Burying 1 ft of kentia trunk, Is this OK?

[bandar93001]

Gents

Its been a several years since Ive been to this site.  Good to see the same names.  I had to reregister my username was lost.

I am remodelling the landscaping a bit and want to create mounds about a foot high where my kentias are.

The Kentias have about 3-4 feet og clear trunk.  

Will buring 1 foot of trunk with good quality dirt cause problems with the kentias?

Thanks

Dave in Ventura

[ghar41]

Kentia's always do better for me a little dryer than wetter.  I have two in the house that just want to be left alone, I only water them when they wilt just a little. Allowing wet soil to come in contact with the first foot of trunk doesn't sound at all good to me.  Add to the fact that they grow in a rocky soil.

Most plants despise being planted to deeply.

[Dypsisdean]

My guess is that would be a sure death sentence. You could maybe get away with 6 inches or so, but I wouldn't even try that if you really like your palms a lot.

[MattyB]

Do not bury them at all.  I lost a King Palm when I raised the soil only 4 inches.  It began a trunk rot that eventually rotted out the plumbing and the palm actually dried up due to lack of water uptake even though it was sitting in moist rich soil.  I've contemplated what I'd do if I had to raise my soil level up around an established tree.  I'd build a simple ring around it w/ concrete, bricks or those quarter circle border bricks so the trunk could sit down in it's own little hole and the soil can be safely raised around it.  I've actually gotta do that to a Jacaranda right now that I'm raising soil around.  Good luck.

[Palm Guy]

Hi Dave,

I would bury it the same depth it is in now. Apparetly, for palm seedlings, burying them more than half an inch below the point where the roots meet trunk will kill them. I'm pretty sure a foot of trunk underground will certainly kill your kentias so its better to err on the safe side. I agree with Matt, perhaps a small retaining wall to hold the mounds (however, the mounds may block the sunlight so I would adjust your regular watering as the soil will most likely dry out slower). You could also leave mounds around the palm and plant small ground covers in the ditch around the palm to hold the soil from falling in. Another more drastic measure would be to take the palms out and replant at a higher depth. Irregardless I wouldnt suggest planting it more than a couple inches.  

Mike

[chris.oz]

I believe it is safe to bury the trunk only on palms which develop aerial roots from leaf base nodes; for example many species of Chamaedorea, Iratea, Verschaffeltia etc also in cases where the root growth plate extends part way up the trunk like Phoenix.  In the case of Howea,  the root growth plate remains relatively flat in mature palms ,  although it may expand at the base when there is massive secondary root develpment at around the time  the palm has started trunking.

However,  it is clear that all old palms in rainforest would have to tolerate accreted  leaf litter and possibly some loose soil,  and in many cases this could result in an increase in the level of soil around the palm base,   palms should have adapted to survive this.

I am not sure of the extent to which Kentias find the build up of soil  level in habitat,  but careful observation of this on LHI would give the ultimate answer to your question.

Heres the base of a 30ft high Kentia growing on sand in Melbourne.  Thats a size 10 shoe 330 mm long.

[neoflora]

Put your head in a foot of dirt and see what happens!

[Jim in Los Altos]

Kentias definitely don't like soil any higher than to the bases of their trunks. What I do in my landscaping business when my design calls for mounding areas around trees, palms, large oaks, etc. is to build berms with field stone like curved retaining walls a least a couple of feet from trunks to keep mounded soil away. Field stone is excellent because it's natural shape alows you to make any shape you want without looking man made. Soil on the mounded side of the rock pretty much conceals it from that side but it will show through on the tree side where the soil is at its original level.

I've got several Washingtonias with massive bundles of aerial roots popping out of their trunks as far as two feet up and I've mounded soil around some of them with no problems as well as a couple of big queen palms that I mounded as much as 18" of soil aroud but only because they had lots of aerial roots showing too.   That was several years ago. But kentias rot very easily when this is done to them.

[MattyB]

Jim, what's field stone?

[osideterry]

A landscaper told me trees breathe from the trunk right above the ground. Palms, monocots are so very different from deciduous trees, I wouldn't think they would have this in common. East coasters seem to get away with burying Sabals to make them all the same height.

[Scott]

Chris - Thanks for the shoe shot. A shoe shot always puts things into perspective