pruning Livistona Chinensis

[miamicuse]

I have six pairs of Livistona Chinensis planted in a row, each may be 8' from each other, the trunks are 8-12 feet tall, one trunk is over 20' tall, the fronds are now 6' long the shortest and over 10' long the longest.  The fronds are kind of weaving into each other as they get taller and wider.

The problem comes when I need to prune them.  I usually take my 6' or 8' ladder, get up there and reach further up with a one handed reciprocating saw, to cut the fronds at the base.  So the cutting is happening overhead.

More often than not, once the cut is completed, it started sliding down but caught from above.  The wide leave gets trapped from having several fronds from the next and previous Livistona Chinensis crossing over at different directions.  The only way is to pull and jerk hard to free them, but in the process I end up tearing those in the way.

Is there a trick?  I don't think these drops by themselves like royals.

Over the weekend when I cut one, as soon as the cut was completed the frond started falling straight down, then it bumped into another frond and changed direction, the end came at me and I was still holding a saw in one hand standing on the ladder, the end has some sharp thorns and it brushed past and cut my face, not too severe but I look like a cat clawed my face now.

[aztropic]

Make 2 cuts... Use lopers to cut the actual frond off if possible. Then use recipe saw to cut petiole at the trunk.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[Looking Glass]

Can you reach from the with a long pole saw or are they too tall?  One quick, hard swipe and down they come.   You can use the blunt hook to free up any tanglers.  I have a 3 piece pole saw, and can cut them with only 2 of the poles put together.   Mine seem small in pics, but are bigger than they look, but still only have 10 feet of trunk or so.   Yours may be too tall.   


 

Damn flower stalks keep coming…

 

[Merlyn]

Mine aren't so close together that it's a major problem, but I typically slice off the fan with loppers first with Chinensis and Bismarck.  It might take a little bit more time, but it's easier to haul off/bag/bin the two individual pieces. 

[miamicuse]

2 hours ago, aztropic said:

Make 2 cuts... Use lopers to cut the actual frond off if possible. Then use recipe saw to cut petiole at the trunk.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

then I need to get real high.  It's about 10-12 feet off the ground to make the lower cut at the trunk.  I will have to go another 8-10 feet to reach the other end.

I don't think that will work either,  If I managed to get that high to cut the "fan" off, the fan will just fall on other fans.  Now it's worse because I don't even have a long stem to pull them down from.

[miamicuse]

1 hour ago, Looking Glass said:

Can you reach from the with a long pole saw or are they too tall?  One quick, hard swipe and down they come.   You can use the blunt hook to free up any tanglers.  I have a 3 piece pole saw, and can cut them with only 2 of the poles put together.   Mine seem small in pics, but are bigger than they look, but still only have 10 feet of trunk or so.   Yours may be too tall.   


 

Damn flower stalks keep coming…

 

They are of different heights.  Some of them the "fans" are only 12' tall, while some of them over 30' tall.  There is one the trunk is 30' tall without even considering the fronds (this one I can't prune myself).

But most of them I can cut when on an 8' ladder standing on the 2nd rung from the top with my arm reaching high and with a recip saw long blade I can cut the petiole at the trunk.  What is making it difficult is I have the same palm only 8' away to the east and to the west, and they have all weaved together, which is good in that together they provided a full shade for that entire length.  But when I finished cutting the frond will drop down but the fan will be caught, not by one, but by several, some from the same palm, some from the palm to it's left, some from the palm to it's right.  Interlocked so to speak,   sometimes even pulling real hard does not break it, using a hook does not do anything because I am not trying to shift something a few inches away, I am trying to free a fan that is 2ft by 2ft with four other fans of similar sizes below it, and three other stems going through the same area.  Most times I cannot see where it's caught from below unless I run up to the roof.