Re-Pot Kentia Palm?

[Johnny_Sapphire]

Just got a new Kentia Palm that's in one of those thin black plastic pots with holes in the bottom. I know Kentia's don't like being re-potted, so i had 2 questions.

1. Seeing how close they are planted together in the black pot, should i remove the black pot and re-pot inside the white ceramic pot for more space or leave as-is?
2.  
3. if leaving as-is, There is a 1" gap between the bottom of the black pot and the bottom of the white ceramic pot. Should this be fine for water drainage, or do i still need to drill a hole at the bottom of the white pot and put a thin plastic water tray underneath that?

thanks in advance!

 

[lzorrito]

Hi! Welcome to the forum!

Until you know a little more about potted Howea forsteriana, my humble advice is:

Don't repot;

Do drill a hole in the ceramic pot;

Don't allow the roots to stand in water;

Water only when the top 2 inches of the potting soil feels dry to touch;

Use a slow release fertilizer at half strength.

Conduct a search on the forum on how to care for potted H. forsteriana. There is a lot of useful information.

 

[PalmatierMeg]

Welcome. Where are you? I agree with @Izorrito. Do you know that Howea forsteriana is a solitary palm? You have 4 palms trying to survive in that black pot and they are competing not growing in harmony. At some point in the future you may want to consider separating them but learn as much as you can about them before trying. I really love this species and think each one deserves to be showcased.

[Johnny_Sapphire]

1 hour ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Welcome. Where are you? I agree with @Izorrito. Do you know that Howea forsteriana is a solitary palm? You have 4 palms trying to survive in that black pot and they are competing not growing in harmony. At some point in the future you may want to consider separating them but learn as much as you can about them before trying. I really love this species and think each one deserves to be showcased.

i'm in the PNW.  Bought it like this.

I'll plan to leave it as-is for now and plan to re-pot them separately in a year or so. Will be nice to have more Palms then!

[JohnAndSancho]

Kentias are awesome. Lots of good advice already - I can tell you my experiences with my first cluster. 

 

I did repot them, I initially left the old soil intact and placed them into a bigger bottom-watering pot. I am pretty new to palms and plants, and I like bottom watering pots because if I over water, it drains out. Anyway - one of them died, so I split the last 3 up, soaked the root ball and untangled them using a chop stick and wore rubber gloves. Repotted them into a mix of potting soil, bark, and some Monto Clay I bought from Bonsai Jack. The bark was Repti Bark from Petco. Like roughly a 1:1:1 mix. 

 

One of the 3 died in my office, gave one away, and the last one is pretty happy. I don't water it often, I do mist it daily. They grow slower than snail poop, but they sure are pretty. 

 

Bought another clump, it's currently just sitting in the nursery pot inside a bigger garden pot with lots of drainage. 

 

Drainage is key. 

[Johnny_Sapphire]

On 4/29/2021 at 11:07 AM, lzorrito said:

Use a slow release fertilizer at half strength.

I picked up MicroLife Ultimate 8-4-6 Fertilizer. Will this work applying it in a potted situation like this?

Looks like the directions state 2oz per 5 gal. size. Assuming this pot is 1 gal, that would be 0.4 oz(11.2 grams), and if i use at half strength as stated in post above: 0.2oz (5.6 grams).

I suck at math so feel free to throw me to the wolves here. thanks

[lzorrito]

On 5/4/2021 at 4:50 PM, Johnny_Sapphire said:

I picked up MicroLife Ultimate 8-4-6 Fertilizer. Will this work applying it in a potted situation like this?

Looks like the directions state 2oz per 5 gal. size. Assuming this pot is 1 gal, that would be 0.4 oz(11.2 grams), and if i use at half strength as stated in post above: 0.2oz (5.6 grams).

I suck at math so feel free to throw me to the wolves here. thanks

Yes, it will work, for sure, it's an organic fertilizer and it looks very complete. You're assuming right, don't worry. Repeat only every 4-5 months, don't mind the indications because you will not water as often as on other species. Keep us update.

Happy growing!

[oasis371]

I love this species as an indoor palm, there's a good reason they were used in all those Victorian/Edwardian homes.

Yes, they can be difficult to acquire! Yes, they can be expensive!  But they tend to be very tolerate of indoor conditions.  I see several posters commented on watering.

I season mine outside in bright shade to some early, direct sun on my deck. Outside, in a HOT summer climate with some sun, it's hard to overwater them.  In fact, mine probably gets watered everyday.  Indoors, in the winter, VERY different.  I think I lost a beloved larger one a couple of years ago by topdressing the soil and watering in February, so definitely go easy on the watering in the colder months, but also don't be neglectful, so it's a balancing act. Yes, they are solitary palms, I've only bought them as solitaries, and I hear that they do grow faster as solitaries, not clumped together.  Most palms can handle transplanting, some are temperamental (Sabals, Bismarckia, etc.), don't think Howea is as temperamental in this respect, but not sure.  I felt sick when I lost my bigger Howea, I had to order three more (all seedlings at the time, but they are coming along as solitary palms in their second year).  

[PsyPalm]

Hey Johnny!  Nice to see another PNW palm grower on here

All great advice on here so far, I'd leave it in the plastic nursery pot until at least this time next year.  I have a big cluster of four like yours that I just repotted yesterday, but I let it grow in my place for a year and a half in the plastic pot it came in so it could get nice and established in my apartment.  You can see the black plastic pot in the first picture, and then yesterday I just repotted it straight back into the ceramic pot it was placed in.  That gave it a little room for root expansion on each side and about four inches of depth below the root ball to grow down into.  Kentia's like their roots snug but also enjoy having vertical depth to grow into so I didn't want to size up from the 10" pot, it gave me just enough room to work with. 

I'm planning on splitting up my cluster into individual trees at some point but am terrified of losing any so I don't think it'll be until next spring at the earliest.  Especially after repotting it yesterday when I saw how solidly the root ball was fused together with the roots of all 4, the thought of trying to gently untangle each palms roots without killing them is a very intimidating prospect.  I've heard some people say to just cleanly cut the root ball to separate it but others who have said that Kentia's won't survive that type of root trauma.  But I can't imagine actually untangling that root structure without damaging the roots so I'm not really sure how best to tackle it.  Oh well, that's a problem for another day ..

I'd love to see a full picture of your Kentia if you have one, I'm a sucker for anything Howea haha    Welcome to the forum!

Loch