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HELP ME PLEASE! DYING WASHINGTONIA BABY!


jruffd13

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Good Morning to all my Palm friends,  

This is "Mateo"Ruffner, he is a Washingtonia Robusta, he was born with a bunch of Robustas that I got from seed at the Jupiter Inlet in Florida.  He was growing really well this summer outside then I put him indoors in the winter.  On 12/1 I noticed he wasn't shooting up a new frond and there were a TON of little red bugs on the plant, I killed them with neem oil (but it seems like the neem was killing it and maybe making the leaves yellow).  I think it was root rot because it wasn't getting enough drainage, (I was an idiot and put a lot of perlite at the bottom of the pot thinking it would help drainage but it blocked the water :( ) but it has been two days since I repotted and used just moss and palm soil from miracle grow.  How long will it take for him to "bounce back"?... or will he ever bounce back, is it too late?  I love my robustas and this has never happened :(  What steps should I take to save him.  Thank you for all support!

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I really think you should use a more course mix, that won't hold water for very long. Sure your mix might drain quickly but it could be retaining water for much longer and that's no good indoors when it's not hot.

Maybe somebody knows more than I do but that's what I would do is make the mix more course, neem oil wouldn't have any effect on washies leaves

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Neem oil under bright light can burn leaves, just like any other spray oil and some of the things like "Palm Nutritional Spray" from SouthernAg.  So it's possible that you burnt the leaves if the lighting was *really* strong.  Generally it's recommended to do those sprays in the evening and let them dry and work overnight.  Otherwise the droplets can end up being tiny magnifying glasses and burn the leaves.  I torched a sago by spraying it with neem oil in the middle of the afternoon in summer here in Floriduh.  The burn could be from the bugs or the neem.

That being said, I agree with ZPalms, the soil mix looks pretty heavy.  I haven't heard of perlite blocking drain holes, but I've never tried doing a layer at the bottom.  Everyone has their favorite mix, but typically ~50% inorganic is a good starting point.  I do equal parts generic topsoil, very small pine bark, perlite, Turface MVP as my basic mix.  I add maybe 10% Sakrete Paver Base (crushed limestone gravel) to most mixes to try and counteract the inevitable acidity of decomposition.  For dry palms and things like agaves and aloes I do about 75% (or more) inorganic, and for wet palms like Licuala I add a little more organics.  There are a few good threads here on soil mixes, Pal Meir has a good mix for longterm pot growing.  As a "basic" mix you could do 50/50 potting soil & perlite.  Most people recommend using small gravel sized pumice instead of perlite, as it has cation exchange capacity that perlite does not.

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12 hours ago, Merlyn said:

Neem oil under bright light can burn leaves, just like any other spray oil and some of the things like "Palm Nutritional Spray" from SouthernAg.  So it's possible that you burnt the leaves if the lighting was *really* strong.  Generally it's recommended to do those sprays in the evening and let them dry and work overnight.  Otherwise the droplets can end up being tiny magnifying glasses and burn the leaves.  I torched a sago by spraying it with neem oil in the middle of the afternoon in summer here in Floriduh.  The burn could be from the bugs or the neem.

That being said, I agree with ZPalms, the soil mix looks pretty heavy.  I haven't heard of perlite blocking drain holes, but I've never tried doing a layer at the bottom.  Everyone has their favorite mix, but typically ~50% inorganic is a good starting point.  I do equal parts generic topsoil, very small pine bark, perlite, Turface MVP as my basic mix.  I add maybe 10% Sakrete Paver Base (crushed limestone gravel) to most mixes to try and counteract the inevitable acidity of decomposition.  For dry palms and things like agaves and aloes I do about 75% (or more) inorganic, and for wet palms like Licuala I add a little more organics.  There are a few good threads here on soil mixes, Pal Meir has a good mix for longterm pot growing.  As a "basic" mix you could do 50/50 potting soil & perlite.  Most people recommend using small gravel sized pumice instead of perlite, as it has cation exchange capacity that perlite does not.

What he said. 

 

The Pal Meir mix is dope, but you'll have to water it a lot more often. I've got my Lytocaryum Weddellanium growing in his mix. 

 

Most of my plants are in a mix of garden soil, Repti Bark from Petco, LECA pellets, and Mondo Clay which is a more expensive version of Turface MVP. On one hand I'm a small time amateur hobbyist, but I also have like 30 something potted plants in a tiny apartment too, and if I had known I'd end up with so many plants I would have bought the Turface instead of paying 3 times as much for a fraction of the product. 

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Thank you all so much.  I always receive such good feedback from the community.  Thanks ZPalms, Merlyn, and JoeAndSancho!  From now on I will use the Turace MVP Mix!

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