Palm trees can look fantastic inside our homes, they provide greenery and foliage to our home décor. But after a while, some of the older fronds start getting yellow, then brown, and the palm doesn’t look as sharp as when we got it. So, what do we do to keep it looking sharp?
When the green foliage of your indoor palm tree becomes brown, you want to figure out first what’s going on with your plant’s health. It's common for the lower or outer leaves of palms to turn yellow or brown with age. This is natural. But there are many other reasons for the fronds to change color.
Brown fronds can be caused by overwatering, poor water drainage in the pot, underwatering, and many other reasons. So, the first thing to do is to fix the problem before trimming the dry fronds. Check the soil, look for signs of pests, and make sure there isn’t a reason other than age. Once you have discarded all other possibilities, if the fronds are brown due to age and you just need to trim them, here is what you need to do.
Make sure to make a clean, sharp cut at the base of the frond you want to eliminate. Leaving uneven cuts with shaggy edges can attract pests and create diseases. Cut off only those fronds that are old, brown, and dry. Never tamper with the inner-upper green fronds because this is where the new leaves grow.
If you just want to trim the palm to make it tidier, start with the low-outer fronds. They’re the first ones to get brown with age. If that still leaves the palm looking too shaggy for your liking, remove some of the low fronds at the base where they meet the trunk. Always use clean, sharp pruning shears, as dull ones can cause damage, and dirty ones can cause infections.