This is my housemates plant, he wasn’t watering it when I moved in. Since I moved in I have been watering it once a week however I try for twice a week. It was in a dark shady spot so I moved it onto a stool to be higher. We don’t get direct sunlight on our balcony however it’s not dark and gloomy. I’m seeing a lot of new growth yet it’s also looking burnt? What’s wrong with the plant, is it burnt or dry? We have just finished Australia winter and are now in spring. Could it have been cold damage?
I’ve just bought a new big pot and I’ll be putting new soil and plant food to help it thrive in the coming weeks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially for the new pot and soil transition.
by Spirit_Molecule97
2 Comments
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I strongly encourage you to remove that top dressing on the soil, those decorative rocks. It’s important that soil has a wet-dry cycle and doesn’t stay continuously moist. The rocks hinder this process so that it stays moist for too long, which can compromise root health. It can also sometimes create a hypoxic environment where fungal and bacterial pathogens thrive, which could lead to a fungal or bacterial disease.
This could be why the stems are yellow, but I’m not sure as I don’t have a lot of personal or professional experience with this species.
If there’s fluoride in your water, you’ll want to avoid that as palms are prone to phytotoxicity from fluoride.
Lastly, I’m not even sure if [this is the guide for that species](https://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/foliage/folnotes/areca.htm), but I recommend checking this out and scrolling down to the sections on physiological problems and fungal diseases. You can cross-reference the symptoms there and potentially figure out what’s going on.