How Do Get Rid of Your Palm Debris?

[Tomsky]

Years ago, I would take my palm cuttings down to the city dump once a year. Over the course of the year, I would pile up all the dead leaves, leaf bases, flower and fruit stalks. Before renting out a pickup truck, it would take several days of prep work. I would bring everything out to the front yard and create a small mountain. Then I would cut everything into small, manageable sizes. It was an art form. When the stuff would be loaded onto the pickup truck, I would stomp on everything to compress things down. It would take only two or three trips to the dump and everything was gone, until next year.

Then the city closed the dump a few years ago and in their new system gave us three garbage cans. The black one was for regular garbage, the green one was for garden cuttings, and the blue one was for recyclables. The twist was that since palms are not biodegradable, they had to be put into the black can. So every week, the 96 gallon black can has about 1/3 real garbage and 2/3 palms. It's amazing how every single week, there's a never-ending supply of palm stuff to fill up the can.

Jack

[Pivi]

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?sh...c=12952&hl=

[MattyB]

We used to have a green bin in Lemon Grove, but in Spring Valley we're just supposed to fill up regular trashcans with the plant material. That would be fine accept that I live on such a steep hill that it's not practical to carry anything up it. So I've created a "brush pile" area in the bottom of the canyon. When my palms get big enough to actually have debris that's where it'll go. But for now, the Grevillia robusta drops plenty of heavy branches and I've got enough brush to keep my brush pile growing for the time being. I cut up everything into small pieces so that it lays as flat as possible. My neighbor Bob has a hydrolic dump bed w/ plywood sides on his 4x4 truck. He has his gardeners pile that thing to the top and they drive it down his hill over to a low spot and dump it. It's like country livin' out here man. It's a different experience for me. Technically, we live in an unincorporated area of the county, so it' legal to burn your trash. We have another neighbor who does this regularly. The first time I saw it, I thought there was a fire in the canyon. I hope he's careful.

[PalmatierMeg]

Palms not biodegradable? Not here. They rot like all other vegetable matter. But in Cape Coral we have a vegetation pickup every week. We put fronds, etc. beside the street. Exactly where they take it I don't know, probably to the environmentably safe incerator.

[DoomsDave]

Palm leaves rot like ethics in the face of temptation.

I used them for mulch, just toss 'em under the palms, then cover them with wood chips.

If I'm excavating, I toss 'em into the pit.

They burn like the fires of you-know-where, the leaves that is.

In season, they make the best kindling.

Same for infructescenses and flowers.

Trunks go into the trash . . . .

[Wai`anae Steve]

I can drive my p/u to most places on my 2 acres. So I just pile everything in it and drive down to the green waste recycleing center. I dump for free and they "buy" back last years dumps.

The trick is, is to lay the bottom with long fronds until the whole bed has a good layer. Then you can pile all sorts of junk on top. When I get to the dump I back in to the pile and one, two, three I grab those fronds on the bottom and pull the whole load out in about 10 seconds.

[Jim in Los Altos]

I have two 96 gallon green waste containers that are picked up every two weeks. Palm fronds are OK in them as long as they are cut or ripped up into two foot pieces or smaller. Those containers are usually overflowing by pickup time.

[metalfan]

Since we live out in the County, we are allowed to burn trash. Very few people out here actually DO, though, because many live in gated subD's that disallow such 'hillbilly' activity. While we don't burn our trash per se (we have garbage pick up and curbside recycling) as we live on 5 acres of our own property without a homeowner's association to breathe down our necks, we do occasionally burn yard waste. Like when trees fall down and have to be cut up.

But mostly, we just drag it out into the woods and compost it a la nature. Palm fronds included.

Which reminds me, I need to trim my palms and my sagos.

[SubTropicRay]

The city picks up yard waste on Thursdays. I chop all the big leaves into little bity pieces.

[TikiRick]

  Ray Tampa said:

The city picks up yard waste on Thursdays. I chop all the big leaves into little bity pieces.

Ditto for me....the city provides a yard waste container.

[JimStPete]

St. Petersburg has a great recycling program. There are several 'brush sites' scattered all over town. So all you need is a pickup truck (which almost everybody seems to have here...including me!). I usually make a trip over there 2-3 times a month, all year round. They then take all the yard debris and make mulch out of it that is then free for pick up at the brush sites (but quite a chore to pitch fork into the pick up). They also will delivery 8 yards for $25. When I first started my garden I used lots of the recycled mulch because it was inexpensive and I could put down a real thick layer that would last about 8 months before it completely dissappeared into the sand. I'm guessing that the earthworms turn the soil and mix the mulch fragments with the sand because I now have real soil rather than sand throughout my entire yard. The soil extends down about 12-18" and I did not do anything to get it that deep. The only problem was I was building up huge amounts of soil (the beds got higher and higher every year). So I had to stop using the recycled mulch. Now I simply use all the Live Oak leaves that fall in February (which is mulchin' time here) and spread them in all the beds, and then cover that with a thin layer of Cypress Blend Mulch (I know...I only use a little Cypress Mulch, it's mostly Oak Leaves, HONEST!)

[rozpalm]

Wow, I didn't realize how good I have it. I just make a big pile each week on the road and the trash people pick it up with a bucket truck on Saturday. The amount of waste that comes out of my yard in a week would fill several trash cans, so I really hope I never have to put it in a can.

[Kris]

Dear Jack

here in india all my dried leaves from palms,plants & dicot trees.is sent out immediety on day to day basis(never stored).they are sent out into the garbage cans placed out side our home.since in our road the maximum leaf trash is from our house and the corporation does tolerate this since we grow & maintain lots of trees that would now include even palms & cycas !

here in our hot wet tropics,all the old dried leaf dump breeds centipeds,millipeds,if too wet and old then even scorpians also starts inhabitting this mound.so lately even we stopped using cow dung manure since it too breeds pests & bugs...

So we here do not stock these, to use it as organic mulch.

lots of love,

Kris