Do you remove fronds when transplanting?

[Brad Mondel]

I recently transplanted some young palms and I had to ask myself a question: Do I remove some fronds to reduce transpiration? Or do I leave them so the palm can utilize the left over energy in the frond? 

I went ahead and removed some because I was afraid the shock of transplantation would stress them and hopefully this practice balances out the root to leaf ratio. 

What would you do or what have you done in the past? Hopefully my new palms will survive the shock! 

[Cocoa Beach Jason]

Great question. 

 

Edited April 14, 2016 by Cocoa Beach Jason

[Jeff Searle]

I absolutely have in the past. Especially with some of fan leaf palms.

[Josh-O]

me too. I have cut the lower fronds on some of the fan type palms when moving or transplanting them myself.

[Brad Mondel]

How did your palms do after the transplant? Did removing the fronds help them survive better? I know when they transplant large Sabal palmettos they remove all of the leaves, but what about young palms? I guess I'll have to see which ones do better and then I'll add some before and after photos. It won't be a true scientific study but it will be interesting to see which decision outweighs the other on a small scale. 

[Ben in Norcal]

I thought the benefit of doing this was essentially an old wives tale.

[Gonzer]

Pgs  202-205 'Ornamental Palm Horticulture': Broschat & Meerow.

[DoomsDave]

41 minutes ago, Gonzer said:

Pgs  202-205 'Ornamental Palm Horticulture': Broschat & Meerow.

Which says?

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

Removing leaves may or may not benefit the palm, but it can certainly benefit the person doing the moving. Large palm leaves add to the bulk and weight. They can poke in the eye, catch on things, etc. Tying them up is sometimes just a partial solution, if they're really stiff and bulky; some things just can't be tied. (Like hogs. So I've heard.) Jubes, Bizzies, big Dypsis.

Removal would seem logical, since leaves continue to transpire after the roots are cut, which can be a really big problem if you've got the palm on a semi-trailer, roaring through the desert to the destination.

On the other hand, you don't want to go berserk and pencil-top the thing, either. The leaves make food and help the plant survive. I suspect some controlled experiments by species could help a lot.

[Matt in OC]

I moved by myself what amounted to at least a 24" box Pritchardia a few months back. This is a palm that was extremely healthy and refused to drop any old leaves, so when I started digging it was pretty apparent that removing at least a half dozen leaves was absolutely necessary. The move took 3 hours and the palm is a bit weathered, but still growing.

[Monòver]

It is very easy, if you transplant, you cut roots and the palm can't drink, but it is losing water in the leaves.

Cut leaves and the palm will have more water. If you don't cut leaves, the palm will be dehydrated. 

I am gardener and i have transplanted hundreds big washintonias, Chamaerops, Phoenix, etc and always we remove 50-70% leaves. But seeing palmtalk pictures, i have seen the people in California and Florida only remove a few leaves or nothing.

I was curious and a month ago i transplanted  6 small roebelinis ( 30 cm trunk) with 3 i removed 50% leaves and the other 3 i only removed a few old leaves. One month after the 6 are growing but the 3 with removed leaves has 100% healthy and green leaves. The other 3, old leaves are death and every new leaves are dry on the top.

With this, i think it is better remove leaves.

And one example with pictures, my Dypsis lutescens. One picture, transplanted in March 2015. The other picture 6 months later, October 2015.

[Brad Mondel]

 

Here is a picture of three Trachycarpus fortunei, all were growing in the same conditions, soil, and moisture levels. They are all the same age as well and grown from the same seed batch. Palm 1 has all fronds removed except the emerging spear, palm 2 has partial frond removal and palm 3 has none removed. When transplanting these palms I got about the same amount of rootball for each one. 

Who will survive? Who will thrive? Updates later.