Question
I got a madagascar palm (pachupodum)and i dont know how to take care of it and i heard somewhere that it camewith a disease... can u tell me how excetly to take care of it in wichita kansas in the summer, spring,winter,and fall... and if there ARE any diseases could you tell me them and how to spotand treat them? thanks alot!

Answer
Dear Camm,  Sorry this is so late, but the internet was down after all the tornadoes in Texas.  After doing some pretty extensive research, there don't appear to be any major diseases with this plant. The only real consideration will be where you are going to plant it.  They like a lot of light, prefer sunlight, but they really don't like to go below freezing as they are a tropical plant.  They will survive a light freeze with only some burned leaves, but if subjected to a hard freeze they will likely lose parts of the tree.  Just give them lots of light, lots of water, (don't ever leave in standing water), and offer protection from cold weather and this palm should be beautiful.  I once made a huge tip delivering one of these very spiny trees to a customer in my car.  It was very tricky.  Just in case, most diseases would be something like yellow or brown spots appearing on the leaves, in which case remove the infected leaves and spray with fungicide; and most pests would be something like mealybug (white cottony fluffs on tips of the tree), or scale, both of which can be treated with horticultural oil.  Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.  Melissa