Caryota mitis, I think, and imminent doom?

[Brad52]

If indeed this is C mitis, obtained as Caryota sp., looks like C mitis to me, as a monocarpic palm will the flowering trunk soon croak?

[Harry’s Palms]

Yes , the flowering stalk will die . It will start pushing out smaller fronds and inevitably start looking bad. If it is near anything that can be harmed if blown over by strong winds , I would cut it down soon. The “pups” will continue to grow and eventually replace the flowering stem as the cycle continues. I have Caryota Mitis clumps that are almost thirty years old . I have cut many stalks down , some very tall. Harry

[Brad52]

I might cull it rather than cut an 18’ tree down every five years.

[Harry’s Palms]

Most of the ones I cut down are a little shorter than that . I cut one or two stalks every year or so. I have four clumps around the house , so there seems to be a flowering trunk or two every year. I like the look of them and it isn’t too hard to cut them . I do have one clump out front that gets large , probably over 15’ . I cut two trunks a couple of years ago and they had to be cut in sections. 
     I can understand , they certainly are not self cleaning . It is more than just a trimming to have to cut trunks down . The one I tell people never to plant in their yard is Caryota Urens , they have a really bad habit of falling over! Mine fell and it never flowered. Harry

‘The C. Urens towers above the C. Obtusa . It fell over . Luckily the neighbor had left for work so no damage . It had just opened a beautiful dark green frond , no inflorescence ever appeared. 

[Merlyn]

19 hours ago, Brad52 said:

If indeed this is C mitis, obtained as Caryota sp., looks like C mitis to me, as a monocarpic palm will the flowering trunk soon croak?

It looks mostly like Mitis, but I suppose it could be a hybrid.  The fronds look a bit different than mine, slightly droopier.  But we are in different climates too.  I have chopped out 5 or 6 (or so) dead flowered trunks from my largest Mitis clump, and it just keeps on growing more suckers.  At some point the footprint is going to get too big and I'll have to dig out the whole lot.  If I spot a flowering I'll chop it off before it gets super heavy, and lop off the trunk too in 3 to 5 foot long pieces.  They aren't too heavy when small, and easy to cut down with a battery powered reciprocating saw and nice medium tooth (10ish TPI) carbide blade.

[Brad52]

It’ll actually be more often than every five years as I think of it, but I don’t want to have to miss everything around it with falling trees on the semi regular.