Reed palm with one rotted stalk

[globvs]

I have had a lovely reed palm for eight months now and she has been doing quite well... until recently. My kitten had started using her as her litter box, so I took out the root ball, shook off the extra soil, dumped the urine-soaked soil, and the repotted into a new pot of the same size with new soil. She was okay for about a week and then I noticed the leaves of two of the stems coming from the same stalk were dying quickly. I cut them away a few days ago, leaving one stem on the stalk. Last night I examined the stalk again and saw at its base it was black. I barely touched it there and the whole stalk broke off with white and black mush inside the base of the stalk. 
My question is whether or not now I need to remove the root ball again to check for root rot and remove it. I don’t want to shock her again after the last reporting. 
I am newer to plant and palm care in general. Also, the rest of the palm is healthy from base to leaf tip. please look on plantNet

[globvs]

Here are the photos 

[Steve Mac]

Hi Glob welcome to the forum.

 I don't have one of those in a pot, only out in the garden so my knowledge is limited. But in my experience the palm is quite tough and good at compartmentalizing the different stems. I am guessing that it will be fine.

Also have a read up here on potting mixes in case you do find the need to re-do it.

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/48442-your-soil-mix-tell-us/   

and here  https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/54163-the-soil-mixes-the-pros-use/

 

 

 

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

On 11/25/2020 at 4:30 PM, globvs said:

Here are the photos 

Hey there and welcome to PalmTalk!  Your palm is a Chamaedorea Cataractum.    they typically grow along or even in flowing  streams and their  flood plains in tropical regions in southeast Mexico along the Atlantic slope side.   

 

As for your plant it does look healthy save for the one lost stem.   Best to keep in in a fast draining potting medium.   If you can id get rid of as much of the soil as possible and replace it with clean fresh fast draining potting mix.  These palms love lots of water.  I water mine 1-2x / week and let the tray at the bottom fill up and leave it. they suck the water up usually in one day.   These palms are tough and losing one or two stems is not going to harm it usually.   Im not sure what area you are in, but if you keep this as an indoor palm, but if you do keep it indoors bright indirect sunlight is best. You will also need to clean it / give it showers once every couple of weeks to keep the spider mites at bay.  these are very susceptible to spider mites in dry indoor locations especially in winter.    You can also use a systemic insecticide to help combat them, but i have found that regular mechanical cleaning ( IE showers), especially if you can get the undersides of the leaves, is very effective.    The potting medium I use for almost all of my palms is a 5-1-1 mix of either palm/ cactus soil or peat moss,  pine bark fines (smaller) or orchid bark, and pearlite.  this is a fast draining mix that does not keep a high perched water table in the pot which can cause root root in many palms / plants in general.  Though this particular palm is known to be able to be fully submerged for periods of time in its natural habitat and probably never actually dries out in some places where it is native.    Also, get it a plant stand so little kitty cant get into the pot to use has his litter box!   Hope this helps! 

[globvs]

Thanks for the replies!

My palm has seemed to have recovered quite nicely since the one rotted stalk came off. However, when I went to water her today, I noticed several tiny gnats flying around on the surface of the soil. I’ve done a little research and has reached no conclusion on how to get rid of the gnats. Any advice would be appreciated!

[JohnAndSancho]

Fungus gnats. 

 

You can buy Mosquito Bits or Mosquito Dunks and add them to your water. Beneficial Nematodes will work too, or you can add a layer of sand/clay/rocks to the top of the soil. 

[globvs]

Okay. I already have big rocks on the surface of the soil to keep my kitten from using the pot as a litter box. But I can pick up some sand and put the rocks on top of that. 
Do I need to get rid of the top layer of soil first? My pot is one where you can water it from the bottom, so I can start doing that also. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Nah. If you put about 1" of sand on the top, the gnats won't be able to lay eggs in the soil. But - i use those pots too, and the sand I bought all ended up in the bottom of my pot from watering lol. The easiest way to get rid of them is the mosquito bits. They're pet safe. Just add a little bit to your water and let them break down a little bit. The big box stores also sell nematodes in "pod poppers," it's like 12 bucks for 12 little sugar packet sized pouches of nematodes. They'll live in the soil and eat the gnat eggs and larvae. Super easy, just dig around in the soil and drop the packet and cover it up. The packets are biodegradable. 

 

I use both, and it's probably overkill but I haven't seen a gnat in months. 

[globvs]

Thanks for the advise. Where do I get the mosquito bits or the nematodes?

[JohnAndSancho]

Either scamazon or the big box store with the orange logo's website if they aren't available local. Either way they'll last you a while unless you've got a ton of plants. 

[globvs]

I purchased some nematodes. Thank you. 
Sadly, this morning I went to check on my girl and noticed that another stalk (making it the second one) has now rotted at the base. It was quite easy to remove it as the bottom was rotted all the way through. Do I need to uproot her and check for root rot? 
The other stalks all appear healthy, from base to tip  

 

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

On 12/7/2020 at 10:12 AM, globvs said:

I purchased some nematodes. Thank you. 
Sadly, this morning I went to check on my girl and noticed that another stalk (making it the second one) has now rotted at the base. It was quite easy to remove it as the bottom was rotted all the way through. Do I need to uproot her and check for root rot? 
The other stalks all appear healthy, from base to tip  

 

That is a shame.  Hard to tell if that is rot, or possibly some sort of fungal infection.  I suppose it could be a bit of both.   These palms should not have much issues with being overwatered as they are pretty much water hogs from my experience.     Perhaps someone with more experience with spotting fungal issues will chime in.   If it is fungal you can treat  the palm with a fungicide  and see how that works. That usually stops it.

 

[JohnAndSancho]

@globvs how's your girl doing? 

I ended up having to prune some stems off my big one due to a mix of mealybugs, me forgetting to water it for a week, and I think it got a little cold due to drafts around my door. But it's throwing up a new leaf pretty much every time I look at it now so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[globvs]

I put 3 billion nematodes in about six days ago, so I have only seen one or two gnats in the past two days. She’s doing quite well! No more bruising at the bases of any of the other stalks. We’re on the road to recovery!