Areca Palm - Browning / dying leaves

Question

I bought my first Areca palm around 2 months ago and it seems to be dying. Almost all the leaves are browning or have brown tips.

I previously was misting it every day and watering it every couple of days. I’ve recently started to just water it in the shower around once a week but that’s not helped. I also tried cutting off some of the brown tips.

I was also fertilising it quite a bit so I’ve stopped doing that for now.

I live in the UK and it’s placed in a really bright room with skylights so I feel it is getting plenty of indirect sunlight.

Any help would be massively appreciated

Answer 1

There are a few factors in play here which you can improve:

• water less, a lot less, once the top one inch of soil is dry water until it comes out the bottom of the pot, should be no more than once a week, perhaps every two weeks
• do not fertilize until next year. Low light levels means the plant does not require fertilizer
• move to a high light area, right next to a south or west facing window
• in case you have over fertilized water once with distilled water to leach out the fertilizer salts in the salts which may be causing the leaf dieback
• check the underside of the leaves for spider mites, they look like grains of salt and are very common. Treat with soap and water every five days for at least three applications