I have a good theory.
It's common knowledge that stem diameters change according to the boom or bust conditions.
Many palms here through the last 3 years of drought have tapered their stems down a lot beside not exhibiting the same longitudinal growth.
The common denominator with the palms that have grown adventitious roots is.
1/ Rapid, distinct and pronounced stem dia growth
2/ An underside to that growth not a gradual taper
We know that we can induce roots along the stem of a palm but how about this. That step now becomes a moist area as water goes down the trunk.
In addition we all know palms have no rays and are basically tubes running up and down. This means that the water getting sucked up from the ground is no problem however the diffusion of the additional sugars from photosynthesis going down the palm become bottlenecked like sand in an hour glass at the stem diameter change.
That would then perhaps cause a "storage and saturation" of sugars in the stem where conditions are most favourable for adventitious root growth.
I have attached a diagram showing these factors at play. Blue is water going up and green is sugars going down.
Now where do I collect my PhD?
