How To Maintain Sago Palms

A fairly popular plant in the Phoenix, Arizona area is the sago palm. Maintaining sago palms can be a bit tricky.

If you see a sago palm yellowing it’s most likely an iron deficiency. Browning of the plant indicates a magnesium deficiency.

One way of trying to resolve these problems is by doing a palm drench.

Here’s what you do:

Purchase some Iron Sulfate and straight Magnesium Sulfate (i.e. Epson Salt.).
With a gallon of water, mix 60/40 Magnesium and Iron (more magnesium than iron.)
Try the sago palm before applying the treatment, to allow sunlight to reach its base.
Pour the mixture on top of the sago crown.
Now mix dry Magnesium, Maganese and Iron Sulfate and spread the mixture quite liberally about 2-4″ around the base of the sago. With the dry mixture, use a 1 gallon container, and put in 32-48 oz of magnesium and 16-22 oz of Iron and Maganese each.

It’s going to take 30-90 days before you see the sago palms recovering. You may see results faster, but real recovery can take over a month.

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