second day we busted a belt on the orange grinder and had to call for a second one. The issue was that the fibrous stem and roots were just too much for the smaller grinder’s teeth to handle. The thing just kept getting clogged.
A third day and a second grinder later, we are now ready to finish. Here we are finally seeing some dirt, which means we are close to finishing.
By the end of the third day, and after all the debris had been hauled to the dump, I was left with this. A 2-foot-deep crater that had once held a monstrous palm.
While difficult emotionally, Canary Palm Fusarium Wilt is just as painful to your wallet. After adding up all associated costs I had to cut a check for almost $2,000. When I think back to how much I actually paid for the tree to begin with, I could never recommend anyone building out a new landscape to plant a Canary Island Date Palm. Not only can they get Fusarium Wilt, but they also have a few more funguses that kill them, and might have to contend with the Red Palm Weevil, which has now been found in Southern California. Just too many maladies to risk the high cost, in my opinion.
Hopefully by the end of the summer I will have an update on the plantings I want to do where the Canary Palm was. I am still working on ideas…
Nice recap of your Palm story. I wish you had contracted a palm specialist to help you select disease free palms, there are tests etc., and that their care and possible problems were explained in advance. There is also another disease, Dothiorella spp., on CIP that has very similar appearance and is not deadly. Hope you had them lab tested before removal. There are some experts that say they can tell, I’ve been a PCA and Landscape/Tree Health Specialist for 30 years, still can’t be 100% sure.
Trees were disease free when bought. The plant in this post was in the ground for about 8 years disease free.
Hi Len, I didn’t know where on your blog to ask this,but what is that Palm you have that is even more spectacular than a Bismarckia? Its fronting the GBOP,CIDP and with a hedge around it?
Whats the story on that?
Ah yes, thats my baby. That is a Copernicia fallaensis.
Hi –
I believe our 20 yr plus Canary Palm was infected with Fusarium Wilt when it was pruned this summer, I am heartbroken. May I ask what you planted in place of your your Canary Palms and how you made sure that the area wasn’t still contaminated?
Thanks so much,
Wendy Allen
Sorry about your loss. 20 years a lot of time to see go down the drain to this fungus. Once the fungus is in the soil, you can’t get us of it. You can only plant more resistant palms. The good news is this form of fusarium only really kills Canary’s. You could plant a Fate Palm in its place for example. I planted a Bismarckia nobilis.
Hey there,
I think Stan is the writer of this article?
I have what I think is the same situation, I’d like your recommendation of the company you used to pull the first two trees. My tree is in front yard and pretty accessible so hoping if it does die I can have it pulled in one shot, root and all.
If you see this would you mind letting me know?
Thank you for the detail on you’re experience.
9494333193
Hi John,
Having it removed by a crane is always best. The company I would have recommended is no longer around. You can try calling Oasis Nursery & Landscaping in Carlsbad, CA. It won’t be cheap.
It can take years to see the symptoms of infection on Phoenix Canariensis.
My neighbor has a beautiful Canary Palm, perhaps 80 – 90 feet tall. I don’t believe it is infected with the Wilt. However, throughout this winter the ground has become saturated with rain and last night we had extremely high winds. I woke up and moved out of my bedroom to sleep in the living room. If the tree happened to fall in the direction the winds always blow here, it would make a direct hit on my house bedroom. (Living in an apartment four years ago, my bedroom was struck by a 200 yr. old pine tree at 2 AM after heavy rains. -Thankfully I was safe, but soon came the ceiling leaks.) What is the likely hood that this kind of palm could fall after continuous, heavy rain? (In California)
Healthy Canary Palms are usually very stable trees.
Going through the same process now in North Florida. Weevils got mine. Need to spend $200 every 2 years or so for preventative maintenance treatment against weevils and still no guarantee that they won’t come back and kill off the bud. They seem to migrate up and down our street from date palm to date palm. Mine was “only” 15′ tall. Never again. Just not worth the aggravation. That tree is best suited for hotels/other commercial locations/deeper pockets than mine.
Bummer. But now you have room for another palm tree 🙂
Just took mine out today in South Florida due to Fusarium Wilt as well. Removing remaining soil tomorrow. It was young so not the years you had invested, frustrating nonetheless. Lab tested through UF. I am wanting to replace with a Carpoxlyn – familiar with these at all? Would like to know it would do ok planted near the same spot but no one seems to have much experience with this palm. I have 3 other Caproxlyn that are doing great.
Lucky you. Wish I could grow Caproxlyn. I think it will be fine as they are totally different palms.
Thank you — that is what I have heard although no one knows for sure. I suppose we will find out. Thank you for the post and pics.
If it isn’t one thing it’s another. Just when I started worrying about the approaching Palm Weevil (they found one in San Marcos) my tree trimmer told me he thought one of my seven CIDP’s looked like it has Fusarium. I’m going to have it confirmed, but by what I can see, I think I’ve got it. Unfortunately these were planted in the late 70’s by the previous owner at less than 10′ on-center. The suspect CIDP is the first in the line of 7. It was the first one that every trimmer I’ve had work on them started with. Now I have to consider the very real prospect that the remaining ones are going to get it too. Not knowing how long it takes to spread, do I just remove them as they show symptoms and replace one at a time, or take them all out?
If I decide to bite the bullet and remove them all, how important is it to remove the soil too? I have many other palms on the property, but the only ones in the vicinity of the 7 CIDP’s are Kings and Royals, and those are recent plantings, with in the last 2 years.
What else is susceptible to Fusarium?
I wish I had advice. Seems so random at times which gets hit with fusarium. One thing I have done and so far haven’t lost anymore (knock on wood), is I stopped some the pineapple trim. I now only cut off the brow, dead fronds. I won’t damage any live tissue.
I would never plant another Phoenix palm of any kind in the lost palms place. This specific fungus only is guaranteed fatal for Canary’s, but goes after and can kill other Phoenix palms.
Hi Len,
I’m so glad to have found your blog. Thank you for the detailed recap and sorry for your loss. I’ve been thinking of “pineappling” my Canary Island Date Palm, it’s looking very unruly with boots falling off the trunk (Fig 1), but I’m very worried about the potential fusarium wilt. When you say that pineapple trim would damage live tissue, you are talking about when the top of the pineapple is tapered (Fig 2), which would eventually lead to a pinched trunk (Fig 3). A straight up pineapple (Fig 4) isn’t any different than simply trimming up to the horizontal line and shouldn’t cause any excessive damage to live tissues, right? I could even leave all fronds alone as it is to play it safe as in Fig 5.
No, the issue is the cutting of green tissue. I only cut dead plant material. You can pull off old boots and only cut the dead leaves. That is best. If you cut green leaves, you welcome disaster.
Golly, I’m starting to feel like a killa. I HAVE to remove two of these and since they are not huge, it is up to me. Take my chainsaw and move down vertically until I can take a divot out horizontally? Keep doing this all the way around until my trees have enough trunk to get the saw through?
Lastly, I’m having excellent results using Tea Tree Oil, little goes a long way, in stopping all kinds of ‘stuff’. Stopped a wild crazy uncontrollable Castor Bean plant with a few drops in the cut trunk. Going to leave the stumps and try that.
Excellent flea, tick, and pest control on the ground AND varmints don’t like the smell. They removed some of the turpentined smell and it is MUCH better and it works just as well. Thanks for the blog, fellas.
How can I spray my Canary Palms myself for The Weevil and fertilize and spray to protect from Fusarium?
Do u have a vendor in San Diego?
Google Plant-Tek. It’s who I use.