Question
It looked real good when we bought the cat palm plant, now I put it in a different pot and the leaves are turning yellow. Should I cut the yellow leaves off? And what am I doing wrong that makes the leaves look so bad?

Answer
LENNY,

Yellow leaves on a repotted cat palm indicates it may have spider mites. shine a very bright light on the back side of the yellow fronds and see if you see fine webs. If you do the plant has spider mites. If you have a hand held shower set the plant in the shower and wash the foliage off on the fronts and backs of all the leaves while trying to not get a lot of water in the soil. If you do empty the drain tray as soon as you are done washing the palm off. After that yes you should cut the yellow fronds off, they will not turn green again. Any time the leaves start to turn yellow you should immediately look for webbing and treat it by wasing it off or spraying the entire plant with rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle  making sure you get the fronts and backs of all the fronds. The alcohol will kill the spider mites on contact. You will need to spray the plant once a week for a month to kill any eggs that hatch. Another option for spraying the plant is with insecticidal soap which you can purchase at many garden centers or you can use 1 teaspoon of dish soap in a pint of room temperature water put in a spray bottle. This plant does like high humidity and does not like to get to dry. If the air is too dry or the plant is to dry frequently that could be why the spider mithes are attacking the plant. Put a humidity tray under the plant and keep it lightly moist but be careful not to overwater it and the spider mites will stay away. Good luck.

Darlene