White dots on Washingtonia Filifera/ Desert Palm?

Question

Im growing a few washingtonia filifera/ desert palms from seed, very happy with progress until i saw that the first leaf thats grown has really very small white parts on it, i thought it may be scale so sprayed with bug killer, then thought to try and wipe, pulled too hard on leaf and broke it off, not happy bunny, ive put a bit of hormone rooting compound on the part i snapped off and left the rest as it was before, with the roots intact, my questions therefore are would it of been scale, will the cutting possibly root and is there anything else i should watch out for, thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Not scale its species specific! Scale is not white but oyster coloured and would appear in scatted patches all over the entire plant.  Mealy bugs look like those pill bug things only in a white cottony mass on the tip of the stem.These you're seeing are where the threads come out.

After a while you'll see a load of cottony threads emerge.

The threads drop off as the leaf matures and these threads give the name of the plant Cotton Palms. The hairs act like a sunscreen like on many desert plants like old man's cactus.