Majesty droopy after repotting

[Eric Thompson]

Just recently split up 3 majesty’s from same pot into their own pots. I was as easy as I could be on the roots..

 all new soil and parked in front of a large window. 3 days later and they are looking a darker green, the fronds are droopy and all seem to be twisting. Is this just classic shock or did i kill these things? 

[Eric Thompson]

** some of the scraggly stuff is from before getting them in new pots

this spear has continued to open I don’t know if that really tells me anything???

[Allen]

I don't have experience splitting majesty palms but plenty with other tropicals.  Anytime you disturb them much the older leaves will show stress first and if is extreme you may have to cut older fronds off so the plant has less foliage to support while it makes new roots.  Many times a plant's leaves/fronds won't look good again till the new ones come out after disturbing roots a lot.  Majesty palms are already notorious for being hard to grow indoors anyway.

[Eric Thompson]

3 minutes ago, Allen said:

I don't have experience splitting majesty palms but plenty with other tropicals.  Anytime you disturb them much the older leaves will show stress first and if is extreme you may have to cut older fronds off so the plant has less foliage to support while it makes new roots.  Many times a plant's leaves/fronds won't look good again till the new ones come out after disturbing roots a lot.  Majesty palms are already notorious for being hard to grow indoors anyway.

Thanks I did cut away a few of the other fronds that were damaged from separating. Hopefully this helps a bit. Any opinion on fertilizing? I’ve read both sides some say do it to give them a boost and others say it will only cause more shock in this situation?

[Allen]

If the soil you put them in didn't have any fertilizer and the previous soil didn't have any fertilizer I'd wait 2-4 weeks till they stabilize and then put a reduced amount of palm fertilizer if they are getting light/water where you have them.  Majesty palms do poor indoors over winter because humidity/light is poor for them.  They are really tropical and need lots of filtered sun outside with high humidity.  Indoors you might have 40ish humidity in winter because of heating drying out your home and they need much higher.  You can turn off heat vents close to them indoors but best to put them outdoors next year when low temps are above 40F which is April or so for me.

[Eric Thompson]

6 minutes ago, Allen said:

If the soil you put them in didn't have any fertilizer and the previous soil didn't have any fertilizer I'd wait 2-4 weeks till they stabilize and then put a reduced amount of palm fertilizer if they are getting light/water where you have them.  Majesty palms do poor indoors over winter because humidity/light is poor for them.  They are really tropical and need lots of filtered sun outside with high humidity.  Indoors you might have 40ish humidity in winter because of heating drying out your home and they need much higher.  You can turn off heat vents close to them indoors but best to put them outdoors next year when low temps are above 40F which is April or so for me.

Thanks a lot 

[Rickybobby]

I split 3 last spring. Why because of the challenge. Since there cheaper than a case of beer. Potted in smaller pots since size reduced. Good draining soil. Nice warm humid environment. Did not over water at all. I find neglect is better. Anyway one died a month after the split. The second died a week ago rotted out. The last looks fine. So don’t know what to tell ya there majesty’s. I think Dypsis Lutescens is the best clump palm that’s readily available that’s meant to clump. Good luck 

side not. Since the split. Been very slow growing. To tell you the truth it’s lasted longer than I thought 

[Eric Thompson]

Yeah I picked them up at the Depot and figured it was worth a try assuming that 3 in a 3gal pot would be beyond root bound. I’ve seen videos Where they basically just shake the roots apart and they come apart.. not in this case. The smallest of the 3 looks the healthiest at this point. When you did yours how long did it take for the surviving one to bounce back. 

[Rickybobby]

Since I split them they were all slow they did not appreciate the split. The roots are so spongy. I will never buy one again I only did it for the challenge. I purposely left mine indoors in the basement with no artificial light as part of my experiment. I’m not 100 on this but I’m sure using dehumidifier water didn’t help their cause 

[Merlyn]

I split up a similar triple this spring, but they were smaller than the ones in your photos.  My triple was $12 and I picked it because the plant bases were reasonably far apart in the 3G pot.  I used the "big honking knife method" and simply sliced the rootball apart into 3 roughly equal pieces.  I wasn't sure if this was the right way to do it, but I figured that it would leave most of the bigger roots intact and not break off the tiny "root hairs" that apparently extract water and nutrients from the soil.  All 3 of them survived and have roughly tripled in size this year, though they did grow slowly (or not at all) for about 2 months.  They are now about 4 feet tall and reasonably full.  I don't have a recent photo, but here's a picture just after I planted them.

[PalmatierMeg]

6 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I split up a similar triple this spring, but they were smaller than the ones in your photos.  My triple was $12 and I picked it because the plant bases were reasonably far apart in the 3G pot.  I used the "big honking knife method" and simply sliced the rootball apart into 3 roughly equal pieces.  I wasn't sure if this was the right way to do it, but I figured that it would leave most of the bigger roots intact and not break off the tiny "root hairs" that apparently extract water and nutrients from the soil.  All 3 of them survived and have roughly tripled in size this year, though they did grow slowly (or not at all) for about 2 months.  They are now about 4 feet tall and reasonably full.  I don't have a recent photo, but here's a picture just after I planted them.

I assume you are aiming for the "monster triple palm" look in the center of your yard. If not, be aware that each of those palm trunks eventually will be 24-30" diameter.

[Merlyn]

5 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

I assume you are aiming for the "monster triple palm" look in the center of your yard. If not, be aware that each of those palm trunks eventually will be 24-30" diameter.

At the time I was looking for something cheap and fast growing, and I liked the "fountain of fronds" look of the younger majesties.  At the time I didn't know the Majesty palm is marginal in 9B outdoors.  Majesties get severe damage around 27F and are defoliated around 23F, and quite a few are killed anywhere in that range.  We saw a windy 26F here last winter, so I probably won't have to worry about the ultimate trunking size.  I'm pot-growing a couple of part-shade possible replacements for that corner.  

[Rickybobby]

My last majesty hasn’t been too happy started to droop as well so I put it outside in -1c weather to put it out of its misery 

[Eric Thompson]

All mine died... lol I basically did everything wrong and I’m alright with it. I don’t think I’ll try to split anything up in the future they are already fussy enough without the added shock. At least I get to reclaim some pots