Size Matters..

[Kim]

…when it comes to dragging fronds to the compost heap! 😅

 

It’s not heavy, just awkward. 
Which are your largest fronds? Heaviest? Most awkward to manage?

[Jim in Los Altos]

Parajubaea torallyi are often over twenty feet long and their petioles are like hardwood which makes them more difficult to prune than my other palms especially when brown which is the only time I prune them. 

[Harry’s Palms]

Caryota Obtusa . I have to cut into several smaller chunks to fit them into the brown can . I move my cars out of the driveway and lay them down , then proceed to cut, cut , and more cutting. They are , by far , the largest fronds in my yard. Harry

[DoomsDave]

Roystonea regia; they can weigh up to 70 pounds when they fall.

Like 35 feet long including shaft-thingie.

 

[quaman58]

For me, nothing comes close to Roystonea!

[Phoenikakias]

Livistona mariae (leaf bases are pure wood!), Phoenix porphyrocarpa (thick petiole, thick rachis, thick spines).

[PalmatierMeg]

Roystonea regia

Close 2nd: Bismarckia nobilis

[Billeb]

Bismarckia Nobilis is the biggest that will be in my garden. 
 

-dale

[Billy]

One of my baronii just shed a couple of the cutest most delicate leafs (crownshaft and all) that probably weighed .10 lb. Featherweight stuff. The most awkward would definitely be the massive cunninghamianas that decide to shed massive leafs whenever they want which is always in the middle of the night. Poor nearby Cyphophoenix nucele, lutescens and anything else in the drop zone get brutalized. I just put a ladder to try to protect the nucele as best I can. Lutescens on the other hand gets smoked. Survival of the fittest yo.....

[Kim]

16 hours ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Parajubaea torallyi are often over twenty feet long and their petioles are like hardwood which makes them more difficult to prune than my other palms especially when brown which is the only time I prune them. 

Sounds a lot like my Beccariophoenix madagascariensis. Sawing those hard dry petioles requires applying some muscle. But that Parajubaea torallyi is a beautiful palm and worth the effort!

[Kim]

15 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Caryota Obtusa . I have to cut into several smaller chunks to fit them into the brown can . I move my cars out of the driveway and lay them down , then proceed to cut, cut , and more cutting. They are , by far , the largest fronds in my yard. Harry

Oh my gosh, you have to put your fronds in a can! 😳 Yeah, Caryota obtusa, certainly a massive, expansive frond! I can just imagine you on your driveway cutting it to pieces! No other way to deal with those, even with a compost heap. I have the much small Caryota zebrina, and they are the same broad shape, requiring some trimming to get down the narrow path to my compost heap. I can sympathize!

[Kim]

15 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

Roystonea regia; they can weigh up to 70 pounds when they fall.

Like 35 feet long including shaft-thingie.

 

To all of you with stout hearts and muscles to deal with Roystonea: my hat is off to you! 

Exactly why I do not grow Roystonea regia. 🙈 Absolutely beautiful statement palms, for sure, but I will admire yours, thank you very much.

[Kim]

5 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Livistona mariae (leaf bases are pure wood!), Phoenix porphyrocarpa (thick petiole, thick rachis, thick spines).

"Thick spines," I draw the line there. Yes, I grow some spiny critters: Phoenicophorium, Verschaffeltia, and Acanthophoenix. The spines are glove-piercing, but nothing so vicious as a big Phoenix palm! I hope you wear eye protection when trimming. 

[Kim]

2 hours ago, Billeb said:

Bismarckia Nobilis is the biggest that will be in my garden. 
 

-dale

@PalmatierMeg and Billeb: There is something about handling huge fans, right? They are so amazingly gorgeous that I don't mind the work of it. Difficult on a windy day. 😄

[DoomsDave]

7 minutes ago, Kim said:

@PalmatierMeg and Billeb: There is something about handling huge fans, right? They are so amazingly gorgeous that I don't mind the work of it. Difficult on a windy day. 😄

They often have sharp edges on the petioles; really sharp like a knife blade sometimes.

[Kim]

@Billy Oh, the damage large falling fronds can do! Luckily I've only had one little understory palm crushed by a falling Satakentia frond. Many times underplantings have been hit, but not seriously damaged -- it's actually surprising how rarely the damage is fatal. Even falling massive trees rarely take out a palm -- just scrape off a frond most of the time. I did lose a nice Areca vestiaria to a falling tree in 2014. One loss out of more than a dozen fallen Ohia trees (Metrosideros polymorpha) -- very dense, heavy wood -- as well as fallen Cecropia trees (very light) and other trash trees, I feel I've been pretty lucky. 

[Kim]

3 minutes ago, DoomsDave said:

They often have sharp edges on the petioles; really sharp like a knife blade sometimes.

True! Heavy gloves required. Even very small fronds can have sharp edges. Just yesterday I was stuffing a frond (don't remember what species) into the compost heap, and the dry petiole folded over, sharply squishing one gloved finger -- ouch!! Not the first time I've been seriously pinched by a folded frond.

[PalmatierMeg]

1 hour ago, Kim said:

@PalmatierMeg and Billeb: There is something about handling huge fans, right? They are so amazingly gorgeous that I don't mind the work of it. Difficult on a windy day. 😄

One of my large Bizzie leaves once slapped me across the faces and gave me a split lip. Not a palm to mess with.

[Billy]

1 hour ago, Kim said:

@Billy Oh, the damage large falling fronds can do!

Thanks, Kim, for the words of encouragement. I guess we're more or less all in the same boat together. 

[Jim in Los Altos]

4 hours ago, Kim said:

Oh my gosh, you have to put your fronds in a can! 😳 Yeah, Caryota obtusa, certainly a massive, expansive frond! I can just imagine you on your driveway cutting it to pieces! No other way to deal with those, even with a compost heap. I have the much small Caryota zebrina, and they are the same broad shape, requiring some trimming to get down the narrow path to my compost heap. I can sympathize!

Many of us have to use the green waste containers. All the fronds that fall off or I have to prune off palms need to be cut into segments and shoved into the two recycle bins I have. No room in the garden for a compost heap being on a 1/4 acre property. Luckily the two 100 gallon bins I have are enough. 

[DoomsDave]

I have a compost pile and it decays way too slowly to be much use. The two green carts are good, and, you can really really stuff them. Which I'm starting to have to do. Again. Winter, when growth is slower, isn't so bad.

[Harry’s Palms]

23 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Many of us have to use the green waste containers. All the fronds that fall off or I have to prune off palms need to be cut into segments and shoved into the two recycle bins I have. No room in the garden for a compost heap being on a 1/4 acre property. Luckily the two 100 gallon bins I have are enough. 

I actually have three cans , mainly because of all the weeding that is done on my slope weekly. The funny thing is , a couple years ago our city switched trash companies. The new cans have a noticed stamped on the lids “ no palm fronds” . I haven’t been busted yet , maybe because I usually cut the fronds up to fit inside the can so they can’t see them. Harry

[DoomsDave]

17 minutes ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I actually have three cans , mainly because of all the weeding that is done on my slope weekly. The funny thing is , a couple years ago our city switched trash companies. The new cans have a noticed stamped on the lids “ no palm fronds” . I haven’t been busted yet , maybe because I usually cut the fronds up to fit inside the can so they can’t see them. Harry

Maybe they've suspended enforcement of the rule. I'd be curious to know the reasons, so I can push back in case they try anything like that here.

[Jim in Los Altos]

2 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I actually have three cans , mainly because of all the weeding that is done on my slope weekly. The funny thing is , a couple years ago our city switched trash companies. The new cans have a noticed stamped on the lids “ no palm fronds” . I haven’t been busted yet , maybe because I usually cut the fronds up to fit inside the can so they can’t see them. Harry

When they refer to palm fronds, they mean whole fronds, at least where I am. A well cut to pieces “frond” is no longer a frond. It’s just minced up plant material. My refuse company now wants ALL green waste including palm fronds and even kitchen waste like bones and meat scraps thrown in the same bins as the yard waste. 

[DoomsDave]

Here’s a Roystonea regia leaf by a Chevy S10. 

 

[Harry’s Palms]

1 hour ago, DoomsDave said:

Here’s a Roystonea regia leaf by a Chevy S10. 

 

I wouldn’t want to under it when it decided to come down! Harry

[Kim]

Oh, yes, I have the big green can in San Diego, but my palm garden there is minuscule, not a single really big palm, only a few Howea and Phoenix roebelenii. Easy enough to cut up and stuff in the bin.

At my place in Hawaii, there is no garbage collection; one must take loads to the "transfer station" for recycling, garbage, and green waste. I could never load the weekly accumulation of fronds into a vehicle, and with a couple of acres, the compost heap is the best option. With the ample rains here, the organic matter does break down over time. One of my oldest compost heaps that I quit using some years ago has completely disappeared.

[sonoranfans]

Roystonea regia are the heaviest leaves to drag. 6 1/2' crownshaft is heavy unless it hangs on the tree and dries out before falling.   Im not sure how heavy it is as you really cant get a whole leaf off the ground without something dragging.  A cautionary tale is those big fan leaves with sharp thorns on petioles can really cut you if a gust of wind comes up if you drag it by the petiole.  I tend to drag all my fan palms by the other end of the leaf, the tip.  Yeah gloves are great too but they tend to get lost, must be that old guy who lives here.

[Merlyn]

I found a kind-of-easy way to handle Bismarck and Chinensis fronds.  I chop the fan off right at the fan/costa first.  They aren't too heavy and easy to fold up and put in a big trash can.  Then I lop off the petiole separately.  The Chinensis are usually about 4-6 feet long and stack nicely in the trash can.  The Bizzie stems are a bit too long and I usually have to cut them in half to put them in a can.  I found a medium-TPI reciprocating saw blade works well.

[Fusca]

5 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

I found a kind-of-easy way to handle Bismarck and Chinensis fronds.  I chop the fan off right at the fan/costa first.  They aren't too heavy and easy to fold up and put in a big trash can.  Then I lop off the petiole separately.  The Chinensis are usually about 4-6 feet long and stack nicely in the trash can.  The Bizzie stems are a bit too long and I usually have to cut them in half to put them in a can.  I found a medium-TPI reciprocating saw blade works well.

I do the same with my chinensis fronds.  Currently they're the largest I have to deal with but my Roystonea and Bismarckia are catching up and Attalea butyracea will be future monsters as they are just seedlings now.

[Cindy Adair]

Interesting topic Kim!

I agree that my PR native Roystoneas make it impossible to plant anything I really like under them. 
 

I don’t let any new ones grow up, but that leaves (pun unintended) many really big beautiful ones so numerous I have never counted them. 
 

The previous owner planted them to mark the property lines plus many others in the interior. So pretty and survivors of all but utility chainsaws. 
 

We do have free weekly garbage pick up and they take anything I can fit in large construction size bags, but way too much trouble to chop and haul from afar. 
 

Now I worry that my piles of green waste may turn into prime breeding spots for rhino beetles….

I am careful where I plant my spiny favorites because I know I will be the one handling the fronds that fall. 

[Darold Petty]

19 hours ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

My refuse company now wants ALL green waste including palm fronds and even kitchen waste like bones and meat scraps thrown in the same bins as the yard waste. 

Don't tell anyone, but that where my trapped gopher carcasses go also !  

[Jim in Los Altos]

2 minutes ago, Darold Petty said:

Don't tell anyone, but that where my trapped gopher carcasses go also !  

I’ve buried my share of dead rats in the garden. 

[DoomsDave]

My giant Roystonea reemphasized how ginormous its leaves are, apparently in response to this thread. 
 

 

[peachy]

Roystonea, Queen and Phoenix reclinata leaves were the bane of my existance in my previous garden. I had to cable tie them to the back of my wheelchair and drag them out of the way.  Effective in dry weather but after rain the wheels would just spin and I would be going nowhere.  Determined not to make the same mistake in the new house,  I only planted palms with average leaves....or so I thought.  The tiny Teddy Bear I planted morphed into a monster very quickly with some fronds hitting the 5 metre mark. Okay not as bad as former garden but with a postage stamp sized yard there's no manoeuvring room for the tie and drag trick.  Everyone knows how averse I am to rampant consumerism so I had to force myself to suffer through the retail experience and buy a cute little chainsaw, with a 30cm 'blade'.  I can now slice the big leaves into little sections and hide them under the mulch.

Peachy 

[DoomsDave]

12 hours ago, Kim said:

Oh, yes, I have the big green can in San Diego, but my palm garden there is minuscule, not a single really big palm, only a few Howea and Phoenix roebelenii. Easy enough to cut up and stuff in the bin.

At my place in Hawaii, there is no garbage collection; one must take loads to the "transfer station" for recycling, garbage, and green waste. I could never load the weekly accumulation of fronds into a vehicle, and with a couple of acres, the compost heap is the best option. With the ample rains here, the organic matter does break down over time. One of my oldest compost heaps that I quit using some years ago has completely disappeared.

You have heat and moisture. Always best to recycle, though I realize it’s a lot of work.

[Phoenikakias]

On 7/8/2024 at 7:17 AM, DoomsDave said:

You have heat and moisture. Always best to recycle, though I realize it’s a lot of work.

Alas moisture is what I exactly miss here.  Dead rats get mummified.

[DoomsDave]

4 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Alas moisture is what I exactly miss here.  Dead rats get mummified.

Yike a Rooney!

[flplantguy]

When i worked at the Sunken Gardens in St Pete they would crash down so loud and hard you could feel it in the ground as well as hear it through the whole garden. I was told a (likely embellished) story about dignitaries from the middle east that were visiting and about panicked when one fell. They thought it was a bomb going off nearby. Dragging a green one out was very hard work.  They are 120 years old now.

[DoomsDave]

On 7/7/2024 at 1:17 PM, Jim in Los Altos said:

I’ve buried my share of dead rats in the garden. 

Imagine if Don Corleone said that. . . .