Kiwi is my bird-o
New member
I did ask a general question about a couple of my houseplants last night, but I still don't know what to to with my poor little Sago palm. Not the type of plant I'd typically bring home, but I found it out by a dumpster in a cracked pot (which is why I assume they threw it away) behind a store when I was looking for a large box one day, looking perfectly healthy and still with the little care instructions card, so I rescued it. I'm not sure if I didn't post enough details last night, but I didn't get any consistent answers, so I thought I'd re-post.
I have had this plant for well over 2 years. It sets relatively close to a very large very bright window, as the care instructions it came with said it needs bright indirect sun (it's about 10' away from the window, where it is still very bright and where quite a few of my other houseplants that need "bright indirect sun" are thriving). I also water it once a week as per the care instructions it came with. It is very small (the base is only about 4" across and it's only 12" tall at the highest frond) so I have it in a 12" pot with good drainage, and when I rescued it, it was only in a 8" pot and wasn't rootbound at all (and it certainly hasn't visibly grown since I've had it!). It seems to have been doing fine, but around last Christmas, 2 of the bottom fronds started yellowing, and I've had to prune them off and now a third one is going. It still has 5 healthy green fronds on it (the biggest ones). I researched a little online and found that yellowing fronds are caused by 2 things, over-watering (which I don't think I've been doing), and high levels of salts in the soil. I'm guessing it's the latter since I've been feeding it with miracle grow plant food, and you can see white on the top of the soil. But I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm scared of leeching the soil, since it doesn't like too much water and I don't want to drown it and I'm not sure if I should just change out the soil entirely. Any suggestions on what to do to help it?
And I cannot plant it outside either, it has to be indoors. Where I live, it gets well below freezing in the winter and snows quite a bit. I don't think a palm would really enjoy frosts or being covered with 2 feet of snow 6 months out of the year. When it gets bigger, I'll just move it into a larger pot.
I have had this plant for well over 2 years. It sets relatively close to a very large very bright window, as the care instructions it came with said it needs bright indirect sun (it's about 10' away from the window, where it is still very bright and where quite a few of my other houseplants that need "bright indirect sun" are thriving). I also water it once a week as per the care instructions it came with. It is very small (the base is only about 4" across and it's only 12" tall at the highest frond) so I have it in a 12" pot with good drainage, and when I rescued it, it was only in a 8" pot and wasn't rootbound at all (and it certainly hasn't visibly grown since I've had it!). It seems to have been doing fine, but around last Christmas, 2 of the bottom fronds started yellowing, and I've had to prune them off and now a third one is going. It still has 5 healthy green fronds on it (the biggest ones). I researched a little online and found that yellowing fronds are caused by 2 things, over-watering (which I don't think I've been doing), and high levels of salts in the soil. I'm guessing it's the latter since I've been feeding it with miracle grow plant food, and you can see white on the top of the soil. But I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm scared of leeching the soil, since it doesn't like too much water and I don't want to drown it and I'm not sure if I should just change out the soil entirely. Any suggestions on what to do to help it?
And I cannot plant it outside either, it has to be indoors. Where I live, it gets well below freezing in the winter and snows quite a bit. I don't think a palm would really enjoy frosts or being covered with 2 feet of snow 6 months out of the year. When it gets bigger, I'll just move it into a larger pot.