Stem/trunk forming?

[David_Sweden]

I'm just very curious whether all the beige dead tissue at the bottom of my ~10 year old Kentia means that it is about to form a stem soon?

Of course "soon" in a palm's perspective might be years I suppose..

I have never expected to see any stem at an indoors palm but I have seen stems in pictures now of potted Kentias, usually a bit bigger than mine though. If not a stem then what's going on behind that wrapping?

[Pip]

I don't think that your Kentia is very close to trunking they get quite wide at the base before they do that. If they had been growing ten years in the ground then yes they should be beginning to trunk. I have watched my grand mothers Kentia's that she has kept as pot plants on her front porch for more years than I've been alive (34 years) they have never looked close to trunking basically they are almost bonzi palms or at least stalled juveniles just waiting for the canopy to open before taking their turn to reach for the sun.

[Kostas]

It doesn't seem trunking size yet,though in a pot they trunk with smaller trunk diameter than in the ground. But when a Howea is about to start trunking,the point where you see the spear emerging will start raising noticeably and the lower part will start getting cylindrical instead of conical in outline. Pulling those dead leaf bases as they rot/detach and can be pulled relatively gently,will reveal green leaf bases and a compressed,green but very closely ringed trunk that is intended to be underground and produce roots while the palm grows and widens its base,preparing itself to ultimately trunk. In a pot,indoors,it will surely take many many years to start trunking due to slow growth rate from small pot size and low light conditions. But they look very beautiful wherever they are!

P.s., one of mine is trunking after 5years in the ground from a size similar to yours or a tad smaller maybe. Come winter,the first rings of trunk will be revealed But its in the ground and grown with many hours of sun a day, and it grows 5+ leafs a year.

[David_Sweden]

Thanks! Very interesting. But I shouldn't hold my breath then I guess

[Kostas]

Check the leaf length of your specimen to get an idea. When close to trunking size, leafs are 4m long in half day sun grown individuals. That would mean,leafs would be at least as long if not considerably longer, in a shade grown individual close to trunking size.

[David_Sweden]

I'm guessing you mean the entire frond should be 4m? Including petiole (from soil to tip) or just the part with leaves?

It's nowhere near that but it's growing like crazy since I learned how to take better care of it.

I googled for pictures of Kentias in pots with stem and found these:

[Kostas]

Yeah,total leaf length,with petiole. The bigger plants pictured in the first two photos seem to be trunking but the last one is far from trunking and seems like a fake plant to me,definitely not normal looking for a kentia.