Help with wilting Lady Palm that was exposed to dust and heat

11 years ago

We are newbies and purchased a large 4-ft lady palm (rhapis) from Lowe's 2 months ago. We planned to put it in an indoor atrium but as the weather was quite mild we kept it under a covered patio until our atrium was properly remodeled.

I initially repotted, fertilized with osmote, also cutting back some roots and watered generously. Unfortunately, had a really hot day come through (105 degrees/mid april in phoenix). We watered it generously but it seemed to have wilted. We did notice that the plant had a lot of dust as we were also doing some construction outside.

We have since cleaned it up, moved it indoors for the last 2-3 weeks, foliage remained green, very few fronds browned up, and minimal leaf lost occured. However, the fronds still have not perked up.

Being new to gardening, I'm not sure if this is some form of shock (heat)? that I could be researching to see what we can do to perk it up? Any ideas?

Featured Answer

lzrddr

11 years ago

I would never divide a clump... Just get several clumps if that is what you want. palms LIKE to have their roots bound, and frankly grow better and faster the more bound they are (unless they are so bound there is no soil left- but then you just put them in a larger pot and add more soil). This is not to say you will kill all palms you divide like this, but it will certainly send them into a severe state of shock. Depends on the species of palms... dividing a group of Howeas for example usually does not set them back too much, but they are more the exception rather than the rule. Rhapis are sensitive to having their roots messed with, but some palms are far more sensitive still, and will often just croak if you do that.

Comments (6)

statenislandpalm7a
11 years ago
A picture would really help. You can post a pick by uploading it to photobucket.com and post the html code here
tropicbreezent
11 years ago
Lady Palm is a very slow growing palm so you can't expect it to show much change quickly in the way of recovery. Damaged leaves won't 'perk up'. They'll stay like that until they become replaced with new growth. If the repotting, root trimming and heat came nearly all at once then that would be too much for the plant. I don't think dust would have been a problem, unless it had a lot of lime in it. It's really going to take time. I wouldn't give it any additional fertiliser just now, that could burn the plant even more. Good luck with it.
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lzrddr
11 years ago
not sure why you trimmed roots.. next time you repot a palm I recommend you not do that. There is rarely if ever a reason to trim palm roots and they sometimes react very poorly to it. Also, when repotting a palm, best not to fertilize it as that tends to traumatize the roots a bit, and the last thing they will want to see is fertilizer. Best just to put in a new pot, add soil and water very well and very frequently. Once you feel it's established in the pot, you can decrease your watering times (especially if it's indoors now). Hard to overwater this palm as long as there is excellent drainage from the pot. Eventually add more fertilizer (very stingily if going to be an indoor palm- indoor palms grow even slower and their need for fertilizer is almost nil).

You can trim off the damaged leaves if they don't look good and leave only the nice looking ones. Then you will be able to better observe how your palm is doing (if new 'damaged leaves' show up, you have an unhappy palm). Dust itself on leaves is rarely a problem for the palm, unless it is so thick the leaves cannot get light.
wetsuiter
11 years ago
Have to agree, the root pruning might have Brent part of the transplant shock.
thekatocat
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, for the responses, I'm encouraged as one or two of the fronds just perked up this weekend. It looks like it is starting to turn the corner.

In the future I want to transplant it to a rectangular (4 x 1)planter (indoor),hoping to create a linear clump/screen rather than the current standard tight clumping in a 15 gal. Any thoughts on whether I should attempt this and when considering it is still in shock? How would you divide the clumps with out trimming/cutting them. The roots seemed pretty root bound when I first transplanted them.