Kentia Soil

[anyca]

Hi all,

We have a Kentia that has soil that literally dries out every 2 days. We bottom water to try and have it keep on to SOME moisture, but whenever we probe a day or two after, it is dry to the bone again. It is shedding and yellowing some bottom baby leaves.

 

I've been made aware it's really not good to repot palms if it can be avoided, so turning to you all for advice here.. should we repot with denser soil? Potting mix 50% and perlite 50%? Or should we not touch it? 

 

Appreciate any advice,

Annika

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

Welcome to PT , so it sounds like you have a fast draining soil which is a good thing palm wise , especially for indoors. Is the problem that you can't water often or what ? If you were so inclined you can change the soil. Now we normally don't recommend potting soil cause when it finally breaks down in 6 months or so your left with a not so ideal potting medium. Hope this helps , pics of the palm will help diagnose if there is something else going on. 

[anyca]

51 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

Welcome to PT , so it sounds like you have a fast draining soil which is a good thing palm wise , especially for indoors. Is the problem that you can't water often or what ? If you were so inclined you can change the soil. Now we normally don't recommend potting soil cause when it finally breaks down in 6 months or so your left with a not so ideal potting medium. Hope this helps , pics of the palm will help diagnose if there is something else going on. 

Thank you! We are often away for a few days at a time, so the drainage on this is a touch too good Right now we can of course water, but once the stay at home orders are relaxed it will become more difficult.. what would be your advice on the recommended mix for changing its soil a little? 

Our last Kentia died on us as the soil had almost no drainage and we clocked on to it too late, so lost it to rot and leaf mould. Just being extra careful as seeing some signs of stress on this new one and whilst we are not new to plant parenting, we seem to struggle with palms..

I've also included a couple photos.

[PalmatierMeg]

Looks like you have four individual palms in that pot - Howea forsteriana is a solitary palm and, I believe, does not take well to being artificially clumped. I also wonder if four rootballs  in one pot struggling for water and nutrients leave little space for soil and that water just drains away without doing any good. Eventually, the stronger, larger palm(s) may snuff out the weaker but I doubt that is your wish. If they were my palms, I would unpot them, rinse off then carefully tease apart their rootballs before giving each its own pot. Kentias are not overly root sensitive if you are careful and patient with them. They should be much happier if they don't have to compete with one another to survive. I really love this species even though it hates my sweltering climate.

Welcome to PalmTalk.

[Hillizard]

55 minutes ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Looks like you have four individual palms in that pot - Howea forsteriana is a solitary palm and, I believe, does not take well to being artificially clumped. I also wonder if four rootballs  in one pot struggling for water and nutrients leave little space for soil and that water just drains away without doing any good. Eventually, the stronger, larger palm(s) may snuff out the weaker but I doubt that is your wish. If they were my palms, I would unpot them, rinse off then carefully tease apart their rootballs before giving each its own pot. Kentias are not overly root sensitive if you are careful and patient with them. They should be much happier if they don't have to compete with one another to survive. I really love this species even though it hates my sweltering climate.

Welcome to PalmTalk.

"They should be much happier if they don't have to compete with one another to survive."  I found this to be true with mine as well! 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

3 minutes ago, Hillizard said:

They should be much happier if they don't have to compete with one another to survive."  I found this to be true with mine as well! 

This is exactly what I found, went from 5 beautiful palms in a pot to a solitary palm for over 5 years now , very slow for me in the garage cause this palm absolutely hates our sun haha 

[oasis371]

I have grown to be completely obsessed with this species over the years!

I recently lost one of mine after YEARS of NO PROBLEMS.  My mistake, I think, was to "improve" things by increasing the soil volume the previous Summer and feeding in late January.  Well! It went into a serious decline in early February and within weeks was dead. (It was a single..., which I prefer anyway.)

I needed to replace it ASAP, as i LOVE them. I was considering going with a multiple planting and at the last minute, decided to go with smaller individual ones.  At any size, they are far more difficult to obtain in Eastern North America than California or Europe (they are not so easily available from Florida). Now, I have four smaller ones that eventually will grow to sizeable specimens as individual plants. 

Kentias tend to resent transplanting more so than many palms..., they also can be inclined to root rot in the cooler, Winter months. Don't be quick to transplant them, and use a well-draining soil.  Be sure to let dry a bit between waterings.

P.S., LOL, yeah, they seem to HATE full sun, even here in NJ. So, only partial, dappled sunlight or they burn.

Good luck!

Edited May 20, 2020 by oasis371

[Mostapha]

HI, I have some Howea fosterianas here in upstate N.Y.  some I have grown from seed and some purchased through Mail order, (not the common e site). Prices I find there are exuberant for any Howea.  Living 40 miles west of Albany . N.Y prices of Howeas can be very high, If the greenhouses here even know what they are. I have been quoted prices up to 150 dollars  for the same size I had just purchased for 55(potted including shipping) The ones I recently purchased came from a place in California. I purchased 2 very nice 1 gallon trade pots. They also are clusters of 4, but doing very well, already producing new fronds, one of which has the red petiole, these are very nice, in the 3 ft range. I had seen an ad for the greenhouse and called them. Before I even made the purchase, I described approx. what I was looking for and the person on the phone went right to the green house and sent me pictures of the palms within the hour, that they would send to me. Throughout this horrific pandemic they promptly sent them out to me and stayed in touch throughout the shipping process, they kept an eye on the tracking, just as I had, to make sure they arrived in pristine condition and they did.  If I can figure how to get the pictures from my phone to the computer to post them I will.  I will be posting in the grower/seller section here later, but if anyone may be interested in where they came from.  Again hoping to post pics later today.

Thanks Mark

[piping plovers]

Hi Anyca, Maybe you need to add a bit more organic mix to the media.  For my kentias,  I followed a  palm potting mix suggestion made by member Pal Meir and others and modified the components by what I could find locally: (1/3 orchid mix bark; 1/3 Leca clay pebbles; and 1/3 peat & perlite generic potting soil).   The peat and bark components should help retain soil moisture.   I used the Leca to substitute for the Ceramis that was recommended in some of the forum mixes.  Leca was hard to find but I did locate/order from W*Mart online.  I don’t know if you are familiar with either Ceramis or Leca (I was not); but they are clay-like spheres/nuggets that are often used in hydroponics and orchid culture.  The key point is that they do not break down or compact, maintaining good drainage and air in the mix.  Mix drains super fast; yet the peat and bark retain enough moisture in-between waterings.  With this mix and pot sizes I can get away with 7-10 days between waterings.  Best of luck, Keep us posted!