I was hoping to get feedback on the following, I don't think I've seen it mentioned before, my apologies if I am repeating:

One of the main issues with growing palms in containers here in the north is that eventually many species will outgrow their containers. Traditional root-pruning and repotting is not a good idea as many species will not cooperate. So here's an idea which I may try-

1. Plant the palm in a suitable plastic nursery pot, and drill lots of large holes along the sides. The potting mix will be something like 100% perlite, so that it remains stable for a long time.

2. This pot is submerged into a larger pot, and the space filled in with a more typical potting mix.

3. During the growing season, the roots will grow through the holes in the smaller pot, into the soil mix.

4. When the time comes to repot one spring, the entire smaller pot is removed and all the peripheral roots trimmed back to the holes. Shock to the tree should be minimal because the majority of the rootball remains undisturbed in the smaller pot, and the root-pruning will encourage the growth of fresh new fine roots. The pot is then replanted again as in step 2.

Theoretically, this may slow down large and fast growing palms enough to keep them manageable indoors for the winter.

Thoughts?