Everyone’s had this problem: keeping that frondy palm tree you bought at a home improvement center alive in your own home. Here’s a solution!
Q. I brought a home palm tree. At first it was put in the sun. After a while we saw that it got brown and yellow so we put it in the shade and I cut off all the bad leaves. Now it’s still getting brown and yellow. I water it quite often like once or twice a.week. What should I do?
-Spring Valley, New York
A. This is called an Areca Palm. A great houseplant when it’s happy. This Palm’s ideal condition would be high but indirect light. So, near a window but no sun hitting it directly. In it’s natural habitat it would be an understory plant getting bright filtered light in the jungle.
The problem you’re having is unfortunately very common in house plants sold in the big box stores where you don’t get much guidance and information.
When these Palms are grown in the greenhouses they have the correct light conditions and more important, the correct HUMIDITY. When they get packed into a most likely unheated truck and transported to their end location, they have been out of these conditions for a while. Then they get unloaded, still not showing stress yet, you buy the beautiful plant and take it home and then it begins actually showing stress that was induced previously.
What you can do: First the lighting and location, bright and indirect light, and preferably no drafty spots. Second, create humidity by placing the plant on a dish a few sizes larger than the planter and put small decorative pebbles in the dish. About an inch of depth for the pebbles. This can be a clear plastic plant tray or you can use something decorative. Fill with water to the bottom of the pot, but not actually enough for the pot to be absorbing water. We’re creating a zone of humidity from underneath while the water evaporates over time.
Next, I notice you have the pot in a basket? You will need to re-pot the Palm into a new pot no more than one size larger than the pot it’s growing in currently. Use a high quality potting soil. Then you can set the new pot on the pebble dish and it should be good. Make sure the pot has drainage.
When you water, let the soil dry between watering and water thoroughly. NEVER let the bottom of the pot sit in water. You may only be watering every couple of weeks or so. Use an all purpose houseplant fertilizer at half strength or less every time you water from March to October. I keep my liquid fertilizer drops bottle in the watering can to make it easy to remember.
And last, this Palm can be quite susceptible to an insect called Spider Mites. It can get this very quickly when it’s stressed and when it’s grouped with other susceptible plants in places like the big box store. You want to look for very tiny white dots or specks on the foliage, possible small webbing. Another insect it can get is called Scale. They look like little white hard bumps on the backs of the leaves or at leaf intersections. If you notice either of these insects you can fight it, but to be honest, I wouldn’t bother. You can get a new one for the cost and effort it would take to fight unless you’re really dedicated to this plant.
Oh, one more thing- I can see it’s right next to the baseboard heat, it may be too warm there, but with the humidity under it, it could also go crazy! And cutting leaves off once in a while is totally natural as it puts on new growth at the top.
Christina Salwitz, The Personal Garden Coach, Renton, Washington
