Buy some fertilizer, read the package and apply as directed.

People can not live on water alone, nor can plants.

Thanks for the response! I'm skeptical that fertilizer is what I need here as the plant has been in the pot less than a year and hasn't had time to deplete the nutrients in the putting soil.

From what local nurseries have told me in the past, fertilizing a plant which is unhealthy is actually bad. Here's an article about this:

http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2017/05/fertilizer_is_not_plant_food_m.html

"First, remove from your mind the idea that fertilizers are food. They are no more food for plants than that iron supplement or calcium pill you took this morning is your food for the day. Despite the fact that fertilizers are not food, the terms "plant food" and "feeding" are commonly used.

These terms continue the fallacy that fertilizers feed plants."

Can anyone help me positively identify the damage on my plant's leaves?

OK, get some plant essential nutrients, read the package, and apply as directed.

This article is referring to plants/trees planted in OUTDOOR SOIL, not in a soilless mix in a pot, inside your house!

"To be healthy and grow properly, plants also require 16 mineral elements that are essential to their ability to carry out their life processes (like your calcium, iron or vitamin supplements). These 16 essential elements are the same for all plants. Faced with a shortage of any one of the elements, plants become less vigorous or less productive and may get sick if the deficiency is severe."

"Of the 16 essential elements, three of them -- carbon, hydrogen and oxygen -- are obtained from water and carbon dioxide. These elements are always available to plants in abundant quantities under normal conditions, and we don't have to worry about them. The other 13 are almost always absorbed by plants from the soil through their roots."

You do not say what planting media your plant is in, but by the looks of the pic, there is probably very little, if any organic material to provide said 16 essential nutrients!

Are you using city water? If so, you'll need to let your water stagnate to release some of the chemicals in it before using it to water.

Christian, it's true that fertilizing a plant that's struggling can be harmful--unless it's struggling from a deficiency of a specific element in the fertilizer. I'm all for fertilizing, and use fertilizer with every watering with great results, but if the root system is limited, for example, fertilizing can make it hard for the roots to take up water. Don't ask me about the physics, though. Some plants are highly sensitive to things like fluoride, but I've never heard anyone say that about PTPs.

It's a bit of a knee jerk reaction, but I suspect soil moisture issues when I see brown leaves. How do you water? Do you make sure the soil at the bottom of the pot is dry before you water, or do you water on a schedule? Does the pot have a drainage hole? Do you use a specific volume of water that doesn't allow water to exit the pot, or do you water until it drains freely? Do you ever let the pot sit in the drained water?

When did the problem start? Were there any brown areas or spots when you bought it? And has the plant's environment changed, or has it been exposed to anything that could be toxic, like cleaning products?

Top the soil with some worm castings... you can find a bag of worm castings at most nurseries or Home Depot or Lowe's. Don't add too much...just enough to scratch into the top inch of soil in the container. That's really all you need as far as "fertilizer" on a palm. The brown tips look like a need for humidity, not water. If the leaves were turning yellow THAT would be a sign you're overwatering. If you think your palm might be dry, try the simple two inch method... stick a finger down, two inches, into the soil, if it's dry, water it. I bet your palm is already looking better.
Last thing, research what your growing zone is...and don't forget it... besides good soil, it's the top factor in plant success... especially if you keep them outdoors 😉

Me to what do I do

FWIW

A) worm castings provide very little in terms of nutrition, and used in any volume (in containers) they add to excess water retention.

B) The problem could very well be a nutritional issue, especially if most of the leaf damage is affecting older leaves. Reason: Some nutrients are mobile in the plant (N,P,K,Mg), the rest are considered immobile or nearly so. The mobile nutrients can be moved from one location in the plant to another in order to fuel growth of new organs (leaves/ stems/ roots), while the immobile nutrients are locked into existing tissues.

It is almost always the case that container media cannot break down fast enough to provide for all of a plant's nutritional needs, which creates deficiencies, even in new/ fresh plantings. When these deficiencies arise, the plant robs mobile nutrients from existing organs, mostly older leaves, which results in the plant recognizing the now compromised 'donor' leaves as a liability, which causes the plant (a shedding organism) to rid itself of the liability by shedding the leaves.

C) PTs are very tolerant of droughty conditions. That is not to say they like/ prefer to be allowed to dry down completely, but drying down completely would be the lesser of two evils when the 'other' evil would be watering at intervals too short.. Ideally, you would be flushing the soil thoroughly when you water, and waiting until the soil is nearly but not completely dry to water again.

IF you have been watering in sips because you think the soil is too water-retentive and are trying to avoid risking the specter of root rot, your grow medium is likely inappropriately water-retentive, not to mention the fact that watering in sips ensures dissolved solids (salts) in your tapwater and/or fertilizer solution remains/ builds up in the soil to the point where water uptake becomes difficult for the plant. A high level of salts in the soil can actually reverse the process of osmosis and pull water OUT of cells by exactly the same mechanism that curing salts pulls water from meats like ham/ bacon/ sausage.

Moisture levels near the top of the soil column are relatively inconsequential. What is important is the level of moister at the bottom of the pot. I'll leave you with something I wrote about using a "tell". The "tell" will provide you with the information you need to determine appropriate watering intervals.

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.

Al