Question
We have eleven king palm trees in our yard.  One of them, which is planted on
a lawn develops rusty color spots on its leaves.  These spots turn to dark
brown and cover the whole leaf.  At the latter stages black spots, almost like
burn marks that can be rubbed off, can also be seen on the dying leaf.  After
that, the leaf dries completely and dies. Unfortunately, I don't know if it is
possible to post a picture on this web site, which will explain the problem
much better.  If you are willing to look at some pictures, I'll be more than
happy to e-mail them to you.  The tree is about two years old and still small
enough that can be moved.  I believe that it is getting too much water from
the lawn and am thinking of moving it to a slope in the backyard where the
other palms are. Do you think this is a good idea?  And what else can we do
to prevent this from happening?  Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Ahmad,

Send me a photo at my e-mail posted on the instructions.  From your brief description, it sounds as though you may have a severe scale insect infestation.  If you can remove the dark spots with your fingernail, and there is no physical damage to the frond, that is indicative of scale insect infestation.  The rusty colors may be associated with other things, but send me a photo and I will take a look.

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