Image – Wikimedia/David J. Stang
The areca palm is one of the most cultivated, especially indoors when the winter is cool. That’s why it’s less interesting to identify symptoms that might indicate you have a problem, such as the leaves starting to dry up.
When this happens, you might think it’s very serious, but that’s not always the case. So if you’re wondering why your areca has dry leaveswe will then explain the possible causes and what to do to improve it.
Drafts or heating
Image – Wikimedia/Forest & Kim Starr
It is common to place the areca – and any other houseplant – near the heater or an area where there is a lot of draft (for example, the air conditioner, or an open window). This is a very serious problem, which damages the leaves from the tips, which lose their color.
Because? Because the air, whether cold or warm, can be very drying. The areca is a palm that needs high air humidity; in fact, there should be a minimum of 50%, so when it’s lower, the leaves turn brown and spoil. So no, we do not recommend that you place it near a device that generates drafts, or windows that are left open in windy weather.
But, How do you know that the problem is this and not another? Well, it’s easy: if, for example, you have just bought it, being completely healthy and green, and you see that in a few days the tips of the leaves have started to become ugly, you can think that the problem is drafts or heating if exposed to it.
Cold
our protagonist It is a tropical plant whose resistance to cold is quite low. I can tell you that I have two specimens planted in my garden in Mallorca, and when the thermometer drops below 10°C they start to struggle. And yes, it can also happen to the palm tree that is inside the house, because we all know that there are houses where it is colder than others. If we also add the fact that the climate is different in each region, it should not seem strange to us that there are plants that have more difficulty than others in adapting.
That’s why if, wherever you have your plant, whether it’s outside or inside the house, if the thermometer drops below 10°C, the leaves will have a bad time. And to solve it, sometimes it will be enough to put it inside if it was outside, but on other occasions when the problem is in the temperature of the house, it is better to protect it also with a antifreeze cloth.
bad watering
One of the first symptoms of under- or over-watering is dry leaf tips. Over time, and as the problem worsens, this browning spreads over the entire surface of the leaf. SO, The best thing we can do in these cases is, first, to find out if it needs water or if, on the contrary, the roots are drowning, and based on this, take the necessary measures to save the palm tree. .. Let’s go in parts.
How do you know if you are watering too much? Symptoms of overwatering in areca are:
- The “older” (lower) leaves begin to turn yellow and then dry out.
- The earth will seem very humid, so much so that if we have the palm tree in a pot, we will realize that it is quite heavy.
- Mold (fungus) may appear.
The treatment in this case is as follows: stop watering, apply a systemic fungicide to the areca, and if it is in a pot that also does not have holes at the base, it will be planted in a pot that does.
On another side, so little is watered what we will see will be the yellowing of the newer leaves, which will begin to brown quickly. In addition, the soil will be very dry and will have difficulty absorbing water. To solve this problem, it will be enough to pour a lot of water on it, or to immerse the pot in a container filled with this precious liquid for about twenty or thirty minutes.
The pot has become too small
Image – Wikimedia/Digigalos
Another of the possible causes, and also one that is usually not thought about much, is the possibility that the pot has become too small and cannot continue to grow. And it is that the roots must grow so that the rest of the plant can also grow.
That is why it is very important to check from time to time if these roots protrude from the drainage holes of the potWell, if so, it will need to be planted in a bigger one.
I hope with this you were able to find out why your areca has dry leaves and how to fix the problem.