Spanish Palm Dropping Fronds After Storms

[theladyboo]

Hi,

I live out in Northern California where we had some serious rain and storms plus cold weather in the winter this year. I have several palm trees in my yard. One is huge and I don't know how tall it is. I never take the fronds off because it is so expensive to do when they're that tall. It has been losing fronds since the rains started. I have a huge pile in the backyard now. I'm afraid they're going to hit someone on a windy day. I'm hoping our rains are over but they're still dropping. Here are a few pictures of the tree. It's hard to get the whole tree in one shot especially since the pesky elm and yucca trees are in the way.  The fronds that have fallen are all brown and never green. I'm still just worried that if the tree falls then it is going to land on my house or a car or a frond might fly into a car if it's windy.  Do you think it's dying or safe? I asked the tree guy what I could do and he said it just needed to be trimmed (at $900 yikes!) So I started selling signed books to try and raise the money but it's just not going fast enough. Do you think it needs to go? The elm is fine, it's leaves are back. This was taken in February. I can try to get better pictures. Thanks

 

[Silas_Sancona]

23 hours ago, theladyboo said:

Hi,

I live out in Northern California where we had some serious rain and storms plus cold weather in the winter this year. I have several palm trees in my yard. One is huge and I don't know how tall it is. I never take the fronds off because it is so expensive to do when they're that tall. It has been losing fronds since the rains started. I have a huge pile in the backyard now. I'm afraid they're going to hit someone on a windy day. I'm hoping our rains are over but they're still dropping. Here are a few pictures of the tree. It's hard to get the whole tree in one shot especially since the pesky elm and yucca trees are in the way.  The fronds that have fallen are all brown and never green. I'm still just worried that if the tree falls then it is going to land on my house or a car or a frond might fly into a car if it's windy.  Do you think it's dying or safe? I asked the tree guy what I could do and he said it just needed to be trimmed (at $900 yikes!) So I started selling signed books to try and raise the money but it's just not going fast enough. Do you think it needs to go? The elm is fine, it's leaves are back. This was taken in February. I can try to get better pictures. Thanks

 

Welcome to the Forum,

What you're seeing is Perfectly normal..  Some Washingtonia ( W. robusta  in this case ) will randomly shed their skirts ( ..of dead leaves / fronds ) esp. once they get taller and wind can get under them, while other specimens can retain their skirt much longer, sometimes all the way down the trunk to near the ground.  

As long as the top of the palm is nice and green, it is healthy..

The debris factor from dead fronds is a big reason many people have the skirts on their specimens of this palm removed / trunks skinned / cleaned of remaining boots. 

Having several in the street island here / many others in my neighborhood, can attest to what Monsoon season wind events do to any un-removed dead leaves / Boots ( ...a random term used to describe the base of the frond / leaf stalk, where the leaf stalk attaches to the trunk. ) ..Often picking ones that end up in the yard up the next morning after a good storm July- October.

Bigger hazard is when they fall when there is heavy traffic on my street and cars try to avoid running them over. Many people here don't pay attention to the road as it is on a perfectly clear day when there is nothing in the street, lol.

If you decide to have it trimmed, be sure the person you hire understands not to cut any of the green fronds ..or as few as possible. Green fronds recycle nutrients back to new growth as they dry out. Don't let the trimmer reduce the Palm's canopy to 2-4 fronds / leaves..  That is overkill and un necessary, ...no matter what the tree guy might think.

 

[Jim in Los Altos]

$900 is WAY too much to trim off the old fronds. My experienced tree guy would do that for half that, possibly less. I would get more estimates. Once you get the palm cleaned up, frond drop will be substantially less. 

[PalmatierMeg]

I’m curious. I had a very tall Washy killed by wilt. But the frequent high winds in FL often removed dead fronds. Those things weighed almost nothing. We gathered them up and stuck them in trash cans for weekly agricultural pickup. You may not have that system in NoCal but they were no big deal, i.e., pick up and dispose. I’m mind-boggled that anyone would pay $900 or even $400 and risk an injury lawsuit if a tree trimmer falls while trimming one. 

As for the palm in your photo, I would bet on its standing tall rather than the dicot tree in front of it. Palms are better able to deal with storm wind than woody trees. Our Washy survived cat 4 Hurricane Charley’s winds in 2004. Earlier this week I posted a photo of a curved Washy in Ft. Myers that was blown 60 degrees over by cat 3 Hurricane Irma in 2017, resumed vertical growth, then survived Hurricane Ian last year. 

[awkonradi]

Welcome to PalmTalk theladyboo.  Of course, you will make your own decisions about risks from falling fronds.  However, I think maybe your palm requires no action at all!  As others have stated, your palm looks healthy, and it's normal for a Washingtonia of that height to begin shedding old fronds spontaneously.  I think maybe your palm is going through a burst of old frond shedding, since its reached the right height, and since northern CA just went through a very rainy and windy winter.  Going forward, your palm's trunk could have a lower section covered by cut "boots", and an upper smooth section where later fronds have fallen away completely.  If you look around Pleasanton, I think you will see many Washingtonia that are exactly like that.  Certainly we have many like that over here on the peninsula.

[theladyboo]

Thank you for all of the responses  Very much appreciated.