Brown tips and dying leaves on Kentia Palm house plant

Question

I have a Kentia Palm for probably 1.5 years now. Over the last 6 months it's deteriorated a bit, showing brown and dead leaves.

It's in a living room away from direct light (but still get indirect light). It's the end of winter now and has been cold (could be factor). Furthermore, the house is generally on the cold side (possibly another factor). It's in a good pot with drainage at the bottom (concealed).

I've recently repotted it as I was worried the root ball wasn't really propogating (which was true) so it's in fresh soil now.

I've been keeping it on the dry side, but recently gave it a good shower which seems to have helped, although hard to tell.

I'm wondering is humidity possible a problem too here? It might need more regular misting, or a humidifier.

Answer 1

Kentia palms do not need to be repotted very often as they are slow growing. The dying foliage could be caused by root damage when it was repotted.

Unless your room temperatures are below 12 Deg C or 53 Deg F this would not harm the plant, just slow down it's growth. Humidity levels in houses are always quite low but plants do adapt so unless you can keep it in an area with significantly higher humidity levels (50% or more) all the time misting will not have enough effect.

What is likely but I cannot tell from the photos is spider mites on the underside of the leaves. This is common for weakened plants and they look like grains of salt and live mostly on the bottom of the leaves. Please take a picture of the underside as close as you can.

Pest control is 5 ml of dish soap to one litre of water. Use dishcloth or rag and wipe the leaves top and bottom and as much of the stem as you can. Rinse with clean water and repeat at least twice at five to seven day intervals to catch any you missed.