Areca hedge

[Sandy Loam]

How far apart should you plant areca palms (dypsis lutens) to create a full screening hedge? 

Also,  how long will it take for a bunch of three gallon size areca palms to turn into a screening hedge six feet tall if grown in full sun?

The climate is roughly usda zone 10a in an area of central Florida, USA. 

  Thanks. 

[Merlyn]

I'd think 3 feet apart and 6 feet tall in a year in FL 10a.  It might take longer for the bases to grow together, but would probably be pretty solid from 3 feet up.  Eventually the bases would grow together, maybe in 2 years?

[Sandy Loam]

OK.  Thanks.  I was hoping to plant them more like ten feet apart.  Maybe I was being too optimistic.  

 

Also,  will they encroach inward forever?  I don't want an areca palm hedge to grow thirty feet thick and chew up the whole yard.  I understand that dypsis lutens is a suckering palm, but I don't know much/far they will spread outward.  

 

[Merlyn]

@Sandy Loam yeah at 10 feet apart it would take a long time to fill in, maybe 2-4 years?  They will expand forever.  In my area of 9a/9b borderline they grow maybe 1 foot additional diameter per year at ground level.  But I hit upper 20s with frost every year and they get burned back at least 50% of the fronds.  At 27-29F they don't lose canes but lose most of the upper foliage.  So mine spend January-May attempting to recover, and really kick off the growth rate around July.  In 10a you'd probably get more growth since they don't get heavily frostburned every winter.

If you had a zone you didn't want it to expand into, you can divide clumps or remove sections of clumps with a reciprocating saw and a 9" or 12" blade into the soil.  I split up a 4' diameter clump (at ground level) into 2 clumps and transplanted them...then later split up one of the two halves into another 2 clumps and transplanted them.  All took off just fine with no issues.  It would be some maintenance if you really wanted to corral them, but the ground footprint doesn't expand immensely quick like bamboo.

[Sandy Loam]

Has anyone here had a problem with their areca palms expanding outward and taking up a lot of space in their yard? I get the impression that they do not really do that, meaning that they do not invade yard space when they sucker outwards. Consensus?