Majesty Palm
Ravenea rivularis
Through the year 🗓️
☀️ Summer now
Water more often in the heat and consider a shaded outdoor vacation with frequent hose-downs.
🍂 Fall
Move it to your brightest window and taper feeding as growth slows.
❄️ Winter
Keep the soil barely moist, skip fertilizer, and run a humidifier to hold off spider mites.
🌱 Spring
Repot if roots circle the pot and resume monthly feeding as new spears emerge.
The details
Light & placement
- Light
- Bright indirect with a little gentle morning sun; fronds yellow in dim corners
- Ideal PPFD
- 200–400 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹
- Grow-light distance
- 14–20 in below LED
Water & feed
- Watering method
- Keep-evenly-moist: water thoroughly when the top inch dries, and never let the root ball dry out fully. This is a riverbank palm; it sulks at both extremes.
- Fertilizer
- Balanced feed at ½ strength, monthly in spring–summer; add a pinch of Epsom salt 1–2× a season if fronds yellow (magnesium hunger is common).
Home & habit
- Soil
- Rich, moisture-retentive but draining mix (peat/coco + perlite); pH 5.0–6.0
- Humidity
- High (50–60%+); crispy tips appear fast in dry air
- Temperature
- 65–80 °F
- Mature size
- 4–8 ft indoors
- Repotting
- Every 1–2 yrs in spring; likes a deep pot
- Propagation
- Seed only. Palms don't take cuttings, and division isn't practical.
When something looks wrong
- Overwatering signs
- Uniformly yellowing lower fronds, sour-smelling soil, blackening stem bases
- Underwatering signs
- Brown crispy frond tips, folding leaflets, whole fronds browning from the tip inward
- Common pests
- Spider mites (its #1 enemy in dry rooms), scale, mealybugs
Common problems 🩺
The usual suspects when Majesty Palm looks unhappy. Most houseplant trouble is watering or light, not disease — see all plant problems if you are not sure which plant is the culprit.
Brown, crispy frond tips
Likely cause
Dry indoor air and tap-water salts.
What to do
Raise humidity, water with filtered water, and keep the soil evenly moist.
Yellowing fronds
Likely cause
Underwatering or a nutrient shortfall — majesties are hungry and thirsty.
What to do
Keep it consistently moist and feed through spring and summer.
Webbing and dusty-looking fronds
Likely cause
Spider mites, which thrive in the dry air indoors.
What to do
Shower the plant, raise humidity, and treat weekly with neem until clear.
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