is this palm in good health?

October 30, 2023

i have a majesty palm from clearance section at Lowes, and i am wondering if it is healthy or not. the palm used to be a trio, but now there is only one. the other two pups rotted after i bought it.

the main one is looking good and i want to be sure its ok.

note: the picture was taken on a bright, warm, humid day. not a cold one. i know to protect my palms. thank you.

October 31, 2023

I’ve seen this look before. I think it’s at a fork in the road, deciding which way to go. One the one hand is death, and the other is growth. The rotting smaller singles isn’t a good sign. These are solitary, and don’t “pup”, per se.

In my experience, these don’t do well in potting soil mixes, or indoors for very long. I’ve had the best luck mixing my own mix of sand, wood chips, some manure and some soil, and keeping them outdoors to bake in the heat, with part-day direct sun preferred. Outside you can keep them very wet and they are fast growers. Inside, they rot like crazy, even when not kept that wet. They struggle with indoor air and ambient light.

They need a good draining mix and a pots with plenty of holes in the bottom, though I often kept their saucers full of standing water.

But they are cheap and fast, and make decent semi-annuals!

They are big, fast trees at heart, and can only be in pots for a few years. These started as tiny little plants from Lowes. In 2-3 years they were huge. But it was a good run.