Kentia palm spots on leaves and stems--please help!!

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Hi! There seem to be a lot of palm experts here, so I'm really hoping someone can help me. I have a big indoor Kentia palm with multiple problems that I'm really worried about.

1) Brown/black streaks and patches on the stems. Looks pretty serious and I have no idea what's going on.

2) Yellow and brown spots on the leaves--both the ones nearest the glass door (I've heard sunburn could do this?), but also some on the other side, which never get direct sunlight.

3) Brown leaf tips. Over watering? Under watering?? I water with 1/2 to 1 gallon of water once to a week to every other week, depending on how dry the top inch or two of soil feels. I can see the water run out the bottom, but it's definitely not sitting in any water between waterings. I've only had it for about 8 months so it's still in its nursery pot, and the soil is some kind of sandy mixture that seems reasonably well draining.

4) It's had some kind of scale infestation for a few months (I think--maybe it's a fungus??). I've been spraying it once a week with a mix of neem oil, soap and water, and occasionally wiping the leaves down to remove dead scale and dust. It's cleared up like 90% of the scale, but they're still around the base of the stems, especially in between the fronds and under that woody fibrous stuff where I just can't spray too well. I don't know if the scale is still bad enough that it's hurting the palm, or if it's the cause of any of the other problems....

For some context, it's next to a west-facing glass door and gets decent but not overly intense light (picture at bottom), and we're in California, so the house is around 62 to 80 degrees F year round. I stuck a little Jobe's 13-4-5 plant food spike in the pot a few weeks ago to fertilize it.

Someone please please help me! I love this tree so much and am so worried about it. Any advice would be extremely appreciated! Thanks!!

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Comments (4)

frondzy
8 years ago
Hi! I am the opposite of an expert, we just got our Kentia (Manny) a few weeks ago. So I really hope some of the experts jump in! But I love Manny too and have been reading around trying to learn how to take care of him, so I figured I might as well get the conversation started.

I've read that brown tips can be caused by dry air. Manny has those a little bit, and I've been misting him daily - not sure if that makes a big difference or not. I also read that yellow and brown spots can be due to overwatering, (though I'm sure other things can cause that too.) I don't know if what you're describing is overwatering, I think it's more than I've watered Manny (only watered him once), but we've had him for such a short amount of time I probably wouldn't know if I was under watering yet.

http://www.ourhouseplants.com/plants/howea-palms

http://plantcaretoday.com/caring-beautiful-kentia-palm-howea-forsteriana.html

I hope some of the experts give feedback since they can give you answers based on experience and not just stuff they read!
frondzy
8 years ago
Oh, another thing to consider is what kind of water you use for watering. I guess kentia are sensitive to fluoride in tap water, and most? plants will be affected by salt buildup in the soil over time, due to tap or mineral water. I belive this can cause discoloration, though don't know if it's the same type of discoloration you're seeing.

I've read stories about people taking their palm to the bathtub, or outside, and really flushing out the pot by running lots of water through, to reduce mineral buildup.

For now we figure we'll use distilled water, (though maybe rainwater would be better as a source of some healthy dissolved minerals?)

Anyway, you may know more about this than I do, but since we'd been having the discussion about what water to use for Manny here, I figured I'd share.
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frondzy
8 years ago
Hi Danica, did you ever find more answers or help with your kentia? I happened on another forum dedicated to palms, maybe you could find more feedback there?

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/forum/1-discussing-palm-trees-worldwide/

Hope your palm is doing ok!
sherine58
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Hi Danica,

I am facing your same problem with my Kentia, and I was wondering did you ever find what was wrong ? and if you did how did you treat the palm.