Help with cycad please

[Pharian]

Hi,

I’ve got a problem with a cycad, I’m praying someone can help me please. It’s got browning on the fronds and I’m not sure why. We just moved into this house 6 months ago and it has 3 fabulous cycads out the front. I do not know the specific breed of cycad. we are in Sydney Australia.

We have had an unseasonably wet summer but the cycads have been there for many years so I don’t think poor drainage is the issue.

There is some black splotching on some of the brown fronds. There was a lot of mulch that the former owners put around the cycads, half burying part of the trunk. I pulled all that back so it’s no longer against the trunk a couple of months ago but there’s still more browning happening.

The other two don’t have the same browning.

I’ve attached some photos

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Chris Edwards

[Geneaz]

To me, it looks like an older flush of leaves had the beginnings of manganese deficiency, then the following set of leaves had almost no sign of the deficiency. So this specimen has mild manganese problem that is easy to fix, but the old leaves won't ever improve because the damage occurs as the leaves are forming during the growth event. Just get a fertilizer with plenty of manganese or buy pure manganese sulfate and apply four or five cups evenly to one foot away from the trunk in a circle around the plant. The problem is MANGANESE, not magnesium.