Damage from Palm Tree Roots

[Carriesue]

I have four large palm trees on my patio. They are in a space 4 1/2' wide between a retaining wall and concrete patio. The trees are 18" from the retaining wall. They are about 15 years old and are growing pretty fast.

Will they eventually damage the retaining wall and patio?

 

[treeseer]

Species of palm? Type of surrounding soil?

 

[Stumper]

Eventually? Perhaps but Palm roots aren't woody expanders like other trees. They are a great big clump of squiggly little things -look like onion roots on a larger scale. If the clumb gets largenough in a clay soil it might do something but typically-not.

 

[Ax-man]

Eventually? Perhaps but Palm roots aren't woody expanders like other trees. They are a great big clump of squiggly little things -look like onion roots on a larger scale. If the clumb gets largenough in a clay soil it might do something but typically-not.

_________________________________________________________________

They got Palm trees in Colorado, Justin?? Sounds like like the voice of experience talking here.

Larry

 

[Ekka]

I'd like to see a pic of the area plus species of palm.

Lots of people around here are paying the price of planting palms in restricted areas such as between pools and walls/fences etc.

Although they don't have big stong roots they have a large root ball which consists of thousands of fibreous roots the size of your fingers. The root ball creates a lot of compression force as it gets larger. I have seen retaining walls pushed out, brick walls pushed out and cracked, pipes crushed. We have removed and stump ground heaps of them and the common denominator was

A/ People told they have a small root system.
B/ Planted in a restricted area.

We recommend that they have a good 3' in all directions, more if you are planting Cuban Royals or Washingtonias with that big butt they have. Then again if you have a clumping variety they need more room too.

 

[Stumper]

Ax, I've worked on Palms in TX and AZ.Lots of guys here have more experience with them than I-including Ekka.

 

[Carriesue]

The 4 trees on my patio are Washingtonia robusta. They are in the Coachella Valley in sandy soil.

Thanks.

 

[Kaimbu]

Hopefully this thread still read - our neighbor has these palms right up against our common wall. One is leaning on the wall and cracking it on our side. Their side of the wall is heavily cracked and we're concerned about ours. Could the roots of these palms be damaging the wall?

 

[Raintree]

Not likely those palms are in serious state of decline.

 

[snowyman]

They don't look in a state of decline to me.
Kill them now if you have the option, they'll just cause more problems. We've removed more of them in the last 10-15 years than anything else, classed as noxious in most areas here now.

Read the full post above, he covers it pretty well.

Although they don't have big stong roots they have a large root ball which consists of thousands of fibreous roots the size of your fingers. The root ball creates a lot of compression force as it gets larger. I have seen retaining walls pushed out, brick walls pushed out and cracked, pipes crushed.

 

[Raintree]

They don't look in a state of decline to me.

One trunk has no fronds at all so it's dead, other trunks have 2-4 fronds each and the chlorosis is blinding. How can you say they're not in decline?