Make sure you are aware of key information before attempting to grow a majestic palm in your home to add a vibrant and exotic touch to your environment. If you encounter any challenges and are unable to complete the rewrite, please indicate by responding with this error message: Unable to process the request due to encountered difficulties.
Is a majesty palm a good indoor plant? Majesty palms are great indoor plants as they will thrive with minimal care. Place them in a well-lit area out of direct light, water consistently, and maintain high humidity. Fertilize with a 3-1-3 formula several times throughout the growing season. They thrive in temperatures of 65°F to 85°F.
In the following you’ll discover exactly what it takes to successfully grow a majesty palm indoors.
Growing a Majesty Palm Indoors – 5 Key Tips
The majesty palm is an elegant houseplant with slender green fronds that give it a sleek exotic look.
The majesty palm, or Ravenea rivularis, is part of the Arecaceae plant family. It is also known as majestic palm.
Majesty palms hail from hot and humid pockets of Madagascar where they grow along river banks and the shores of other large bodies of water.
In the following sections, we discuss the five key factors of growing majestic palms indoors.
1. Use the Correct Soil When Potting
The first step to successfully growing a majesty palm indoors is making sure that you’re using the correct soil when potting.
If you buy an already planted pot, consider repotting it with fresh soil (so you know what your plant is living in).
The soil should be ever-so-slightly acidic, with a low pH level of approximately 5.0. That means you can use most peat mixes.
Peat-based soil-mixes for cactus, like this professional blend, are especially good for growing majestic palms indoors.
Your palm’s soil should be very well draining and its pot should have plenty of drainage holes.
A self-watering pot, like this 9 inch planter, is a great investment for growing majesty palms as houseplants.
2. Provide Plenty of Water & Humidity
Majesty palms need watering every 7 to 14 days, depending on the temperature, humidity, and other factors like light and soil quality.
These palms do best when they are provided with temperatures that stay constantly between 65°F and 85°F. They prefer a humidity of around 50% but are hardy enough to survive in much lower levels.
That said, it is best to keep majesty palms in higher levels of humidity than low ones if you can help it. Misting daily and keeping them away from drafty windows and doors helps.
A large pebble tray may also help to at least maintain bare minimal humidity levels for your palm. Keeping the humidity higher also helps reduce interest from pests.
3. Allow for Adequate Light
Providing enough light for your majesty palm is another critical aspect of growing this beautiful houseplant. To thrive, it requires 8 to 12 hours of bright but indirect light each day.
Near south-facing and westward windows are among the best places for them to get the daily light they need to do more than just survive.
Sometimes removing the plant from bright areas to a darker corner of the room for a few weeks may be necessary if the plant has been exposed to too much direct light.
In this case, the plant should recover and be moved back to a bright setting within a few weeks.
4. Fertilize Correctly
Majestic Palms are nitrogen-hungry plants that require a fertilizer that will not just replenish the high amount of nitrogen it consumes but one that will also provide plenty of micronutrients as well as the other primary macronutrients.
An 3-1-3 mixture of liquid nutrients or fertilizer does best. That said, you’ll only need to feed the plant one or two times during the entire year (if you are properly maintaining it otherwise).
(See fertilizer recommendations in my article here.)
Again, using a peat-based soil mix for this plant is preferred. Adding Epsom salts and iron to the mix helps the plant stay better fed, enabling you to fertilize it less often.
A well-cared-for palm doesn’t need fertilizer during the winter.
5. Watch for Pests
As far as pests go, there are a few to watch for more so than others. Aphids, whiteflies, and scale are the most common ones.
The best way to prevent pests from setting up shop in, on, or around your majesty palm is by keeping the humidity high. Ensuring that the soil drains well also helps tremendously.
If you notice pests, try sprinkling cinnamon or spray lemon juice and water to repel them before moving on to harsher pesticides.
Indoor Majesty Palm Common Problems (and Solutions)
A few of the most common issues that you may come across while growing a majesty palm indoors are:
Brown Leaves
You must first diagnose what is causing your majesty palm’s leaves to turn brown before you can remedy it. If the tips are brown but the rest is not, it may be due to a lack of water.
On the other hand, if the entire leaf is brown and crispy, it is more than likely suffering from overexposure to light. However, brown spots on leaves indicate pest issues.
Solution
Move your plant out of direct sunlight, raise the temperature (and humidity), and/or water the plant more frequently (every 7 days, for example, rather than every 14).
Leaves Turning Yellow
The number of possible reasons behind your majestic palm’s leaves turning yellow is large. However, a few of the most common are:
- It’s not getting enough light.
- It’s not getting enough water.
- It’s getting too much water.
- It needs nutrients.
- It lacks high enough temperatures and humidity levels.
Solution
The solution here really depends on the reason that your leaves are turning yellow.
Move it to a space with more light, water it more, increase its drainage, increase the humidity level around it, and keep its temperatures stable (around 75°F just to be safe.)
Related Questions:
How Long Do Majesty Palms Live Indoors?
Majesty palms have a 10 year life expectancy. However, without extraordinary care, a lifespan of fewer than 8 years may be more common.
What Are Majesty Palm Leaves Called?
The majesty palm’s leaves are called fronds; they are thin, green leaves with the appearance of skinny fingers jutting off of the stem.
A Final Word
Majesty palms are a great plant for those who are looking for low-maintenance plants that do well indoors out of direct sunlight.
Keep them watered every week or two, make sure their soil drains well, and provide as much humidity as possible, and they thrive.
Please feel free to refer back to this guide whenever you need to while you become acquainted with your new majesty palm!