PLEASE URGENT HELP, KENTIA MISTERY MULTIPLE DESEASE PROBLEM. IT ALREADY MAY BE TOO LATE. PLEASE

[Bojan]

Dear all, I'm dying from inside for a month, not having solved the issue yet, although contacted and asked almost all fito medicals and nurseries.

Have the plant since 2020, it was 2 meters tall, 1 meter wide that time, possibly more than 10 years old that time. It was all honey and milk since last month and a half. First, the tallest and biggest frond started yellowing from one side to the another, turnung into brown, gray, dark brown, looked like classic over watering sign although i let the soil almost completely dry before next watwring. It's on the North Side, 2 meters from window, having few plants in between, but it didn't mind them for those 5 years, was doing wonderful, i have 6,7 maybe 10 new fronds and 4,5 new spikes, i was taking extra care of her and she is the main star of my collection. Every 2 weeks i wiped every single leaf with soapy water, in the evenings and night, i have 3 more LED lamps that glow for my succulent collection, Phoenix palm, and for Kentia itself, to add an extra hour of light if it was dark outside or during winter.

So, after lost of my first frond i wasn't panicking at all, but the next one showed up, the morning straight after the watering, 2 weeks after the first frond. And it wasn't over watering, it was some sick illness, half of the frond become gray, dark yellow, transculent, bunch of different symptoms. Gauge said it was root rot, but when i opened it, roots were healthier than me... white, firm, daggering.. It was slightly rootbound, but nothing special since there's 5 stalks in the pot. So roots were perfect, i changed the soil, sterilized the pot, submereged root ball in Peroxide solution for 10 minutes, and put it back, i hope safely. Then i applied SWITCH fungicide for Black Mold Desease of Kentia, what app and Gog sources gave me. Seemed logic, aphids or scales were the enemies, and their body liquids form that specific gray mold that started to show on, each new day, i have another infected leaf. For now i have 4 of them completely discoloured, honestly i have ever never saw something like thi even though currently i have about 3k pots in my app, and have killed even more than that last 10 years. It must be a combo of different problems. Since it looks really baaaad. And is progressive as speed of light. Another day i applied Acarycide, insecticide, but before i wiped every single leaf with rubbing alcohol day before going for any mites or aphids potentially underneath the leaf... All the time i have base of the pot covered with shirt so that water doesn't drip down the pot.

Funny stuff is when i pour Hydrogen Peroxide in soil, it bubbles a lot.. I mean bubbled before i changed it, but now, the very bottom of the base of the stem, that cottony gray membranish bark if i descripted well, the cover around the stems of a stalk that keeps them together, when Peroxide was poured into, boyyy was that a hydrogen at its full force, it was bubbling for hours, could be heared from another room.

So i decided, as someone earlier told me, dont save the dry fronds and keep dead canopies just for rustic appearance, cut it all off, so i pulled all the parts around the stem, leaving them barfoot literally. But fungus or God knows what free. I don't know if the are supposed to be green and unprotected. Not to mention that this removal didn't stop the problem.

I will add more detais if i remebmer, ask anything you want, i will pray for the person as if saves my plant, that's how it's important to me. So fungicide, Acarycide, Peroxide and today i sprayed a little Copper based fungicide since it worked best for me anytime, but this is a fungus. It might have been or still are scales, it might be virus, it might be that Black Mold Desease of Kentia, it may be aphids,mites, but nothing sticky showed up anytime. The dust on photos on the leaves is fungicide. I heared that the frond age for Kentia is about 5 years, but i dont think it's that.

This probably is something BIG and Mysterious since it's rate is almost exponential. Please, please, please help, i am desperate. Everybody tells the different story, but anyhow, any preparate doesn't work. Thank you a lot, everyone, feel free to ask, appreciate any bit of help and your experiences. This winter, particularly January and February were pretty cloudy, and last 3 weeks we had 1 sunny day.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Bojan

[SeanK]

Are these Kentias?

To me, the roots look ok but the soil should not stay damp. Next, I would NOT pour H2O2 into the soil as it will be taken up in the plant's vascular system. 

I use it on my wounds but I don't drink it.

[Bojan]

Yes, Kentias, 6 stalks. A gentleman that has a very popular YouTube plants channel, told me he does so with a hydrogen solution with water and Kentias seems to like it. Just a half of cup in the centre of the rootball. I don't drink it earher and was a bit finicky about that, but since i am desperate i had to try it, since it looks like some kind of virus or bacteria though.

Thanks for reply,

Bojan

[happypalms]

Overwatering them!

[Bojan]

  On 4/12/2025 at 7:33 AM, happypalms said:

Overwatering them!

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Thanks for the reply, i water it on same schedule for 5 years, and was doing pretty well. The only difference i stopped wiping the leaves every 2 weeks year and a half ago when i lost my father. She only drank destilled bottled water, but i stopped using it as well since that period. I dont think its overwatwatering, i pulled it out and roots were firm, white, as sharks teeth. But since repot and fresh soil, which i should have never done, i lost the whole plant, 6 stalks, have left only 2 leaves and 2 spikes, from 2 leftover stems . I know the tempo and colour of overwatwatered plants, since now i have 3. 000 of them, plus had killed about 2 timea more in the beginnings. I'll post the picture, if it wasn't evenly distributed, the bloches, i would blame Fusaarium. But now i ended up not knowing what the cause was. Some people from nurseries told me that palms in continental climates just have.  Those days, or prolonged months of being sickish and unsatisfied, we had like 10 sunny days this winter. But i never ever had lost a plant this fast. Even peperomias, which I never get to successfully grow, were dying slower than this.

Thank you a lot, but we've lost this fight. I have another one coming, don't know what kind of pathogen it is, but it might be attacking my Phoenix C., that, the same as Kentia, just woke up with almost complete yellow frond. And there you might be right, since i watered it last night and it's still coldish outside, 11-22 Celsius and have no heating in app since 15.april. It's colder in app than outside since its a building.

Thanks a lot for the answer, i wish it was overwatwring, i pray actually 😬

[happypalms]

  On 4/24/2025 at 2:47 PM, Bojan said:

Thanks for the reply, i water it on same schedule for 5 years, and was doing pretty well. The only difference i stopped wiping the leaves every 2 weeks year and a half ago when i lost my father. She only drank destilled bottled water, but i stopped using it as well since that period. I dont think its overwatwatering, i pulled it out and roots were firm, white, as sharks teeth. But since repot and fresh soil, which i should have never done, i lost the whole plant, 6 stalks, have left only 2 leaves and 2 spikes, from 2 leftover stems . I know the tempo and colour of overwatwatered plants, since now i have 3. 000 of them, plus had killed about 2 timea more in the beginnings. I'll post the picture, if it wasn't evenly distributed, the bloches, i would blame Fusaarium. But now i ended up not knowing what the cause was. Some people from nurseries told me that palms in continental climates just have.  Those days, or prolonged months of being sickish and unsatisfied, we had like 10 sunny days this winter. But i never ever had lost a plant this fast. Even peperomias, which I never get to successfully grow, were dying slower than this.

Thank you a lot, but we've lost this fight. I have another one coming, don't know what kind of pathogen it is, but it might be attacking my Phoenix C., that, the same as Kentia, just woke up with almost complete yellow frond. And there you might be right, since i watered it last night and it's still coldish outside, 11-22 Celsius and have no heating in app since 15.april. It's colder in app than outside since its a building.

Thanks a lot for the answer, i wish it was overwatwring, i pray actually 😬

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Sorry to hear about your father I know the feeling I too to have lost my father to cancer I is very upsetting. If you remember him every day he is not gone and is living with you. Indoor growing can be tricky when it goes wrong it definitely goes wrong in big way. You sound like a good grower with good experience in indoor plants. Most times overwatering is the main cause, it may be a fungal infection in the soil you used, phytophera may be one problem which is fungal it’s tricky unless you do a complete soil leaf analysis, only knowledge gained over time can really pin point the problem good luck.