Palms; lets talk about palms

[vharrison2]

Palms; Anything at all to do with palms

Our Arborist who happens to also be a biologist just got back from Trees Florida with some interesting info on Lethal Yellowing. University of Florida did a coconut cultivar trial and recorded losses of 74 of the 106 Mayayan Dwarf and 10 of the 12 hybrid Maypan coconuts to the diseas. The only species that they did not loose any to was the true to type Fiji Dwarf. The Jamaica Tail did not fair well during the trial, they lost 30 out of 33 that were planted.

 

[rumination]

Thanks for the info, keep it coming.

 

[pbtree]

The info is fascinating, but I cannot think of a single time I have come across a palm that I did not hate.. They are my least favorite tree...

 

[vharrison2]

Really, living in Cal?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The only ones here are grown under glass, like at the Mitchel Park Conservitrory, better known as "The Domes"

http://www.countyparks.com/horticulture/domes/

 

[vharrison2]

Wow how cool is that?

 

[NORMZILLA44]

He probably hates them because I bet he gets to work with them alot that is a pain in the ass but I love the palms going to plant a couple at the house I like the loks that is not working with them. I dont like the tall skinnies though. I like the stout ones with the nice ball tops the nice gromed ones.

 

[pbtree]

Norm you hit it on the head. I hate working on them - in fact unless it is a regular I normally turn down the work. The only exception is if I can do it without leaving the ground.

They are dirty, they plug up the saws, and other than the fact that they might be nice to look at I just plain don't like them!

 

[Ekka]

This is what I like to do to them

 

[pmuscato]

Good man, Queen palm I'm guessing. Palms suck.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i hate palms.

But, Dr. Donsleman is probably one of the smartest palm persons on planet and is right here in Florida at U of F. Donsleman on Lethal Yellow and also Lethal Yellow chart and pix.

We don't get many coconuts, so have to wait for yellow, then black flower stalks to differentiate the yellow from lethal yellow and not yellowing from translocating nutrients becasue of deficiency. If you cut fronds off and another yellows, you aren't sure if the defficiency is robbing another frond cuz you took the one it was feeding off/translocating nutrients parasitically from itself to feed itself's new growth, or if it is lethal yellow.

If it is starving enough to translocate elements; it might keep yellowing fronds as long as you keep taking them to make plant look pretty; without feeding defficiency. Especially if you blindly spike with nitrogen, jumping growth, and in the balance increasing defficiency as you run plant harder with nitrogen(given it wasn't the original deffciency).

 

[vharrison2]

Our guys trimmed 87 coconut palms yesterday. They filled 3 chip box trucks with material. WOW They are going after a bunch more today!

 

[skyhightree]

What did they chip them with? More palms appearing this side of the pond but chippers can't handle them.

 

[vharrison2]

We use bandit. The bandit280hd with a 200hp john deer deisel works good. The Bandit 1890 does okay, but KOAMAN has a Gravely that kicks ars. We can't seem to get that machine over here.

 

[vharrison2]

Hurricane Dennis brushed past our island chain this past weekend and the winds did something interesting to the Washingtonia Robusta palms. If you are familiar with these palms, they can be cared for 3 ways. Slay'em like Ekka would do, leave the fronds on creating a skirt, or trim them like you would any other palm. If the palm has been trimmed, usually there are "boots" that remain on the trunk. Well, Hurricane Dennis de-booted just about every Washy I have seen, leaving them with clear trunks. If you tried to do this by hand, it would be very, very labor intensive.

 

[a_lopa]

cant beat nature

 

[Ekka]

That's really good stuff VH

Yes, sometimes I have to suck eggs and clean palms, and maintain that nice crossover pattern on the trunk of those Washingtonias (pain in the butt) but having them stripped clean is fantastic.

There must be crap lying around everywhere ... break out that camera VH and take some snaps.

 

[vharrison2]

Mess everywhere....I'll take a ride sometime today.

 

[vharrison2]

They had already cleaned it up. But look at the clean trunk!

 

[Treeman14]

Cool. Debooting usually takes about an hour per palm, and its extremely messy. I too dislike palms.