I received an Areca Palm from Bloomscape about two weeks ago. It doesn't seem to be doing too well. I've cut off around 15 fronds at the base that have withered, yellowed, browned, and died.
I've been misting the leaves every 1-3 days.
It gets bright indirect light from an east-facing window:
I've seen wildly different advice on how much and how often to water Areca Palms: every 2-3 days, when the top 1 inch of soil is dry, when the top 50% of soil is dry, every 2-3 weeks. Keep the soil moist. Let the soil dry. Let the water run through. Don't let it sit in water.
The instructions that came with it say to water when the top 50% of soil is dry:
Well, the top 50% of soil is 4-5 inches. I can't even get my fingers that deep to tell if it's dry.
In the two weeks that I've had it, I've watered it twice. The first time was a small amount that didn't run through to the base. The second time was enough to run through to the base and I threw out all of the water that collected in the base.
Various leaves look burnt / withering / browning:
Today I cut off 7 dying fronds:
The undersides of most leaves look perfectly clean:
But there is some unsavory stuff under a few of them:
Are these super intelligent spiders trying to lay eggs in my brain?
The stems were very green when they arrived and they've been yellowing:
Any direction on why my new Areca Palm has so many dying fronds would be appreciated. If the trend continues it will end up with nothing left in a couple of months.
