My cycad lower leaves are losing their green pigment . Help

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frankford East Lansing, MI(Zone 5a) Mar 21, 2005

The lower leaves of my 12" tall cycas revoluta are yellowing . I checked closely with magnification for mites and could find none. The plant is growing in a 4" pot. It is receiving 16 hours of articificial lighting from fluorescent shoplights.. The plant is 6" away from the tubes.I am watering once a week to every ten days. Could this yellowing be an indication of disease? Earlier this winter I watered the plant twice a week with regular household water. Presently I'm using rain water or melted snow.

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caron Woodland Park, CO(Zone 4b) Mar 21, 2005

No idea but hoping you find out. Mine is about the same size and it's doing the very same thing. It's in a very fast draining mix so watering is about 2x every 10 days. Gets plenty of light. And I see no disease or bugs either. Do I cut the lower 2 leavs off and hope for the best?

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Nan SW, WI(Zone 4b) Mar 21, 2005

I'm not positive about this, but I think that the artificial lighting is likely just not 'good enough' for cycads....I think they need the real thing, and lots of it.

I have read that Cycas are susceptible to Magnesium deficiency, so you may want to look into that. One remedy was to feed them with a 'tomato-type' fertilizer.

I had one years ago on which all the 'fronds' yellowed.
I cut them all off and kept the 'crown' in it's pot.
I had read that a cycad is still likely to live if it's crown is solid, so I kept caring for it, *and* gave it a tomato fertilizer. During the spring/summer I placed it outdoors, and it regrew!

I have 1 Cycas and 1 Zamia. They both do poorly during the winter indoors but always re-grow in the spring/summer when placed outdoors with plenty of *real* sunshine.

Hope that helps.

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caron Woodland Park, CO(Zone 4b) Mar 21, 2005

Cool, thanks Nan, this was just the info I was looking for. Think I can feed it some Epson salts for the magnesium???

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frankford East Lansing, MI(Zone 5a) Mar 22, 2005

I recently did some research on the internet and found an excellent website
for growing cycas revoluta (sago palm). :www.rhapisgardens.com/sagos
In a lengthy article it gives reasons for yellowing leaves. It also talks about general care , fertilizing, watering, and repotting.

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caron Woodland Park, CO(Zone 4b) Mar 22, 2005

Thanks! Looks like poor soil conditions - I'll have to rethink my soil mix for this one. May need more bark and perlite as it's still pretty wet from Saturday's watering (whereas the big guy's soil is already pretty dry).

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palmbob Acton, CA(Zone 8b) Mar 26, 2005

Also, it is a normal process for the lower leaves of a Cycas revoluta to turn brown... eventually they will die and new ones will come out. sometimes these will lose all their leaves, but can still be healthy plants.

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