Correction--I did NOT purchase it...

Yes, it probably stunts the palms to grow them three-to-a pot, but it also stunts a palm to grow one-in-a-pot! LOL!

I have two Spindles in one pot. They look nice, but boy do these things get heavy when they get bigger.

With three per pot, you'll be moving up to a larger pot sooner. Eventually you'll need a dolly to move it around unless you have a permanent spot for it.

Also, sometimes when the palms are small, and there are more than one-to-a-pot, one will dominate and grow much faster than the other(s).

It is probably different for each species. For instance most Pigmy Date Palms are solitary palms, but are very often grown 2,3, or many more to a pot, usually without much consequence to their health or growth. The same goes for Chamaedorea Elegans. I think you would just get more vigorous growth out of a single. Personally, I prefer most palms as singles. I do not own one pigmy, or C. Elegans as a multiple planting. Mine are all single trunked. If it is cheap, you could always get it, and either separate them, or, cut the two smaller ones down, leaving the largest and/ or most healthy. I did this with a Pigmy Date palm, and I did notice that the main plant I left did speed up in growth.

Actually novaplantguy, since you mentioned pygmy palms, I was wondering if all pygmy palms are non clustering. I have 2 pygmy palms, one is an older specimen and one is a younger specimen, but the younger one seems to be making offsets. Did they just plant seeds in the pot and they are coming up, or do some pygmy palms actually make offsets, whereas others dont? or do they all make offsets?
I also prefer most palms as singles and you probably will get more vigorous growth from a single plant because when your talking about doubles and triples, there is less space for the roots to spread out. Spindles are naturally solitary, but I guess they would do okay as triples. If you can get it cheap, its definitely worth a try!
Good luck!
-Alex

Not seen Hyophorbes sold as clumps of palms... they are a bit costly to offer this way I would think. But I have never separated them... no idea how sensitive their roots are. Some palms (like Howeas) area super easy to separate (just rip their roots apart and they'll be fine) while Majesties often die when taken apart (often sold in clumps, too).

As for Phoenix roebelleniis, they are, in the wild, a clustering palm, but the cultivated forms are solitary and have been selected for that way for many dozens of years... but still they are sold in clumps of individuals. True wild forms are rare in cultivation, but they cluster and continue to do so their entire life, making for a huge shrub and generally not that ornamentally useful unless one really gets on top of them and hacks away the new suckers (as one often does with Phoenix reclinata or some forms of Phoenix dactylifera)... if you didn't with those, you would soon have an impenatrable mass of palms. Sometimes the wild form of Phoenix roebellenii is sold as variety 'Reasonorii'.

Thanks lzrddr. I guess I'll have to see if it continues to produce new offspring. I lost some of them from spear pull last winter from lack of water, but most have made new spears and are coming back so once summer comes, we will see what happens!

Spindle palms can grow together in a pot at nearly the same rate at singles you just have to give them room.I grow both and can't tell any size difference. Phoenix roebelenii's can clump even in cultivation but is becoming rare. One problem is many are crossed with other phoenix palms.

Not all P. Roebelenii are clustering/ clumping in the wild. In their native habitat it is common to see both suckering/ clumping and solitary varieties. However it is MORE common to see them as suckering trees in their native habitat in Laos, but single trees are still not hard to find there. Note the photo from Laos below.

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Here is another great photo of some growing along the Mekong river as it appeared on the cover of one of the 1994 IPS publications called Princeps back then. Along rivers there they sometimes become rheophytes.

Often, seeds collected from wild trees growing in their native habitat will sucker, but seeds collected from cultivated trees will not. To further complicate things, many of the ones you see planted as multiples in cultivation are in fact single trees planted together. This is why you can often cut out smaller plants at the base, and they will NOT grow back. This was the case with one of my P. Roebelenii's. If mine was one of the true suckering varieties, then it likely would have re-sprouted more suckers.