Help please - Kentia Palms Dying

[Jamese]

Please Help, advice needed on Kentia Palms. Based in Sydney, Au, 3 to 4 of my Kentia Palms are seriously wilting and have been doing so since a significant drought 6-8 months ago - they seem to be slowly dying. 
 

The king fronds all of a sudden started wilting 6-8 months ago and now on the smaller Kentia the remaining outer fronds have turned yellow brown with no signs of any new fronds coming through. 

I’m not sure if the drought was the cause or possibly over fertilising the sir walter buffalo grass that surrounds the Palms During the drought or something else. There are several Caucus Palms in the garden which are fine. 

There are younger 8ft Kentias also in the garden which seem to be fine, albeit do have white fly on them that I’m trying to clear. The 3-4 kentias that are dying show no sign of white fly on them. 
 

Any advice is much appreciated. 

[Meangreen94z]

This is the most refreshing and down earth post I’ve seen in this section in a while. What everyone originally came here for, simple friendly advice. 
 

If you have access to irrigation water I would try watering them atleast twice a week and see if they improve. The drought may have shocked them. I don’t have Kentia but I know certain palms can go in a slow mode of decline and are not able to recover. I have a Jubaea and 2 Brahea Decumbens on that path, and I don’t see them turning around unfortunately. 

[kinzyjr]

@Jamese

Welcome to the forums!

I don't know a ton about Howea forsteriana other than they come from a mild temperate climate and they like moist but not soggy soil.  Growing them here, they are relegated to understory plantings because of the extreme heat (especially this year!).  The advice above is probably a good start - they do seem to like consistently moist conditions with some minor drying out in between watering. 

If any other forum members have more salient experience turning these palms around, please chime in.

[Jim in Los Altos]

I think you answered your own question. The drought is slowly killing them if you’re not getting supplimental water to them. Kentia palms like consistent water at all times. They are not a drought tolerant species. King palms are nearly aquatic in their water needs. They’ll grow happily in standing water year round.

If you can get water to your palms, I’d thoroughly water them and at least three times per week particularly if the weather is warmer than usual. You will see improvement eventually but it will be slow. 

[Steve Mac]

Hi James, welcome to the forum.

If you can include a picture or two that can sometimes help diagnose the specific problem. Here in Cronulla, Sydney, Kentia or (now called Howea) mostly do well with no supplementary watering.  If you are not on the coast the drought may have affected you more. Here the drought has broken, I don't know if the rain that we have had over the last month or so was too late for yours. I would not have thought so. Kentia are not prone to anything specific that I know of. 

As suggested, all I can think of is to water them heavily but don't fertilize, not in winter. And check closely for insect damage, and if runoff from somewhere might have poisoned them. 

Let us know what you find.

[Jamese]

Thanks for advice so far. Drought ended in February and there’s been consistent rain since then. I’ve not fertilised at all since then but they don’t seem to be recovering

[palmsOrl]

In my opinion, if you are and have been getting consistent rain for some time now, you might go ahead and apply some high-quality time-released fertilizer with all the macronutrients and micronutrients.  Maybe a 1/2 or even a 1/4 strength dose.  I cannot imagine it would hurt.

I am not used to ever seeing in-person or in photos large in-ground landscape palms die or decline to near the kill point from drought here in Florida.  It is new to me seeing large established palms like your Howeas and that huge abandoned row of Cyrtostachys renda in Darwin someone posted photos of a few months back just dry out and die like that in the dry season.  My point in noting this is I might not diagnose the signs your Howeas are showing as related to a prolonged now ended dry spell if I wasn't told there had been one.  I would have been more likely to assume some nutritional deficiency, looking at the extremely stunted new growth on your Howeas.  I might have even suspected some type of pest had invaded the tissues of the growing point.

But anyhow, I say, make sure consistent and adequate watering continues, give a bit of good fertilizer and hope for the best.

Your landscape is gorgeous!

[Darold Petty]

Jamese;

  Your Howea palms are suffering from lack of water and also a deficiency of micronutrients.  From your photos I can see a full crop of immature seeds and  I can see that the leafbase scars are of an acceptable spacing. (This indicates normal past growth.)  The stunted new fronds are evidence of the nutrient deficiency.    Macronutrient deficiency of the major elements shows first on the older foliage while micronutrient deficiency will show on the newest growth.  The major elements for growth are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.  These are the three numerals on fertilizer packages, N P K.   Potassium deficiency is most common and is usually yellowish discoloration of the older foliage.

https://en.climate-data.org/oceania/australia/new-south-wales/lord-howe-island-15228/#:~:text=The average annual temperature in,is 1504 mm | 59.2 inch.

  Lord Howe Island receives 1500 mm of rainfall annually, and this moisture is fairly evenly distributed over the 12 month cycle. 

   You should apply a quality fertilizer with a broad spectrum of the minor elements, and you should supply adequate irrigation so that the soil is always moist.  The ideal fertilizer will have a macronutrient ratio of 3-1-3 for the NPK.  This is not critical, and any fertilizer somewhat matching this ratio is OK.   Any good fertilizer will be better than  none.

  Welcome to Palmtalk !