KENTIA PALM TREE INFORMATION
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It takes about fifteen years for a Kentia Palm to produce its first crop of viable seed, and by that I mean seed that will have a good germination rate for production.
The seeds on the Kentia Palm grow on long stems known as fingers, with about 200 seeds to a full finger. There are from three to seven fingers growing together, in groups called hands. The Kentia Palm has been known to grow to a height of over eighty feet, but the average height is between thirty and fifty feet.
Once the tree begins seeding it normally has two or three crops of seed on it as various stages of growth. The lower seed hands are the mature seeds that are colored a light yellow. The second seed hand above, a dark green color, are the next season's crop, and the flowering spikes protruding from the center of the tree are the formation of the third year's crop. To test if seed is mature prior to harvesting, an old Norfolk Island picking custom is to bite a seed taken from the tree finger, and if the seed is hard to bite than the seed is mature.
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| A KENTIA PALM TREE ABOUT TEN YEARS OLD |
If you are thinking about planting Kentia Palms on your property another old Island tip is to plant the palms about 12 feet apart. This way they are in a format where proper cultivation and maintenance will yield you a very nice looking plant which will eventually guarantee quality seed.
When I planted small Kentia Palm trees ( about three feet tall ) on my property on Norfolk Island I planted a banana sucker next to the palm. What this did was to help shade the palm in its early stages of growth. Once I saw that the Kentia had adapted to the outside environment I cut the banana plant out. Any planting of small Kentia Palms should have some shade around them. This will help with the palm not turning a yellow coloring which basically relates to too much direct sunlight
Another tip when buying Kentias from growers or chain stores for planting on your properties is to make sure the palm is root bound and reasonably mature enough for outside planting. To do this lift the palm up by the stem and see if there is any looseness with the stem and the potting mixture. If the pot and stem are bound together and don't come apart then the palm is okay to purchase.
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