Areca Palm plant care & tips
Updated: 4 days ago
The Areca palm plant is a very beautiful indoor plant. It emits lots of oxygen and purifies the air also. This plant embellishes our interior and helps in decreasing stress too. In this post, we will be discussing each and every aspect of the Areca palm plant.
All About Areca Palm Plant
1. Areca palm size
Areca palm plants are available in different sizes from 4 feet to 6 feet and some are very small called young plants.
You can keep plants of smaller sizes on the table also.
You can buy it according to your needs.
2. Propagation of Areca palm
You can grow areca palm from seeds.
Seeds are available in the market. This plant grows very slowly, seeds will take around 2-3 months to get germinated and they arrive with 1-2 leaves.
If you have a healthy and bushy Areca plant then you can divide it into many plants from the roots.
The best option for having this plant is to buy it from a nursery.
3. Select healthy areca palms
Choose healthy areca palms from the nursery.
If you see brown leaves or weak plants then don’t buy them.
Sometimes nursery people try to misguide you but we should monitor carefully before buying it. Select green and healthy plants.
4. Pot size for Areca Palm
We can grow this plant in any type (ceramic, plastic, clay, etc) of pot but select a medium size pot.
If you are not experienced with areca plants then, you should use clay pots over other pots.
5. When to repot Areca Palm
After buying the plants from the nursery we should not shift them to other pots immediately because plants are under stress at that time.
We need to follow certain measures for repotting the plant so that our plants stay in healthy condition for a longer duration.
6. Soil Mixture for Areca Palm plant
The soil of this plant should be well drained as well as compact.
The upper portion i.e. leaves of this plant, are very big in size as compared to the roots.
If we take soft soil then, its roots and the grip of the plant inside the soil will get spoiled.
The plant won't be able to stand straight, it will start bending after some time. If we take compact soil then it will help in keeping the plant straight.
Note:
We can take 60% of garden soil, 25% construction sand and 15% compost for its soil mixture.
We should not add coco peat here plus we are keeping compost quantity also very low because both these things make the soil very soft.
You can add neem cake powder, fungicides or any insecticides also in very small quantities.
7. Temperature requirement for Areca Palm
The ideal temperature for an areca plant is 15-25℃.
If the temperature goes beyond 30 degrees and below 11 degrees, this plant goes into stress.
Tips of the leaves start getting brown and the growth of the plant stops there only.
8. Sunlight requirement for Areca Palm
Areca palm plants need bright and indirect sunlight.
If you have kept it at places where light is dim like stairs or corridors then, its growth would stop there only.
There should not be direct sunlight falling also otherwise its leaves will start turning brown.
In fact, areca plants which are planted on the ground and have direct sunlight also face the issue of sunburn. Their leaves also burn and become brown.
If you want to keep Areca in the sun, then keep her in the same sunlight that you can bear.
Keep these plants near windows and doors where fresh air comes along with bright and indirect sunlight.
9) WATERING
Water requirement of this plant is different in comparison to other indoor plants. Areca palm likes moisture very much so if the top soil of this plant is completely dry then, the tip of the leaves will turn brown due to underwatering.
● Check the top layer of soil with your hand and you notice that it does not have any moisture in it then, give water. It can become completely dry if we do not give water at that time.
● Give water in instalments , like give one mug of water first then, after sometime one more mug and keep on giving in regular intervals till the point water comes out from the bottom drainage hole.
● If the soil is wet and still you are giving water then, there would be a problem of over watering. It might catch fungus and pests (like mealybugs and all), plus tips of the leaves will turn brown. Roots will also get spoiled and it will damage the whole plant.
● One more thing, If you give water again and again in wet soil, then some white thing starts accumulating in it. It can be fungus or salt present in water.
10) HARD WATER
Sometimes white patches appear on the leaves, it might be due to hard water. To overcome this problem, you need to maintain the tds of water which you are giving to your plants. What you can do is sometimes give tap water to the plant ( TDS of tap water is high) and sometimes offer filtered water to your plant ( TDS of filtered water is very low), in this manner you can balance out the minerals of water.
11) FERTILIZER
Areca palm is a very slow growing indoor plant, we cannot keep them in direct sunlight. Moreover, it does not show any flowering and fruiting also so, there is no need of giving any chemical fertilizer to it. Give simple organic liquid fertilizer to it.
● During its growing period (February- September), give liquid fertilizer (Cow-dung liquid fertilizer works best) to it in the interval of 2 months. Before rain, do neem cake liquid fertilizer in it. Before winter starts, give mustard cake liquid fertilizer to this plant.
● If you do not have all these liquid solutions at your place then, you can use seaweed solution also.
● You can also give epsom salt also to the plant. If the plant is in need of epsom salt then only you should give otherwise the plant will go into stress and leaves will turn brown.
12) SPECIAL TREATMENT ( CINNAMON SOLUTION)
Once in a month give a cinnamon solution to your plant. Grind the cinnamon in powder form. Boil 2 tbsp powder in ½ litre of water and then dilute it in 10 litres of water. Cinnamon is an organic rooting hormone, it protects the roots of the plant and helps in the growing also.
13) PESTICIDES
If you are taking proper care of your plant, providing proper sunlight, location, water, fertilizers and everything at time then, there are very rare chances of pests in this plant. Sometimes we observe some pests (not earthworm) in soil, then give neem leaves solution (not oil) to the plant.
● If you see green fungus, brown algae or white fungus then use cinnamon to get rid of it.
● If aphids or mealybugs appear on the plants then you need to prepare neem leaves solution to spray on the plant. One more thing, you can buy neem oil, mix 1tbsp oil in 1 litre of water with 1-2 drops of hand wash and spray it on your plant. After one day of spraying, wash it from the plants properly.
14) PRUNING
Areca palms are not required any pruning as such, we do its trimming. If any frond is damaged completely like leaves are burnt or any fungus attack is there then, cut that complete frond. If tips of the leaves have become brown then cut that part also.
15) WIPE THE LEAVES
Wipe the leaves of the plant with wet cloth, cotton or any tissue. Though, it’s a time taking procedure but it is important. It helps in photosynthesis plus also maintains the shine of the plant.
Keep on spraying water occasionally on areca plants as this plant loves humidity and moisture a lot. This was all about the ARECA PALM plant.
Now, You can care your Areca Palm
Keep Planting!!!!