Poorly Palm

[Becky]

Hi,

I bought this (kentia?) palm about 9 weeks ago, knowing literally nothing about plants. It started off doing ok, looking good. But over the last couple of weeks there has been a rapid decline. 
 

It has started drooping? Yellowing/browning. It just looks really sorry for itself. From what I read overwatering was a major risk so I kept watering to about 500ml once a week (or less if the soil was still damp). 
 

There is no drainage in the pot and it’s in the soil it came with. It’s kept out of direct sunlight but in a bright room which sits between 20-24oC. I occasionally spray it with a water mist (about 2-3 times a week). 
 

Happy to do anything to help it so all suggestions welcome. Thank you in advance! 

[JohnAndSancho]

No drainage is definitely a problem, I'd start there. 

 

I'm not much help at saving these, but I'm really good at killing them. 

[Rickybobby]

Pot needs drainage for sure! Drill holes on the bottom and put a saucer to collect water. I know see the pot is in a decorative pot. Yeah no good no standing water on the bottom for sure. 

[Becky]

I’ve transferred it back into a nursery pot with drainage holes and changed the soil to a half potting compost, half perlite mix. I have also tied some twine around the base to help support the droopy leaves. Pray for her! 

[PalmsandLiszt]

16 hours ago, Becky said:

Hi,

I bought this (kentia?) palm about 9 weeks ago, knowing literally nothing about plants. It started off doing ok, looking good. But over the last couple of weeks there has been a rapid decline. 
 

It has started drooping? Yellowing/browning. It just looks really sorry for itself. From what I read overwatering was a major risk so I kept watering to about 500ml once a week (or less if the soil was still damp). 
 

There is no drainage in the pot and it’s in the soil it came with. It’s kept out of direct sunlight but in a bright room which sits between 20-24oC. I occasionally spray it with a water mist (about 2-3 times a week). 
 

Happy to do anything to help it so all suggestions welcome. Thank you in advance! 

Definitely get it into a pot with proper drainage. You can always conceal a nursery pot within a decorative pot without drainage if you wish.

Secondly, it's probably in some horrible nursery medium, likely mostly peat or coir peat, which works fine in the high-humidity, high-light environment of a nursery greenhouse, but is terrible in the average house. I'd try to gently loosen the outer layers of this to remove what you can (without disturbing the central part) and repot in a slightly larger pot in a well-draining medium. A mixture of pine bark chips, coir chips, seramis, pumice, sand, leca—these make a good, free-draining medium. I'd not use more than 15-20% soil/compost, and you could probably get away with none at all. When repotted, water the outer part more often than the centre; this will encourage the roots to grow out where they can get oxygen.

Thirdly, if it's a nursery-gown plant, it was probably in rather more humid conditions and the leaves are attuned to higher humidity. If you can sort the medium out, new leaves should be more attuned to your conditions.

Fourthly, I see it's right next to a radiator, which isn't a good place to put a single plant if the radiator is in use. You can certainly grow plants next to or on top of radiators if you have a room completely full of plants, and the radiator is just moving already humid air around, but otherwise the convection will strip away the humid microclimate and cause browning.

Fifthly, how much light is it getting? These palms will tolerate lower light levels than many others but they still need decently bright indirect light.

That's just my 2 cents. Kentias are good indoor plants, but they're not Aspidistras!

[Becky]

53 minutes ago, PalmsandLiszt said:

Definitely get it into a pot with proper drainage. You can always conceal a nursery pot within a decorative pot without drainage if you wish.

Secondly, it's probably in some horrible nursery medium, likely mostly peat or coir peat, which works fine in the high-humidity, high-light environment of a nursery greenhouse, but is terrible in the average house. I'd try to gently loosen the outer layers of this to remove what you can (without disturbing the central part) and repot in a slightly larger pot in a well-draining medium. A mixture of pine bark chips, coir chips, seramis, pumice, sand, leca—these make a good, free-draining medium. I'd not use more than 15-20% soil/compost, and you could probably get away with none at all. When repotted, water the outer part more often than the centre; this will encourage the roots to grow out where they can get oxygen.

Thirdly, if it's a nursery-gown plant, it was probably in rather more humid conditions and the leaves are attuned to higher humidity. If you can sort the medium out, new leaves should be more attuned to your conditions.

Fourthly, I see it's right next to a radiator, which isn't a good place to put a single plant if the radiator is in use. You can certainly grow plants next to or on top of radiators if you have a room completely full of plants, and the radiator is just moving already humid air around, but otherwise the convection will strip away the humid microclimate and cause browning.

Fifthly, how much light is it getting? These palms will tolerate lower light levels than many others but they still need decently bright indirect light.

That's just my 2 cents. Kentias are good indoor plants, but they're not Aspidistras!

Hi, thanks for the reply. We only moved in in March so haven’t had the radiators on at all since we’ve had the plants, we’re in a flat so it stays warm without needing them on. We have glass double doors (109o east) and large window (197o south) so it gets a lot of light without actually being in direct sun. 
 

I have repotted today back to a nursery pot with drainage holes and a perlite/compost 50/50 mix. I’ve tied the lower stems together with twine to support the weight of them drooping. I’ve got some Palm Focus nutrient stuff that I’ve added to the water and watered until there was run off. (See my previous reply for pictures) Fingers crossed it picks up! 

[PalmsandLiszt]

17 minutes ago, Becky said:

Hi, thanks for the reply. We only moved in in March so haven’t had the radiators on at all since we’ve had the plants, we’re in a flat so it stays warm without needing them on. We have glass double doors (109o east) and large window (197o south) so it gets a lot of light without actually being in direct sun. 
 

I have repotted today back to a nursery pot with drainage holes and a perlite/compost 50/50 mix. I’ve tied the lower stems together with twine to support the weight of them drooping. I’ve got some Palm Focus nutrient stuff that I’ve added to the water and watered until there was run off. (See my previous reply for pictures) Fingers crossed it picks up! 

Sorry, you typed your update just when I was typing my post. Perlite is certainly better than nothing, but I'd have gone with something chunkier. You want plenty of air pockets around the roots. I'm afraid feeding it probably wasn't the best thing to do; only feed palms when they're happy (unless they're unhappy due to lack of nutrients). The palms are poorly because the chemistry is wrong somewhere; that chemistry needs to be right before you supply them with more chemicals.

You have at least three palms in that pot; kentias do not sucker. Don't be too surprised if you lose the weaker one(s); they're all competing for resources in conditions they don't like. I'm not sure what else to suggest that is practical, so hope they make it and best of luck.