First thing I would advise is to move the palm to a window. That corner is not going to provide it enough light. I can't really tell from the picture, but it looks like it might be a majesty palm, in which case, there's little hope, because those things aren't house plants and will almost never grow for you in the house. But if it's not a majesty, try moving it so it can get more light. Now, about the soil moisture. First, if there are drainage holes in the bottom of the pot, and it's a fairly new plant, the problem isn't drainage. If there aren't drainage holes, you need to get it into a pot with drainage. Second, over watering or under watering is a problem that takes place over a period of time, not right after you water. The object of testing the soil moisture, as I show in my videos, is to figure out the moisture level all through the plant, that is, all the way to the bottom of the pot, and use that information to decide whether or not it's time to water again. Palms like their soil to be slightly damp, soft and cool feeling, before more water is added, but not so damp that the soil sticks together hard when you squeeze it. If you always let the soil (all the way through the pot, remember,) aerate to the prescribed stage, you'll never overwater. When it reaches the soft and cool stage (1/2 way between "dry" and "moist" on a moisture meter,) it's time to water. Don't let the plant sit around with dry soil, because that stresses them, so you want to water as soon as the soil aerates enough. When you water, always water so that you get a runoff from the drainage holes of 1/2 - 1", then let the plant sit in the drainage water. If you always water as soon as the soil is ready, and you always water enough for runoff, you'll never underwater. If you want to talk about this more, or it's not clear to you, please ask more questions, I'll be glad to go over it with you.

Palm fronds are almost certainly a brown, and DEFINITELY a pain in the ass. In my (admittedly limited) experience palm fronds are veeeery slow to decompose. If you shred them and manage to not set your shredder/mower/weed whacker on fire because the strings in the palms wind themselves around the blade, they are kind of like peat moss...Kind of. They end up being this sort of wire-y compost filler or mulch option. More of a brush pile material than a compost pile material IMHO.

Am I understanding correctly that you did a full repot, which includes removing all existing grow media, root pruning, and a change of medium? If yes, and especially considering a highly stressed plant will have little in the way of natural defense against insect herbivory and pathogens, your priorities should be to ensure the grow medium is damp/moist - about as damp as a well-wrung out sponge, not wet or soggy, the plant is warm (21-26c), and it gets plenty of light. Resist the urge to water until a wooden "tell" inserted deep into the pot bottom comes out barely moist. More on using a "tell": Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. I'll link you to two short pieces I wrote that provide 1) An Overview of Good Growing Practices, and 2) an Specific Overview of Long Term Care of Ficus in Containers. Hopefully it's not too little, too late. If you have other questions you think I might be able to answer, please don't hesitate. I have at least 40 containerized Ficus covering at least a dozen species or cultivars. Al

Thanks for the reassurance. :-) My lack of experience is making me a little neurotic maybe. I want to be a good plant mama!