12/05/2022
I've been getting a lot of questions lately about leaves turning yellow, or brown tips, or leaves dropping, so I thought I'd do a quick post.
These are cat palms, the first one is straight from the greenhouse, beautiful and lush. The second one, is mine I've had for 2 years. She's got brown tips, not a lot of new growth currently. She actually looks better than she did because I threw her in the bathtub and gave her a little hair cut.
So, don't feel bad if your plants aren't looking as fresh as when you first got them. Keep in mind the expensive equipment, and special environments greenhouses have. You aren't a bad plant parent if this happens.
I do have a few tips though! To avoid brown tips, you can water with filtered water, or leave your water out over night and some of the chemicals that they don't like will filter out. I also have 2 small humidifiers running full blast all the time, and I spray them a couple of times a week with water, and a tiny bit of epsom salts mixed in. They love the magnesium.
I also use grow lights in my darker corners. The same way I hate how it's dark all the time in the winter, tropical plants hate it even more. You can buy decent priced ones on Amazon, and they make things look cozy at night.
Finally, pots with drainage! A lot of plants will go dormant in the winter, so they need much less water. Drainage is so important though to avoid root rot. I know, the pretty pots usually don't have holes, so I drill holes, or I keep it in a nursery pot and take it out to water so it can drain properly. I throw my big ones in the shower to water once a month to keep them nice and clean too. ...and then there's pests. If you have a lot of plants you're almost guaranteed to deal with some at some point. Fungus gnats especially. I use nematodes, and also I go for the insecticide here and there for prevention. Fungus gnats will also live in your drains so flush them regularly with hot water, or vinegar. Neem oil is an absolute magic worker. I'll maybe do a whole post on pests later.
I learn new tips all the time! If you have any tips you use please share them! I just read today some people rub mayo on their plants to make them shiny, personally I kinda thought that was gross, but whatever works for you! 😊
And I do have new stock, I'm just getting over this flu, but they are coming!
