Question
I live in St.Lucia. We have 20 Veitchia merrillii palms in semi shade semi sun  positions. The lower fronds brake off at the base long before turning brown.The leaves also have yellow uneven spots all over. is this a nutrition problem? This is happening for years. I give them a lot of fertilizers. What can i do?

Answer
Hi Wanda.  this is what I found for you about your Xmas palm, hopefully it is not this problem, but will give you some things to check for.  
Symptoms
Lethal yellowing gets its name from the yellowing and drooping of palm fronds beginning with the lower fronds and advancing up through the crown. The disease characteristically has the following progression:

1. Coconuts, mature and immature, begin to drop from coconut palms and the fruit begin to drop from other varieties, a process called 憇helling?

2. Flower stalks (inflorescences) begin to blacken.

3. Palm fronds start to yellow (or, in the case of some species, turn greyish-brown), beginning with the older, lower fronds and progressing up through the crown.

4. The spear leaf collapses and the bud dies. By the time that this happens, the tree is already dead.

5. The entire crown falls from the tree leaving a forlorn 憈elephone pole?stalk.

Unless treated, the tree dies within three to six months of the first symptom.

To date I do believe there is no cure.  kathy