I know palms trunks don't grow thicker once the trunk is there (but can vary a little as it grows taller), but is there a chance the base can get thicker? I ask because my wife and I bought a couple of foxtail palms a while back and they had just a 2-3 inches of trunk. Unfortunately the trunks are only like 3-4 inches in diameter. Are the foxtails doomed to have super skinny trunks or is there any chance their bases will fatten up before they get taller allowing a fatter trunk as they grow? I don't mind the thin trunk too much aesthetic wise, but I imagine they will be less typhoon resistant than if they had fat trunks.

How tall are they? Foxtails should fatten up as they get taller and older. Pics pls

Oops yeah I should've added pics. For some reason they uploaded out of order. The first and last pics are the same palm and the 2 middle pics are a different one. 

Edited September 1, 20205 yr by PhilippineExpat

Oh yeah they will get much bigger! You still have a little ways before the trunks are fully developed on those beauties. The second pic is just the start of the actual woody trunk.

33 minutes ago, JLM said:

Oh yeah they will get much bigger! You still have a little ways before the trunks are fully developed on those beauties. The second pic is just the start of the actual woody trunk.

Thank god! I was worried I'd be stuck with skinny trunks. I thought seeing the woody trunk meant the thickness was locked in and it wouldn't deviate much from that for the rest of its life.

Oh yeah, Your Foxtail trunks will fatten up a lot. This Archontophoenix for instance, had a very skinny trunk when the total height of the palm was 10 feet tall (3 meters). Look how fat it is now that the palm is 25 feet tall (7.6 meters).

 

Foxy Lady on the left is just starting to fatten. 

Foxtail still skinny but will fatten eventually. 

Edited September 2, 20205 yr by Jim in Los Altos

Foxtails take a while before fattening up. Even Kings like Jim mentioned can do the same. Also the faster a palm puts on height the thinner it tends to be.  Archontophoenix Maxima and Cunninghamiana can appear very lanky due to their extreme growth rate. The only exception I’ve seen in my yard Roystonea. They get big and fat very fast. My larger Royal has been in ground 16 months and has gone from no rings to 5 rings and over 13” across the base. Vs slow growing palms which never really appear thin because they grow so slowly they fatten up more quickly in relation to their height. 

Edited September 2, 20205 yr by James B

This is after 1 year in a marginal area for foxtails. August 2019 and August 2020. 

Wow thanks so much for the responses and pictures! It's such a relief! We get direct hit by typhoons where I live, so I was worried I'd have a bunch of lanky, weak foxtails that wouldn't be able to handle strong winds. I also like the look of a thick trunk, too. My garden is too small for a royal, so I view my foxtails as dwarf royal palms. That illusion only works if they get fat trunks, though.