Majesty Palms not doing well indoors this winter

[kjd 3]

We bought these majesty palms from a local florist last summer and had them out on our deck. We live in Wisconsin and it gets fairly hot and humid during the summer, but obviously in the winter it gets cold. We moved them indoors once it started getting cold. We have a large room with a lot of windows where they receive sun for about half the day. Its 70 degrees inside and 30% humidity.  The fronds have slowly turned brown and died off (see pictures). There are a couple unhealthy looking sprouts. I had another one of these that I had in Michigan for 5 years that was grown inside the entire time in similar conditions and ended up getting huge. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any suggestions?

[JLM 1,171]

How big is the pot? Does it have drain holes?
Lightly pull on the spear, if it comes out, trash it.
You can mark the spear and a nearby frond to monitor spear growth if it doesnt pull. If you are getting no growth, its probably a goner.
I will say, the spears look healthy for the most part.

[kjd 3]

6 minutes ago, JLM said:

How big is the pot? Does it have drain holes?
Lightly pull on the spear, if it comes out, trash it.
You can mark the spear and a nearby frond to monitor spear growth if it doesnt pull. If you are getting no growth, its probably a goner.
I will say, the spears look healthy for the most part.

Thanks for the reply. I did pull on the spears and they feel like they're in there solid. The pots are the cheap plastic ones they came in - about 2 gallon I suppose. They do have drain holes. They are just sitting in a much bigger decorative pot for now. I moved them to a different part of the room just now and I'll mark them to see if anything happens over the course of the next couple weeks.

[Allen 1,273]

Usually it' the low humidity indoors that does these in.  You may have to just buy new ones at Lowes/HD in spring.  If you have a garage that is unheated but stays above freezing the humidity might be better there.  If indoors keep away from heated air blowing for sure.  

Edited January 13 by Allen

[oasis371 417]

Allen, It's WISCONSIN, I would not suggest a garage. An unheated garage there is known as a sub-zero refrigerator. They are NOT easy indoor palms anywhere. Fingers crosses, mine is actually do very well this year in my bright, warm basement, but I get it outta the house ASAP. So in February, it probably will go into my loft garage until I cant get it outside.  But the one posted by the OP looks too far gone.  This species unusual among palms,  they actually enjoy being kept too wet, they are water-loving "rheophytes" and grow along riverbanks.  Heat air blowing is lethal as Allen said, thank goodness I have steam heat.

[Allen 1,273]

8 minutes ago, oasis371 said:

Allen, It's WISCONSIN, I would not suggest a garage. An unheated garage there is known as a sub-zero refrigerator. They are NOT easy indoor palms anywhere. Fingers crosses, mine is actually do very well this year in my bright, warm basement, but I get it outta the house ASAP. So in February, it probably will go into my loft garage until I cant get it outside.  But the one posted by the OP looks too far gone.  This species unusual among palms,  they actually enjoy being kept too wet, they are water-loving "rheophytes" and grow along riverbanks.  Heat air blowing is lethal as Allen said, thank goodness I have steam heat.

I guess I was being overoptimistic about the garage as you said.  Anywhere that it stays in the 40-50F range would be fine.  My garage is a anomaly and has insulated doors and parts of the house on 3 sides of it (Above it and 2 sides) so even being unheated it stays 60F even with single digits outside.  

[oasis371 417]

Attached garages are very different. I have two garages, both detached, one gets heated some for the plant hoard, the other get no heating.

 

 

[Rickybobby 1,231]

There toast. Sorry. I’ve had majesty in dry conditions no problem!  If the soil stays wet or you water too much it will kill them

[Palmlover_78 129]

I now people who use these as annuals. They are cheap and always readily available. Toss em don't waste your time and effort.

[kjd 3]

Just to update... I moved the palms to a different part of the room to see if they would get better sunlight and also put them next to one of the portable humidifiers. I had intended to install a whole home humidifier even before this issue due to the dry air in our house and have now had that installed about a week ago. Our humidity is now usually 36-40% in the house. One of the palms is starting to look a lot better, but the other still struggling a little bit maybe.

[JLM 1,171]

15 hours ago, kjd said:

Just to update... I moved the palms to a different part of the room to see if they would get better sunlight and also put them next to one of the portable humidifiers. I had intended to install a whole home humidifier even before this issue due to the dry air in our house and have now had that installed about a week ago. Our humidity is now usually 36-40% in the house. One of the palms is starting to look a lot better, but the other still struggling a little bit maybe.

Excellent! They are coming along nicely. My Majesty just got cold burned recently, might defoliate tonight with temps down into the mid 20's. I put a sheet over it this time but that will only help with the frost, not the 26F. Your majesty looks similar to what my foxtail did at the beginning of the growing season, the dog chewed all the fronds off over the winter. It now has 2 fronds and is growing nicely in the ground up to this point.

[PalmatierMeg 7,339]

On 1/15/2022 at 1:14 AM, Palmlover_78 said:

I now people who use these as annuals. They are cheap and always readily available. Toss em don't waste your time and effort.

Amen.

[Rickybobby 1,231]

Wow interesting