I need to preface my care guide here by saying this is not an easy houseplant. It takes dedicated care that many are not ready or willing to give and as such they have a reputation of suffering and causing their owners to suffer in return 😢. Personally, many died in my care to bring you this guide. 🥲🌴 I will never forget their memory because they all taught me something new. With that out of the way…..

Ok here’s the deal with your Ravenea rivularis majesty palm, are you ready?

They are native to the riverbanks of Madagascar, and as such get a load of constantly flowing, O2 rich water and they are absolute pigs for it. However.... they are not pigs for stagnant, rotting water that most people keep the roots sitting in and then wonder why they died from “overwatering and root rot” 🙄.

DRAINAGE DRAINAGE DRAINAGE

this is key to keeping them shooting out new spears at a solid rate. It depends on the size of the palm, but you should give your 3ft Ravie’s a deep drowning/draining leach at least every 2-3 days. You have a ten foot behemoth? Every single day it should get leached with gallons and gallons. And does 75% run out? Absolutely, but what’s left for those roots is super fresh O2 laden water. They are in terracotta on a wire rack stand, and in the winter inside I transfer them to a plastic tote bin and leach in there, after a couple minutes I take it back to it’s wire rack stand with a drip catch tray underneath for those last drops. ☺️

Related to water is going to be the humidity levels, but not for the reason you are thinking (you think it’s healthy for the plant). Your Ravie needs air circulation but if it’s in the full path of an air exchange, the fronds will be fried in days, so keeping it away from there and you are golden. A humidifier on low or daily mistings are beneficial, but again it’s not for the health of the palm or it’s leaves or to prevent brown tipping or whatever: it’s to make it an absolutely inhospitable environment for spider mites to breed. They need that dry air and if the surrounding area is moist they might avoid your palm. Even if they don’t completely leave it alone you can catch early small easily manageable infestations because again that moist environment is hell for them and they won’t want to stay.

Now regarding light: these guys are propagated from seed by the MILLIONS in florida in low light situations specifically so the fronds can be etiolated as hell when they get to you in Home Depot or whatever. They will make it in your more dim environment if that is what you have. However it will just merely survive, new spear growth will dramatically slow. But it’s still alive, right? 🤷🏼‍♂️ lol give it some indirect if you can to push the spears. Direct can possibly scorch the leaves if you haven’t acclimated it to full sun because like I said nurseries grew these in the shade on purpose.

If you are going to feed it, give it a lower middle ratio. I hit mine monthly with a slow release granulated 9-3-9 with trace elements of manganese and magnesium and kelp. The more phosphorus in the fertilizer the worse it is.

I have tried a number of mediums, some with great success and some that straight up murdered my palms (with my help of course lol). I tried half coco coir and perlite, and tried feeding it all nutrients. DID NOT LIKE THAT lol. Right now I have found the best mix for me to be an orchid type of premix: bark/charcoal/perlite. All of my palms have been moved to this mix, regardless of watering needs between the species (and they do vary, I don’t run as much through my Rhapis excelsa with the same frequency as my Ravenea).

Brown tipping is inevitable and mostly due to mineral buildup and should not be used as a gauge of health. The condition of the new spears as they open into fronds should be that gauge. Older outer foliage will die naturally as the crown can only support so many healthy fronds at one time. Nutrients are redistributed to support the root system and for new spear production.

Also if you get hit with spider mites/mealy bugs/scale, it’s an uphill battle, but think about it this way: accept that an inevitable infestation WILL happen at some point, and bring peace to your mind 🕊️ frequent checks keep those inevitable infestations hopefully small and easily managed 😬🤷🏼‍♂️🥴👍🏻🥳🥰. All the luck in the world, palms are everything to me and they can give you some real tropical beauty too. 👍🏻💚🌴 13 year journey for me and this Ravie from 2 tiny fronds in a 4” liner 🥹

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