Kentia Palm Tree

The Kentia Palm Tree, scientific name Howea forsteriana, is by far the most popular indoor palm because of its durability and elegant appearance. It is also great for outdoors. It is also known as Sentry Palm and Paradise Palm. It is native to Lord Howe’s Island that is near Australia.

Growth Rate: Slow
Height: up to 25ft
Light Req: full sun to partial shade
Water Req: moderate
Cold Tolerance: down to 25F

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Kentia Palm Description

The Kentia Palm can grow up to 25ft tall and 10ft wide. Howea forsteriana has single clean trunk prominently ringed with the scars of shed fronds, very similar to Bamboo Palm. Trunk is slender, dark green when young, but turns brown as ages and exposed to sun. It is about 5 inches in diameter with no crownshaft. When Kentia Palm is mature, its trunk slightly swells at the base.

Three dozen arching evergreen fronds form a graceful crown. Leaves are pinnate, or feather-shaped, about 7ft long, with unarmed leaf stems that are 3-4ft long. Leaves have around 90 leaflets that bend downward in a graceful fashion and are 2.5ft long and 2 in wide. Leaflets are dark green on top and lighter green on the bottom,

Howea forsteriana needs some sun exposure in order to produce creamy flowers that are coming from below the leaves on the 3.5ft long inflorescence. Flowering will occur each year, usually during November and December. It has male and female flowers on the same inflorescence. Adult Kentia Palms will fruit at approximately fifteen years of age. Fruit is oval, around 2 inches, pointed at both ends, and has reddish brown color when ripe.

For more photos click here Kentia Palm Pictures.

Growing Kentia Palm

The Kentia Palm Tree doesn’t require much maintenance and can easily adapt to a wide ranges of soil conditions. The Kentia Palms grow more quickly as singles than in the plant groupings. The ideal temperature is between 15-25 degrees C. (about 68-79 degrees F.) The Kentia Palm can tolerate cold down to 28°F (-2°C). This graceful palm has a great track record for surviving low light, dust, central heating, rough handling, drought and general neglect when growing indoors.

Kentia Palm Light Requirements

If you are growing Kentia Palm indoors, find an area in your home that receives indirect light through a window. It doesn’t necessarily need to be an extremely bright spot. In low light the palm may only hold 4 6 fronds, in medium light levels you may see twice as many fronds. So, generally the more indirect light the better.

Outside Kentia can adapt to full sun but prefers light shady to shady area. It can tolerate a full sun only after about 5 years old.

Watering Kentia Palm

Kentia Palm requires moderate watering. It is not tolerable to severe dryness or continual over watering. It prefers moist soil much of the time, but make sure you allow the top 1 to 2 inches of soil to dry before watering again. Do not over water, especially during the winter time. During winter months it is best to reduce amount of water and mist regularly. Misting your palm is a excellent way to provide some humidity and to remove any dust build-up.

Over watering can lead to root rot if the soil mix does not drain fast enough. In case of the under watering, Kentia Palm will develop yellow tips that will turn brown. You will also notice that fronds are not standing upright.

Kentia Palm Fertilization

Slow-release palm fertilizer with minor elements should be applied during the growing season. Excessive fertilization may cause the tips of lower leaves to turn brown and die.

Kentia Palm Propagation

Propagated by seeds. Place seeds in the sandy soil during spring or summer. The best temperature for the propagation is 65F to 75F. It takes a long time for Kentia Palm fruits to mature, around 3-4 years. Unfortunately it’s not easy to determine when fruit and seeds are fully ripe because of the color transform that slowly changes the color of the fruit from dull orange to dull red as they mature. Kentia carries 2 or 3 crops at varies points of maturity.

Warm temperature around 80F-104F (26C-40C) helps to speed up germination process. The Kentia seeds are an exception and can tolerate lower germinating temps down to around 50F (10C), probably because they are native to Lord Howe Island which is a cooler tropical island at about the same latitude as San Diego but in the southern hemisphere. Palm seeds should be germinated in the shade or filtered low light but not in the dark. It takes 1-3 months for Kentia Palm seeds to germinate.

Pruning Kentia Palm

Kentia Palm require minimal pruning just to get rid of dry brown fronds. Over pruning may cause irreversible damage to the trunk.

Kentia Palm Pets and Diseases

Plant diseases are very rarely a problem with indoor grown palms. Under and over watering along with insects and mites are usually the main issues. There are a couple small scale insects that attack your Kentia Palm: mealy bugs and mites. To get rid of mites use a home remedy that worked great for me, of spraying the plant twice a day with a soapy dishwater mixture.

Buy Kentia Palm Tree Today

We don’t sell palm trees on this site, but you can buy it from one of my favorite sites – Real Palm Trees.com. It has beautiful palm trees at discounted prices and offers a Free Shipping. This is one of the few sites that I trust, because each palm tree comes with Certificate of Authenticity that guarantees highest quality of the tree. All of their palm trees are properly grown and acclimatized to the correct hardiness zone.

Most importantly, you will receive a tree in perfect health and wouldn’t have to worry about it dying few weeks later. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee or you money back. To purchase a Kentia Palm Tree, click on one of the links below:

Buy Medium Kentia Palm – Only $249.95!
Buy Small Kentia Palm – Only $89.95!

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