What’s going on with my Bismarck Palm?

[Juanaramirez]

Does anyone have any idea what’s going on with my palm? Does it need more water, soil, fertilizer? New position? 

It gets about 6 hours of sun. I noticed the middle branch coming out is turning brown and yellow, while the new one is greenish see first three pics :(.

The soil is moist and wet and It takes about 7-10 days to dry out. It’s been in this pot for years now so I’m not sure what’s going on. 
 

I’m watering once a week and it gets a little drizzle from the rain but not a lot since is protected. There has been some wind in LA so it’s getting a little beat. It has two walls behind it. The plant is on the southeast corner with a wall on the south and east with sun coming from west and north after 1pm. 

[D. Morrowii]

That certainly doesn't look good. One important thing to know about Bismarckia is that they are notoriously root sensitive. I see a lot of roots exposed there. The pot appears to be pretty small for that palm as well. Does that pot have a lot of holes in the bottom? Good drainage is pretty important for most palms this one included. I don't know enough to say for sure that your palm is a goner and it may be worth a little effort to try and revive it. If it were mine I would first pull firmly on that new frond to make sure that crown rot hasn't set in. If it pulls out then you probably have some kind of fungus in there. Not good. If it holds you are in better shape, then I would very carefully repot it into a larger pot without damaging any of the roots. The soil should be a very fast draining mix without a lot of organic material. Others will probably chime in with better advise. Good luck with it I hope it pulls through for you. 

[D. Morrowii]

I forgot to mention these palms will take all the sun and heat you can give them. 

[Juanaramirez]

Do you mean to pull out the frond completely that hasn’t opened up that looks dry? Or do you mean give it a tug only just to see what happens?

Also, in the second pic, there’s a smaller or core frond that is coming out behind the bad one. Is that a bad one too. It looks green with some small brown and yellow spotting. 

Im going to try to repot tomorrow. It’s currently on a 15”inch pot. I’m going to put it one 25” inch pot. I will use cactus and palm soil?

[D. Morrowii]

8 hours ago, Juanaramirez said:

Do you mean to pull out the frond completely that hasn’t opened up that looks dry? Or do you mean give it a tug only just to see what happens?

Also, in the second pic, there’s a smaller or core frond that is coming out behind the bad one. Is that a bad one too. It looks green with some small brown and yellow spotting. 

Im going to try to repot tomorrow. It’s currently on a 15”inch pot. I’m going to put it one 25” inch pot. I will use cactus and palm soil?

Just pull on the dry one that is starting to open and just to see what happens. You’ll need to pull firmly but not too aggressively. As far as the newest (small) frond thats coming out you could take a marker and draw a line on it along one of the older fronds and see if its still growing. Check it in the next day or two, If it’s growing at all thats a good sign if not then you have a more issues. Don’t try to pull on the little nub though. 
For soil if you mean the bagged MG palm and cactus soil, that stuff is not that great especially for this palm. If you do use it you should add some perlite and/or coarse sand to it to make it drain better. 
My guess is that the dried out exposed roots might be part of your problem but that maybe the pot that its in does not drain well. It sounds like its been in that pot for a long time though. If you do up pot it make sure the new pot has several 1/2” holes around the perimeter and at least one in the middle. 

[Juanaramirez]

Ok. So I gave the branch coming out a tug and it easily came out. There’s a new one that’s small that I left alone. 
 

The branch that I took out slowly and carefully which was extremely loose, had a sort of white slime at the end of the branch where it came from. Not sure what is this. 
 

any thoughts?

[RussellO]

I think you probably saved your palm by getting rid of that damaged/diseased frond. Watch the new one carefully to make sure you don’t have a fungal problem. Try to not get any water in the crown. 

[D. Morrowii]

Oh boy, @Juanaramirez I missed your response about the spear pulling out, sorry. Its been 3 weeks so I’m thinking it could be too late to treat that. Normally if the spear pulls you would pour some 3% Hydrogen Peroxide down into hole where the spear pulled out. You would repeat that treatment a few times waiting a couple of days between treatments each time. Alternating between HP and another fungicide like Daconil is probably more effective. I’m probably too late with the advise though. I suppose there is a chance its still hanging on, if so a round of treatment is worth a try.

[Bkue]

They hate containers and need sun. They don’t like to be transplanted. IMO water is secondary to root containment.