Queen Palms Must Be Treated Like Queens If They Are to Survive in the Desert

Queen palms planted in front of a casino dead after winter
freeze in Las Vegas

Q. Hi, I'm a follower of your blog and I have two questions if you don't mind answering them.  First, what is your overall opinion of queen palms in the Las Vegas climate?  It seems like every winter they struggle but eventually come back in the late spring, early summer. 

My second question is, what is the best water requirement for a 15 gallon queen?  Is it best to have a few 4 gallon emitters over an hour time or many 1 gallon emitters over a few hours?  I'm just curious what is the best way to water them.  Also do I water every other day or 3 days a week in the summer months?  I would greatly appreciate a response!  Thanks in advance

A. Queen palm is not the best choice in palm trees for our climate in general. This is a harsh environment for them particularly our very low winter temperatures, our lack of humidity, strong dry winds and poor soils. Once we recognize this then we can begin to address the situation and determine if a queen palm is a good choice for us and what we will have to do to get it to work here. The absolute worst thing you can do with a queen palm is put it directly into a very our harsh climate, fully exposed to the elements and not amend the soil or amend it very little.

            If you were to plant it in our desert environment then you would try to find a place for it out of strong winds, protected from extreme winter low temperatures and amend the soil adequately at planting time and use organic surface mulches that break down and improve the soil over time. This is hard to find here in Las Vegas so planting them here will have poor results unless you can find this ideal micro environment; not impossible but hard to find.

Queen palm planted in rock/desert landscape and yellowing
or chlorotic due to poor soil conditions

            Palms are high water users in the small space that they occupy. So water does not have to be applied over a large area but should be applied in an area equal to at least half of the spread of their canopy. The water should be applied so that it soaks the soil down to about 24 inches each time you water.

            The soil should never go totally dry and surface mulches will help in this. Also planting understory plants that require more frequent watering will also help. How many gallons does a 15 gallon palm require? About 7 to 10 gallons each time you water or about half to 2/3 of the volume of the container (even though a 15 gallon container does not hold 15 gallons).

            Four emitters would be good in a square pattern about a foot from the trunk. How many minutes (or hours) should you run it? I don’t know. Depends on your emitters. If these are 2 gallon per hour emitters then 60 to 75 minutes.

            The other question to answer in watering is how often. You are asking about a one day difference in your watering. I really cant tell you that without knowing more about your soil and how much water it holds. If it drains freely and doesn’t hold much water then every other day now. If this is a soil that can hold a bit more then every third day would be good.

            Why don’t you try using a houseplant soil moisture meter to help determine the how wet the soil is before you irrigate. Once you do this a couple of times it will become more intuitive about how often to water.