Climbing and trimming the ole coconut!

[TikiRick]

As we all know, we don't spike tall palms to clean them. These tall coconuts have gotten too tall for me to manage on my own, so I found this great Jamaican guy who uses a ladder, ropes, and lowers the big seed to the ground. He respects that I care for my palms and that I don't want all of my understory crushed. Great guy!

[TikiRick]

And this one gets the bone to stay out of trouble.....

[BS Man about Palms]

It would be nice to find folks like that in So Cal.  I've considered starting a "high care" business for Palm maintainence like that around here.

Waiting till I'm fired, first.

[Al in Kona]

The below 3-pics show one of my Coconuts being trimmed last month.  Had to remove the fruit so they wouldn't fall down on people or car!

[Al in Kona]

#2

[Al in Kona]

#3

[fiji jim]

Way to go !

How does he get to the top of the realy tall ones ?

Many of trees here are much taller than the ones shown in your pics.

Fijians climb the coconut palms by cutting steps into the trunks. It looks unsightly but does not seem to bother  the trees that much. Not my idea of a good job but your guys seem to have it down.

Jim

[Gonzer]

"Dirty Jobs" w/Mike Rowe last week featured some guys demolishing a giant BOP. Next to it was (I believe) a large Cordyline which the pruners called a "palm".  

Anyway, Mike asked a climber to demonstrate his climbing skills on big a$$ Washy.

So what's the first thing the guy does?

Straps on his climbing spikes!!!!

Yep, SoCal tree-pruners at their best.

[fastfeat]

Rick--

Good to see someone who's doing a careful job.

My only comment, as an ISA Certified Arborist, is "Where are  their safety gear (eyeware and especially hardhats!)??" Last thing you want is someone hurt, especially someone else working on your property w/o safety gear.

You don't want to find out the hard way that their best safety equipment is a good lawyer...

[DoomsDave]

Wow!

Hmm.  If it was me, I'd end up cutting the retaining strap ---

Heeeeeeeelpppp!

(crunch)

[fastfeat]

(Dave from So-Cal @ Sep. 29 2007,19:33)

QUOTE

Wow!

Hmm.  If it was me, I'd end up cutting the retaining strap ---

Heeeeeeeelpppp!

(crunch)

Yeah Dave--

I saw that too! Then again, it's kind of hard to find a good crotch to tie into...

All the more reason to wear the hardhat. Hopefully when you drop 40' into the lush underplanting, the hat will stay on and give your lifeless skull some protection from the falling saw. Makes open casket viewings a little easier...

[www.dadluvsu.com]

That's gruesome...  I guess we should be thankful he isn't cutting on Acrocomia aculeata!

Rick, would you mind PMing me the gentlemen's phone number?  Do you know if he will he work in Palm Beach County?

[Kris]

Dear Rick  

Nice stills but seems to be carried out in a complex manner..

here is south india a guy climbs up the coco nut tree with a

aid of a fabricated cane rope and reaches the desired leaves and coconuts cuts it with a sharp knife and throws them to the sandy soil ground.no specilised gadgets or powered chain saw seen.since we have cut down our trees,i cannot give you all the climbing visiuals immidietly but will soon try to get stills of it from neighbours gardens...

thanks & love,

Kris  

[Exotic Life]

What a job! Great pics!

[amazondk]

The job is done here similar to what Kris describes in his area.  Most people climb palm trees by using a twisted fiber flour sack tied around their feet and zip right up to get the fruit.  This is commonly used for climbing Euterpe precatoria trees to collect berries in the forest.  For the most part they go barefoot and use a machete to do the cutting.  I you wanted the area under the tree protected they will use a rope to lower the fruit down.

dk

[MattyB]

From working in construction, I've found that a hardhat will only protect you from the doh doh above you on scaffold dropping his hammer on you.  If you fall (or even bend over for that matter) your hard hat is gonna fall right off.  Unless you wear a chin strap or a rock climbers helmet.  But if you showed up to a jobsite w/ a chin strap then you're really dorky looking.  I'd rather take a blow to the head.

[fastfeat]

(MattyB @ Oct. 01 2007,14:52)

QUOTE

From working in construction, I've found that a hardhat will only protect you from the doh doh above you on scaffold dropping his hammer on you.  If you fall (or even bend over for that matter) your hard hat is gonna fall right off.  Unless you wear a chin strap or a rock climbers helmet.  But if you showed up to a jobsite w/ a chin strap then you're really dorky looking.  I'd rather take a blow to the head.

Matt--

I agree that the hardhat is especially useful for the groundman; dropping fronds or coconuts from 40 or 50' can be deadly.

And while a poorly-secured hardhat may fall off, the better ones, with or without a chin strap, will prevent head injuries to the climber in the case of a falling frond (palm) or limb (tree), not to mention saw kickback (esp. limbs, less so with fronds) if cutting overhead (not recommended, though it will happen!)

I don't mean to harp on this too much, but as an ISA Certified Arborist, use of safety equipment is not optional. Anything else just isn't professional.

BTW--If nothing else, I'd offer to buy the crew the safety equipment if they otherwise do quality work and you want them on the jobsite. If they refuse to wear it (unlikely), go with someone else. Even if they guy doesn't get injured, an OSHA citation, or worse, an insurance claim, is likely to make even the best looking pruning job way too expensive in the long run.

[Gileno Machado]

(amazondk @ Oct. 01 2007,15:04)

QUOTE

The job is done here similar to what Kris describes in his area.  Most people climb palm trees by using a twisted fiber flour sack tied around their feet and zip right up to get the fruit.  This is commonly used for climbing Euterpe precatoria trees to collect berries in the forest.  For the most part they go barefoot and use a machete to do the cutting.  I you wanted the area under the tree protected they will use a rope to lower the fruit down.

dk

That's exactly the same way they do the job here, Don.

I've tried to talk them into wearing boots and gloves but they don't adapt to them at all. The only preventive safety procedure that I always make sure to require is that they should wear googles for eye protection, since there's always a lot of flying debris around...and they've agreed to wear and got used to it on a daily basis...

[Palmateer]

I hope nobody tries to shinny down an Acrocomia  

[Moose]

The coconuts in Rick's posts are not just common coconuts. Those are rare 'macapuno's getting harvested !

[Zeeth]

The coconuts in Rick's posts are not just common coconuts. Those are rare 'macapuno's getting harvested !

That's what I thought looking at the pictures too. They look like the right stage to eat too.

[doranakandawatta]

Dear Rick

Nice stills but seems to be carried out in a complex manner..

here is south india a guy climbs up the coco nut tree with a

aid of a fabricated cane rope and reaches the desired leaves and coconuts cuts it with a sharp knife and throws them to the sandy soil ground.no specilised gadgets or powered chain saw seen.since we have cut down our trees,i cannot give you all the climbing visiuals immidietly but will soon try to get stills of it from neighbours gardens...

thanks & love,

Kris

Kris,

it's nice to read about the natural way of trimming coconut trees,

here it's how we do:

climbing Actinorhytis for the fruits

climbing Areca for cutting coconuts ( Fresh drink)

less complex manner!

[KennyRE317]

I'm glad we don't have that problem here in CA

[Funkthulhu]

Dear Rick

Nice stills but seems to be carried out in a complex manner..

here is south india a guy climbs up the coco nut tree with a

aid of a fabricated cane rope and reaches the desired leaves and coconuts cuts it with a sharp knife and throws them to the sandy soil ground.no specilised gadgets or powered chain saw seen.since we have cut down our trees,i cannot give you all the climbing visiuals immidietly but will soon try to get stills of it from neighbours gardens...

thanks & love,

Kris

Kris,

it's nice to read about the natural way of trimming coconut trees,

here it's how we do:

climbing Actinorhytis for the fruits

DSCN0023.JPG

climbing Areca for cutting coconuts ( Fresh drink)

DSCN4638 copie.JPGDSCN4639 copie.JPG

DSCN4641 copie.JPGDSCN4644 copie.JPG

less complex manner!

When I was in college one of the grad students was a gentleman from the Phillipeans. On one of our field trips to the Turks & Caicos Islands the resort we were staying at had coconuts around the pool. Bayani, our Phillipeno-geologist, asked if he could shimmy up the tree to harvest some coconuts. The owners were very clear that if he would go up and cut them down, he could have as many as he could take and more. Apparently the only guy on the island who did coconut trimming/harvesting was not exactly cheap.

Needless to say, that was the first time I had fresh and/or young coconut and we had it for breakfast and dinner every day for a week! I am still amazed whenever I see anybody tie a belt or an old t-shirt around their ankles and shimmy up a tree like that.