Red Latan issues?

[JohnAndSancho]

Do y'all see anything funky on here? I've been raving about what a great houseplant this has been for a couple years now and I just had to cut 3 brown fronds off of it. Maybe I'm overly cautious but I hit it with copper fungicide. The only thing I can think of that's changed is it's a lot hotter inside now that the AC is broken. It hovers around 90° inside and yes, it's just as miserable as it sounds - I have a window open and a box fan blowing out, but it's still hot and crazy humid indoors.... I always thought the little white specks were just tomentum since they always show up on new growth and it's been happy until apparently today. Maybe it's time to repot and change the soil? I can't handle an insect outbreak and I kinda figured with the heavier tougher foliage these would be less appealing for bugs. 

 

[Hu Palmeras]

What a beautiful palm tree, my friend. Congratulations

[JohnAndSancho]

Does it maybe need more water now that it's so hot in here?

[JohnAndSancho]

Anybody? I even used the Latin name this time 😂

[JohnAndSancho]

Bump again? Now this frond is browning. 

[JohnAndSancho]

In retrospect, I wish I had done this outside. But I threw it in the shower and blasted the remaining fronds in case there's bugs, and I stuck my hands in there - even though I flooded it with at least 5 gallons of water, there's dry pockets and I think it's just outgrowing the 3 gallon pot. It's super super rooty in there and the roots are smashed up against the pot. It's in a 3 gallon but I've had it for what, 2 years now?

Also, as always, I poked through the drain holes and made sure it's draining well and aerated and stirred the soil around a bit. Maybe I try giving it some fresh soil tomorrow and see how that goes? Maybe move it up in the pot? There's 2 or 3 inches of vertical room. 

[Harry’s Palms]

John , the only thing I could think of is maybe needing a cooling period at night. I don’t have any Latania palms but I saw bunches when I was in Hawaii. They seem to do well in warm weather . I would use diluted dish soap and a wet rag to remove any mealy bugs ( if that’s what is there) . Maybe check the bottom of the root ball if it is easy enough to slide out of the pot . Something is going on  and it would be a shame to lose that palm. Harry

[JohnAndSancho]

Just now, Harry’s Palms said:

John , the only thing I could think of is maybe needing a cooling period at night. I don’t have any Latania palms but I saw bunches when I was in Hawaii. They seem to do well in warm weather . I would use diluted dish soap and a wet rag to remove any mealy bugs ( if that’s what is there) . Maybe check the bottom of the root ball if it is easy enough to slide out of the pot . Something is going on  and it would be a shame to lose that palm. Harry

It might. It's gotten acclimated to the high 70s indoors and with the AC broken it's been a lot hotter. It's getting down into the 70s and 60s at night so maybe I'll move it outside for a bit. But you're right. It's gorgeous and it wasn't cheap. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Welpers, I know I ran TONS of water through it last night. I left it sitting in the shower to drain, and the soil was pretty dry. 

 

Either a) the soil is really old and had become compacted and hydrophobic, or b) it was REALLY thirsty. Personally I don't think this palm is big enough to have soaked up THAT much water, sooooo 

 

Off to the... I don't know what to call this. Grow room makes it sound like I'm growing weed, I'm not quite crazy enough to call it a lab, let's just call it the J&SEMPC office. 

 

I didn't take a picture of the naked root ball, but it clearly sank down in the pot over time and aside from a few very wet pockets, the soil was disturbingly dry. This isn't my first rodeo, I suck at lots of things, but I can pot up plants and water them properly. 

 

Anyway, I threw some gravel in the very bottom, and mixed a couple of handfuls of Ocean Forest in with a good amount of the stuff I whipped up for my bananas - cheap potting soil, cow poop from the yellow bag, and perlite in.. I dunno, maybe a 35/35/30 ratio? Anyway I added a couple extra handfuls of Perlite too, and potted it up so it's not sunk 4" down in the pot. 

 

This is something I hate about palms sometimes - they grow and react so slowly, that by the time you can tell there's a problem, it's critical. The roots were all still firm, no stink, and what was black was also soaking wet and had old soil stuck to it. Anyway, did this and flooded it and now I guess I wait a year to see if it starts pushing out new red and green fronds again.