Jelly Palm dull green not healthy

[Benny1984]

Hi I have recently invested in a show piece palm tree I re potted it when I got in 4ft pot with plenty of drainage soil sand compost mixture on a drainage stone/ sand Base . Unfortunately this tree is not thriving it was fertilised with a  general granual fertiliser.  As I live in irealnd weather is quite harsh at times wet and windy. Please advise how I can improve the trees health.

[SeanK]

Looks good considering the size of the palm and the size of the pot. Do your winter nights stay above -10°C?

[Harry’s Palms]

In my experience , Butia want lots of sun . They are very hardy in cooler weather but need periods of good , warm sun to thrive. By looking at the photos , it appears that it was planted a bit too high in the pot . When potting plants , there should be at least a couple of inches of rim above the soil line so that you can fill the space with water . This allows the water to fully reach and soak the root ball. With the soil level that high it would be hard to get the root ball soaked equally . Harry

[happypalms]

Like @Harry’s Palms says they love sun, the brighter the better. You have a lot of white rocks and retainer wall tiles white  in colour, reflecting light so that’s a good thing for your palm, I suspect the cool weather in not so sunny Ireland is a major cause of not powering along like you wish. I may suggest you need to try and warm the container up for better root development and warmer soil by raising the container temperature your palm may feel a bit warmer, cold roots equals slow growth, try using warm water when watering your palm, black rocks as mulch on top of the container absorbing more sun for thermal mass release at night and in helping warm the container soil up. Use insulation under the container to seperate the container from the cold ground. A block  of styrofoam or whatever you can find to insulate with. 

[Slifer00]

On 6/9/2025 at 7:18 PM, Benny1984 said:

Hi I have recently invested in a show piece palm tree I re potted it when I got in 4ft pot with plenty of drainage soil sand compost mixture on a drainage stone/ sand Base . Unfortunately this tree is not thriving it was fertilised with a  general granual fertiliser.  As I live in irealnd weather is quite harsh at times wet and windy. Please advise how I can improve the trees health.

Such is the life of a butia in our cool summer climate. They can take our winters just fine, but they will just very slowly decline without supplemental heat during the growing season. There is even 2 large ones planted in the dublin city centre, one of them has even shrunk since 2009 https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3450459,-6.2396719,3a,75y,131.89h,95.31t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sWwVcQ9J2731gmlIv4gDAHA!2e0!5s20241001T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-5.314521067305023%26panoid%3DWwVcQ9J2731gmlIv4gDAHA%26yaw%3D131.88788351969168!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYyMy4yIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[SeanK]

Check the soil temperature. Compare it to someplace like Savannah, GA.