When I lost stems it was always from dry conditions.
The King Tut I grew last year, I had it from May to almost December, and it never got old enough to start shedding old stems. I don't think this will happen in a season, but if you live in a warm enough climate for it to overwinter this could be your issue. Thee is the potential that if the plant gets really old, it can sometimes shed old stems from the outside of the plant, to "make room" for newer, younger stems. A few of the older stems that grew before I started adding additional fertilizer droop a bit, but the rest are ramrod straight and the stems are quite thick. I can tell that the newer stems are super strong. In July I started supplementing the controlled-release fertilizer I used at planting with water soluble fertilizer. Look for something like a 20:10:20, 20:10:15 or 24:12:17, or another formulation along those lines. I use our Proven Winners water soluble fertilizer but any fertilizer with a 2:1:2 or 2:1:1.5 ratio would be good.
If the plant is at all light green or yellowish start using a well balanced water soluble fertilizer once a week or so to give it a boost. The other suggestion I have to keep it really healthy and strong is to make sure you fertilize. If it is in a pot with other plants or planted in the ground make sure the ground never gets completely dry. If you have King Tut in a pot by itself try blocking the drainage holes to help keep it well hydrated. Usually if you have stems kinking over it is because the plant is getting dry. This is despite several bouts of quite strong winds. My King Tut is about 5 feet tall now (I have it in a galvanized metal bushel basket with no drainage holes) and was planted from a 4.5" pot in May and it almost never has a stem kink over.
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