Areca Palm (purchased from Ikea 1 month ago) facing a South window where it gets plenty of indirect bright light. There are a lot of dry tips that I ended up trimming back but I also noticed some drying of the stalks. Moisture meter shows it’s about 2-3 which I think is on the low side. It was recently repotted.
Hello and thank you for contacting Toronto master Gardeners.
If you are using the kind of moisture metre that is typically found at places that sell plants then yes, 2 to 3 is the absolute low end and far too dry for this plant. These plants normally grow along riverbanks in humid jungles.
Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) is in a genus of 51 species of palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests from the islands of the Philippines, Malaysia and India, across Southeast Asia to Melanesia. The generic name Areca is derived from a name used locally on the Malabar Coast of India.
Leaves with brown, dried tips are often due to underwatering or a dry atmosphere. If plants are in a warm room, maintain good levels of humidity. Physical damage or draughts may occasionally be the cause of such damage. When cutting off dead leaf tips, do not cut into the green part of the leaf; leave a narrow brown margin.
For more information on indoor palms please refer to Areca Palms also here and also here.