It doesn't look good for my kentia. I had it planted in a spot where It got way too much sun, and waited too long to move it. The new leaves on the two biggest of the triple are looking brown, dead and very scorched. Also, many of the older leaves are burnt. The littlest kentia is doing ok though. What should I do with my kentia?
dig it up, pot it up and get it into the shade. palms don't need an enormous pot. trim all the dead leaves that are crisp. any that still have green on them leave for now. palms take nourishment from their oldest leaves first. water it well when you first transplant, then just let it rest. don't feed it for awhile, 3 mos. or so. as long as the new buds are green it should come out of it. important thing is move it. debi
Thanks for the reply. I did move it to a more shady spot, but I'm worried about the two biggest palms since their new spears are fried.
Worry not until the whole tree dies. We have transplanted palms with fried or broken spears and they recoverd. Water into the crown shaft where the leaves come out of....Good luck.
Carol
Why would you water into the crownshaft?
two of those palms look dead, but the palm on the far left seems to be alive still. Might also decide just to keep them there. Howeas can survive a lot more sun than you give them credit for.. .these look like something else bad is happening to them... have they gotten overhead water? Not sure why the new leaves would be dying like that unless you are getting crown/but rot. Sometimes you can luck out, yank out the rotted new leaf, and pour an antifungal, or diluted bleach down the hole and your palm could possible recover... but not likely. Something must have really either shocked these palms to pieces, or they got water from overhead. Moving them now is not likely to save their lives, in my opinion.
water weekly at ground level. I have seen kentias in full sun in Calif many times, but they need more water if in the sun..Feed occasionally too with a good palm fertilizer.
I went ahead and tugged on the new fried leaf of one of the bigger kentias, and it looks like bud rot (see pic). The other kentia with the fried spear didn't come out, but I suspect it is just a matter of time. What causes bud rot in california, too much overhead watering, anything else? I read about a disease, phytophthora bud rot, that is said to be a soilborne fungus found in the wet tropics. Should I be worried about something in my soil?
Yanked out the rest of the new leaves and little spears, heres the pic. Is it worth trying to save them?
But rot usually caused by damage to bud... but severe stress of the palm can do it too... such as a bad transplant. But usually bud rot is from over head watering, a freeze or insect damage... the end result if fungus, but usually not the primary cause... fungus is just the opportunist that makes the most of a bad situation. Some palms recover better from bud rot that others... I have had Parajubaeas have bud rot multiple times and they often grow through it.. so do Phoenix species... but most do not. Best to get Howeas from outdoor nursery (most grown to tall height either in Florida or in dark areas... then totally shocked by putting outdoors.. Need to put palms like that in early morning sun only for about a year... then think about planting them in sunny locations. NEver every water new palms with overhead watering! Rain, for some reason, doesn't seem to hurt palms, though, even if just planted.. something magical about rainwater. Water all new palms at ground level.. once established, you can get away with 'washing their faces' weekly... but the main irrigation shouldn't be from overhead even then.
I am caring for 14 of those huge things in my greenhouse for a restaruant this winter. You mentioned palm fertilizer........seeings that I don't have any of that here, what is an acceptable substitute? Miracle Grow regular, or do they need Miracid?? 4 of them are in 22 inch pots and are6 or 7 feet tall! One of them has mealybugs; I put a systemic in the soil yesterday and want to spray it and bag it for awhile. I have sprayed alcohol on it, but I need bigger guns than that! LOL
Indoor Kentias only need ferrtilizer once a year at the most (unless they are in enormous pots and growing rapidly- then maybe twice a year)... over fertilization of Kentias is a much more common problem than underfertilization. Outdoors in the ground is a different story and then 2-4x a year is recommended. But as for type of fertilizer, Miracle grow is fine. Something that drains out and has micronutrients is a good idea.
