Phoenix Suckers ?

[Kris]

Dear guys  

My datepalms used to put of suckers around its main trunk,

and i simply used to dig a liitle of the soil & saw that out of

that location.But now i have a problem they are appearing

from the trunk within.how to cut it out without infecting the

mother datepalm.and what treatment should it get soon after

cutting is done to avoide fungas infection ?

Here are some stills for you to have a clear idea_

Love,

Kris  

[Howeadypsis]

Can i ask a silly question? What harm do suckers do? I know many trees and shrubs  produce them and they spread like billy ho(Syringa for one) but palms?

[Kris]

Hey i read lots of posts & threads that says that date palm

grows faster,stouter & taller if only the suckers are cleaned

from the mother plant.if not all will grow in a shabby &

cramped-up fashion and trimming the leaves of the

mother plant will be a nightmare experience,thorns sticking

out on us from every sides.

Now my question how to go about doing the cleaning work ?

i certainly request all date palm growers & lovers to kindly

interact & share their expertise_Please !

Love,

Kris.

[MattyB]

Kris, take a pruning saw and shear the sucker right off flush with the trunk of the main plant.  This will not hurt the palm.  In fact, the sucker will probably keep trying to come back and will need to be pruned again periodically.  Just think of it like a regular tree trying to grow a branch.  Just cut it off.  If you are worried about fungus then make sure there's no dirt touching the wound.  Let it dry out.  As you know, these are tough trees.  Good luck.

[Kris]

Thanks very much Matty  

i will start that work & when possible i will also post

those stills of this palm after trimming is done.

Once again thanks & Love,

Kris.

And Hey that hippo icon avatar is cuite & nice.

[SubTropicRay]

Ganoderma is a problem in Florida when removing pups.  Acoelorraphe and Phoenix notoriously get infected.

[gsn]

Ray,

I have a reclinata that I remove suckers from.Is there anything I should be putting on the wounds to help preventive Ganoderma infection?

thanks,

[Howeadypsis]

When I prune my plum tree in late summer, when the humidity is higher and theres more chance of disease getting in, I use petroleum jelly (Vaseline)on large wounds.

[PalmGuyWC]

I had the unfortunate experience of letting a Phoenix dactilifera get out of hand with exploding suckers and I finallly had to remove it.  The suckers should be removed at an early age, and you have to dig into the main trunk below the growing point to eliminate the suckers.  In hot, dry climates this doesn't seem to hurt the main trunk.  In date growing areas, they have a special tool to remove the suckers.  There was an article about it in Principes years ago. Pull up Phoenix dact. on the web and I'm sure you can find the info.

Dick

[mcwolf]

I have to prune my Phoenix Reclinata every couple of weeks when the first small shoots come out. It´s quite a nuisance but better now than cutting off leaves with long spikes later. Still looking for a remedy to seal cut off suckers for good.

[tomspalmsdotcalm]

I've just been chainsawing 'em off level with the rest of the

leaves during the annual pruning of a sylvestris. Need to be

suited up with protective clothing, eyewear, head covering,

etc. for that job. I've wondered if those mid-trunk suckers can

be propagated tho'...not that I'd want any more of them.

aloha,

[mcwolf]

I´ve tried years ago. Digged out one of the suckers on the right in the pic, cut it off and put it in the sand again. Dumped it after 2 or 3 years. There was still a bit of green in the middle but not much more. Today I´d rather dig them out, pot them and use them as windbreaker on my balcony. Unfortunately it´s the only palm species so far which germinates (invades) in my garden ;-)

[Kris]

Dear folks  

I have tried my luck on this date palm suckers triming.

as soon as its wound dries up i will post that still too !

Guys i wish to see more on sukers trimming in phoenix Sp.

just join in & dont hesitate to clear your doubts.since our

friend matty is here,i followed his instructions.it seemed

preety easy to go about.

Love,

Kris.

[Kris]

Hey Guys I have started my work on containing those

off shots_suckers  

here are some stills,the work mignt go on for month or so.

i want to reduce these off shoots gradually.since at night till

morning dawn we have gentle misting in our area.

so i intend to go slow.

some of the members in this thread have warned of some

infection of some kind arising out of humid climate.

so wish to go slow on them.iam shure it will take a while

to grow_for the new off shots.

And larry are you in the U.S.if so why do you use vasiline or

pertolieum jelly.that is to be used on your car battery terminal

and better quality stuff is used by women folks after removing their make-up ?

In your place there are all kinds of sealents specifically made

for plants & to cover plant wounds.why cannot we hear of that

from your side ?

in my thread on welcome to madras you would have seen a

still on state of our horticulture society main board_here if

i ask for a sealent,you can imagine what i will get_a simple

frown.

but your country has all kinds of stocks for healthy plant

cultivation,why not use the hi-end stuff also easily avaliable

online and door delivered to your residence !

and above question of mine is put to all american members..

Larry dont mistake me,but i want to know more_is my type !

Now here is my work_

Love,

Kris  

[Kris]

Dear guys  

i failed to mention one thing earlier ! is that the seperated

sukers do survive without a hitch.and the still that you are seeing are sucker seperated around 6 to 8 months back.

it did not have too much of roots either.but it survived ?

see the still_

[rubyz]

Dear Kris,

Perhaps the following might add to the excellent advice you received above:http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/Y4360E/y4360e09.htm#bm09.3

Scroll down to 3. Offshoot Propagation and then down to Offshoots Removal.

Good luck!

[Kris]

Dear Rubyz  

that was a very useful inforamtion,thanks very much.

Love,

Kris  

[malcthomas]

In the past when I have cleaned up Phoenix species and Washingtonias I used a hand pruning saw.  Without fail, no matter how well protected, I would always drive my knuckles into a spine with the sawing action..

I now use an electric reciprocating saw (sabre saw) with a pruning blade and would recommend this over any other method.  I wipe the blade each time with a paint brush dipped in bleach before moving on to the next tree.  I run the saw off a generator that I push around the property in a wheel barrow.

The reciprocating saw  is great for removing suckers from dactylifera, reclinata  and Chamaerops..

Kris if you don't have access to one of these saws, a sharpened planting spade works well for knocking out suckers growing in awkward places...

cheers...Malcolm

[rubyz]

Malcolm, that sounds fine for sucker removal, but if one wishes to replant one, I doubt this would be satisfactory.

[Kris]

Dear Malcom  

i will try to post my weapons...Oo i meant my garden tools that i use to get those suckers out.not to be replanted.

since my realestate is running out of space for CIDP,Caryopha,Washy's,Bizie Lady,Med Fan Palm.

the other one in our house it was putting regular suckers,but it stated from the soil region.all i had to do is to send the spear right on its head of the sprout_They are gone !

past 2 years no problem from that guy_its a california date

palm variety(derived from the seeds)and grown for purely for esthetic and not for dates.

But the stills of the dates that you see are from date fruits from muscut(Oman).and its far different in appearence

compared with the U.S variety.but iam glad iam not growing the same varieties.

only this oman baby is seding out suckers,but these are

sending this out from the stem region so iam bit careful in

my wild cutting fashion.put if these guys are removed then

certainly it will not put new one_iam very shure of that !

And Dear Rubyz even your comments are correct if one has to grown new dated from those suckers.

Thanks for the interaction & keeping this thread alive.

Love,

Kris  

[Kris]

[Kris]

Updates as of June 2008 ! Bump...!

what is quite surprising is that inspite of me cutting the suckers,only 2 suckers keeps growing back in just a months time ? here are the visuals...

this one is in the right side of the main trunk ! this is how it pop's-up now & then..

...

[Kris]

now to the left side of the main trunk !

love,

Kris

[Kris]

I also have a multi trunk reclinata hybrid and you can save alot of trouble with the profuse suckering. When new unwanted suckers evolve, cut them off as close to the trunk as possible and paint the cut part of the stem with kerosene/lighter fluid, that stem wont be growing back. This tree was a real PIA as the suckers were so prolific that it took alot of work to keep the base of the tree clean. It seemed like I was cutting 2 dozen suckers off every few months in the warm weather. I took Rod Andersons advice with the kerosene, it works like a charm. Now, I have just 2 new stems in the last 3 months!

As far as dactyliferas in the multi trunk mode, I have read tha they dont produce as high a quality dates with multi trunks. They also grow more slowly than reclinatas, and are more difficult to culture into multitrunks. Looking at the multitrunk ones in the link, I noted that they have relatively scrawny crowns. A healthy mature dactylifera has a massive crown, 20' or more across. It would seem that a multitrunk would have problems with petioles becoming intertwined and they may break off in the wind. I do think the 3 trunk one at the start of the thread lools very nice, but it is not matuire yet, the crowns will grow together or will have to be thinned.

Dear Tom

Thanks for the information...I will try this and give you feedback !

Lots of love,

Kris

[Kris]

"Kris,

What I have done is to cut and immediately paint the stem with a brush, somewhat liberally. Im not sure it works if you cut, let it sit for awhile and then paint. The green stem that remains shrivels up and turns brown".

_Tom(sonoranfans).

"Tom,

I have a question about this method of killing suckers. Have you done this kerosene method of killing suckers that develop on the trunk of the main stem?

ie: not suckers that come up near,or at the base of existing trunks, but have their own root system.

It seems alot of the suckers on my reclinata hybrid develop on the actual trunks,rather than at the base of the plant.

I would think that if you did this on trunk suckers ,without their own root system,you would run the risk of killing the main stems ?"

_Scott(gsn) .

"yup, I do it for both the ones on the main trunks and the ones that seem to come out of the ground. Rod Anderson suggested it, he has alot of experience growing palms, much greater than I. It sure has reduced the suckering on my 5 trunk reclinata hybrid. Used to be I'd cut the sucker off and it would just regrow rapidly from the same stem. Now, that stem turns brown and dies, and my trimming has been greatly reduced even though the palm is growing faster in the heat than before. What I do still get is a slow growth of new stems, drastically reducing the trimming. I will paint the new ones just after cutting them as well, but the rate of stem production is slow enough that I am not compelled to trim at this time. the prolific nature of unwanted stem growth was so fast, I was considering just removing the palm. Now, it appears that the maintenance nightmare is substantially reduced."

_Tom(sonoranfans).

Dear Scott thanks for asking that question & Dear Tom thanks for giving an answer for that question.Since even our clumping date palm here has the suckers attached to the main mother palm & the suckers are not from the ground below.So even i thought of asking you the samething,what scott has asked.Now all my doubts are cleared !

Once again thanks gentlemen.

Love,

Kris

[DoomsDave]

[DoomsDave]

I have to prune my Phoenix Reclinata every couple of weeks when the first small shoots come out. It´s quite a nuisance but better now than cutting off leaves with long spikes later. Still looking for a remedy to seal cut off suckers for good.

Either:

Roundup the entire palm; or

Keep on hacking and hacking, and eventually it will give up. How long does that take. The gods only know . . . .

[DoomsDave]

Kris:

I'm with Matty. You have to just keep cutting and cutting. Eventually, the base of the palm matures and it won't sucker, or at least not as vigorously. How long? Who knows? Maybe Gonzer knows . . . . .

[Kris]

Dear Dave

Thanks for dropping by and adding your suggestion.I like the Dvd cover caption very much ,thanks for the visual ! And i have been doing this for more than 12 years now.though the number of new suckers have gone down but their are few side shoots in the main trunk which keeps on coming back every 4 months or so..

So iam thinking of trying what Dear Tom has suggested..once the mercury goes down.Since its horriably hot at the moment.And once to eradicate red ants i sprayed kerosene on the fronds.And a week later i could see the areas where i sprayed kerosene,turned brown(Burnt)..proving the fact that this petroleum product is capable of removing the chlorophyll from the plants.So i personally feel that once i cut the suckers...i allow the wound to dry for a week,then paint this wound with Kerosene.

Lets see how this palm reacts...And without experimenting one would not know the full effect !

Thanks & Love,

Kris

[Kris]

They have pop-up agian,there were many in the begining but now its just 2 pushing new leaves..

By the way the rains do help them..

kris.

[Kathryn]

Kris - Did you try kerosene? I think I might have to get some from work tomorrow and try it on my reclinata hybrid.

[Kris]

Dear Kate

Though i have kerosene in stock,for our portable genset..I have not tried it yet ! Even Sonoranfans have advised me to try it but did not find time to do so.

Once we are in spring(early summer) i will try this treatment on the cut section of those offshoots.(Clumps).

Thanks & Love,

kris

[Darold Petty]

Hi Kris, don't give up, just keep cutting the suckers off. Perhaps you could cut a little more deeply each time. They will eventually stop. We had a hybrid Phoenix reclinata x P. canariensis that produced hundreds of suckers for several years. We did control the mature palm to just seven main stems.

As to the wounded tissue area, I use powdered sulfer dust as a low-cost, environmentally benign fungicide. Sprinkle it heavily over the wounded area immediately after making the cut. Good luck!

[Kris]

Dear Darold Petty

Thanks for the info and i will try out your suggestion,once were are nearing our spring season(Early summer)..

Love,

kris

[Kris]

An update,i must say now only just 2 suckers or clumps are active,Since the summer is here i might just think of using some kerosene gently on the cut off sprout area of those suckers !

Love,

kris

[Kris]

Here is a nice video,where we can see dates trimmed & maintained properly !

And hope some day even our date palms looks as good as the ones seen in the above video..

love,

kris