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Before You Buy
Receiving Your Plant
Medium LightDescription
If you want to make a tropical statement, with long-lasting and (nearly) care-free features, the Kentia Palm will deliver for you. Here are some helpful hints on keeping your Kentia in great shape for years to come:
Watering
Our Kentia Palms come from top growers in both Florida and Hawaii and the soils differ considerably in their water-holding capacity. Florida soils hold more water, while lava-rock Hawaiian soils drain more readily. Regardless, the plants share the same characteristic – they like an evenly moist rootzone. The Kentia should be watered thoroughly, around the entire soil surface, and not watered again until the soil feels dry – you’ll want a soil probe to help you determine relative soil moisture. The Hawaiian soils are a different, and sometimes hard to probe, but it’s the best soil for plant owners that tend to over-water because there’s so much air space between the small particles of lava rock (cinder). Please check out our watering guide for more information.
Light
While this palm has strong tolerance for lower light levels, much better than most palms, it will thrive in moderate and high light. So, good filtered natural light or bright fluorescent light will keep this palm growing strong.
Nutrition
Like other plants right out of nursery production, you won’t need to feed this palm for at least 6 months after you get it. That’s because there is residual nutrients in the soil from when the palm was being propagated. After 6 months, it can be fed quarterly with a complete fertilizer formulated for interior plants. Please refer to our plant nutrition guide for details.
Cleaning
An occasional wipe down with a damp cloth will keep your Kentia looking good. That’s it.
Pruning
The older leaves on the Kentia Palm may turn yellow and brown. So sweat…just prune off the leaf as close to the stem as possible.
Bugs
The biggest bug problem for this palm is scale. They’ll show up as little brown bumps on the underside of the leaves and can be wiped off. Because scale insects form a waxy proactive coating over their bodies, you will need to apply a little more pressure to dislodge the little boogers from their happy little spot on the underside of the leaves.
Trouble
Give it a little light and occasional water, and you should be in pretty good shape.
Bright Light
Sami Khader (verified owner) –
The plant was beautiful but was damaged during the shipping. Sue was very helpful when I informed her about it and provided a partial refund. But as for the plant it still needs to recover from its hard travel, its still very droopy and bent from places.