Windmill Palm - Questions

[MSX]

Hello Palmtalkers! I have always read and heard that unlike Washies and other desert palm species Windmills require regular good watering, and for people who live in drier desert areas with constantly increasing tariffs for water that could be quite sensitive in the long run if not a problem, so I've been kinda avoiding it so far. And on the other hand I do love the way how they use Trachies in Switzerland (Montreux, Locarno, etc), they create interesting compositions - couples, triplets, multis with the trees of the same age and height placing the palms very very close to each other and achieving visually either very dense crowns if the specimens are close in height like these

or hiding the bare lower parts of the trunks by the green crowns of the lower/younger palms if they are all different in age and height. It's an interesting approach

Even the poster

So my first question - what do you think about this narrow spacing for Windmills - a couple of feets between the trunks? Depending on the actual spacing between the palms, their size and age, and the planting area I thought it might be an interesting idea to recreate something like this in the front yard or so

And my second question - all locally grown Windmills in this part of the worls are sold rootballed only. I have never planted anything rootballed, all my palms that are in the ground now were container grown. I saw a couple of nice larger specimens (2m/7ft trunk height) today but their rootball seemed somewhat small to me compared to an overall size of the plant, plus the seller couldn't answer me clearly when these palms were digged up. So please your expert opinions needed on a) rootball size, b) how long rootballed Windmills can stay like this in the open air and c) chances of success when transplanting mature palms like these? Thanks a lot!

Edited March 20, 2022 by MSX

[Chester B]

Planting windmills in groups is totally fine.  I have 7 triple plantings, and I have seen many mature ones around here.

Some of those smaller windmills in your photos look like they have a pretty substantial rootball so I would  think they would be ok.  For the big ones, my guess would be that they would start showing browning of the fronds 2-3 weeks after being removed from the ground - but this is just an estimate.  You would see browning of the tips, fronds closing up and maybe some of the older fronds to start browning off.

Also larger palms have a harder time with transplanting so it may be in your best interest to get a smaller one.  My oldest windmills went into the ground with at least 6' of trunk almost 6 years ago and now have around 8'.  In comparison I have others that I planted a 1-3 years later with no more than 1.5'  of trunk and they are all approaching the same size or have matched the size of my original ones.  Unless you need an immediate impact I would save my money and get 3 smaller ones for the price of one big one.

[MSX]

On 3/21/2022 at 11:57 PM, Chester B said:

Planting windmills in groups is totally fine.  I have 7 triple plantings, and I have seen many mature ones around here.

Some of those smaller windmills in your photos look like they have a pretty substantial rootball so I would  think they would be ok.  For the big ones, my guess would be that they would start showing browning of the fronds 2-3 weeks after being removed from the ground - but this is just an estimate.  You would see browning of the tips, fronds closing up and maybe some of the older fronds to start browning off.

Also larger palms have a harder time with transplanting so it may be in your best interest to get a smaller one.  My oldest windmills went into the ground with at least 6' of trunk almost 6 years ago and now have around 8'.  In comparison I have others that I planted a 1-3 years later with no more than 1.5'  of trunk and they are all approaching the same size or have matched the size of my original ones.  Unless you need an immediate impact I would save my money and get 3 smaller ones for the price of one big one.

Thanks a lot for this useful information! So purchasing larger specimens involves more risks... and I'm surprised by the growth speed of your smaller Windmills, 4-5' of trunk in 5 years or about 1 ft per year that's pretty fast!

[Chester B]

On average my Trachycarpus will grow 18 inches of trunk per year, some less, some more and I even had one that grew 30 inches of trunk last year.  I have 26 medium to large fortunei that I base my observations off of.

[WSimpson]

I'd say they look OK . I might plant them and prune off some leaves so the rootball is more proportional to the tops . I think that plastic is helping to keep the moisture in those root balls , so when they are  well watered they are getting enough water . 

Once planted I would water the hell out of them in warm weather . I used to soak my tracheas in warm weather ; I've cut back over the last few years .

Will

[Allen]

Here I agree with Chester that a smaller one may end up being a bigger more robust specimen.  I had one B&B 6 foot palm and the rest smaller potted ones and the smaller ones are much larger now.  

[MSX]

Thank you very much guys for your help! So following your information, I've made a decision to start my Windmill experience with a smaller specimen. Also, this is going to be my first experience with planting a rootballed palm. For now to open this year's planting season I got a Windmill about 1.2 ft of trunk for $18 with heavy wet clay rootball, misleadingly small fat baby is super heavy even for two men!

[MSX]

One more question - so, the first rootballed palm was planted, I don't know if removing fronds from transplants does any good, but do I need to cut some (or most) of the fronds from the trunk? This Windmill has 8 fully open fronds, 1 half open and 2-3 spear like

 

 

[WSimpson]

Looking good . I wouldn't cut off many  , or in the case of what I'm seeing in your pictures , any  fronds if you water the palm well . 

[Allen]

7 minutes ago, MSX said:

One more question - so, the first rootballed palm was planted, I don't know if removing fronds from transplants does any good, but do I need to cut some (or most) of the fronds from the trunk? This Windmill has 8 fully open fronds, 1 half open and 2-3 spear like

 

 

Just water well and maybe mark a spear with a sharpie to see how it's growing.  If it's growing well in a month fertilize and keep moist.  

[GoatLockerGuns]

1 minute ago, Will Simpson said:

I wouldn't cut off many  , or in the case of what I'm seeing in your pictures , any  fronds if you water the palm well . 

Concur.  I would not cut off any fronds/petioles unless they start turning brown.  Keep it watered good after transplanting.  Nice looking palm by the way!