A good example of why you should remove Bismarckia nobilis fronds

[Brian]

One of my Bismarckia is perfect for protecting some younger plants from the midday sun however it’s so tall that it’s difficult to remove old and dead fronds. I always knew there was a risk of a frond falling and damaging a plant but last night a thunderstorm came in with some strong winds and several of the old fronds fell. I woke up this morning to this mess.

This E. Longifolius just managed to avoid a direct hit.

There are several more fronds that are going to fall if I can’t find a way to remove them

[scarecrow]

If you can't remove the dead fronds, remove the pots from around the palm to prevent future damage.

[Palmfarmer]

Wow, How does Bismarcks react to being somewhat aggressively pruned? do they get easily stunted and slow their growth from it? 

[Brian]

7 minutes ago, Palmfarmer said:

Wow, How does Bismarcks react to being somewhat aggressively pruned? do they get easily stunted and slow their growth from it? 

I have another one that I still can prune and it does well however every year it gets harder to prune.

 

[Brian]

9 minutes ago, scarecrow said:

If you can't remove the dead fronds, remove the pots from around the palm to prevent future damage.

I have too many potted plants and not enough space. 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

I have too many potted plants and not enough space. 

Unfortunately it sounds like you have a natural thinning  process of your potted plants periodically.   Strategic placement based on personal value to you will be critical. ⁰

[PalmatierMeg]

I lost 4 of 6 large Bismarckia on my Garden Lot to the ravages of cat 4/5 Hurricane Ian. They not only fell and or leaned but they took down most of my Livistonas and Sabals when they fell. Won't plant Bismarckia again. I suggest that anyone liable to be hit by a major hurricane - cat 3+ - reconsider the temptation to plant them either. Once they lose structural integrity they can't be saved and they are so root sensitive they can't be raised/replanted. You are better with large trunking Sabals, i.e., causiarum, domingensis or maritima that adapted to hurricanes.

[Fusca]

3 hours ago, Brian said:

I have another one that I still can prune and it does well however every year it gets harder to prune.

Are either one female that drops little round bombs on the plants below? 

[Brian]

11 minutes ago, Fusca said:

Are either one female that drops little round bombs on the plants below? 

The female is the one I fortunately can still prune. It drops those round bombs on the tin roof of our exterior kitchen so pruning is essential. 
Not the best placement of a Bismarckia but live and learn.

 

[Brian]

2 hours ago, Tracy said:

Unfortunately it sounds like you have a natural thinning  process of your potted plants periodically.   Strategic placement based on personal value to you will be critical. ⁰

Well said and basically it’s what I do. 
Just cleaned up the mess. In total 15 Bismarckia fronds fell. Most of the potted plants are cycads and while some leafs got broken off I don’t think I will loose any. 

[mnorell]

8 minutes ago, PalmatierMeg said:

I lost 4 of 6 large Bismarckia on my Garden Lot to the ravages of cat 4/5 Hurricane Ian. They not only fell and or leaned but they took down most of my Livistonas and Sabals when they fell. Won't plant Bismarckia again. I suggest that anyone liable to be hit by a major hurricane - cat 3+ - reconsider the temptation to plant them either. Once they lose structural integrity they can't be saved and they are so root sensitive they can't be raised/replanted. You are better with large trunking Sabals, i.e., causiarum, domingensis or maritima that adapted to hurricanes.

I love Bismarckia but a case of "right plant, right place" for sure...and the palmetto weevil danger in FL doesn't help. This can potentially cause the entire crown (size of a car!) to collapse and fall on a house/structure, vehicle, etc. Kind of like planting a Caryota gigas or C. urens outside your front door...not recommended! I am in complete agreement with you, Meg, that some of the dramatic Sabal, like S. causiarum and S. domingensis, give a rock-solid choice as long as leaves aren't coming down on your house. And S. causiarum is just about fully hardy throughout Florida, plus much of the Deep South, where Bismarckia is a tempting but always short-lived dalliance.

And Latania loddigesii makes a perfect replacement for Bismarckia. You'll be able to prune this one without hiring an arborist's crew, they are perfectly sized for viewing and in scale with most structures, have an arresting blue/white color, and are just about indestructible once they are established, withstanding limestone, salt, Cat 5 hurricane winds and severe ocean inundation for a day at least (probably more). This and the other two species in the genus were star performers in the Keys in Irma (borderline Cat 4/5) and I never saw one from Islamorada to Key West damaged (unless physically hit). The only problem with Latania is that cold limits their range northward into Central Florida. But in coastal areas where hurricanes are the most intense, freezes are less common/severe, so maybe less of an issue.

Out here in the Palm Springs area for miles all the way to La Quinta, many thousands of palms (particularly Washingtonia robusta) are pruned every year in June and July by a bee-like swarm of tree-crews, although it is I think more just about aesthetics and the millions of flowers getting in everyone's pools rather than any major danger from falling fronds (all those spikey Phoenix would be an exception). It is something--pretty scary, actually--to see all of these guys swinging along ropes like Tarzan from crown to crown of Washingtonia that are 6-10 stories tall (maybe even more). The Bismarcks are typically overpruned, and pose much less danger here. Out here they are also a lot slower and for many years of manageable size, I think because people mistakenly treat them like desert palms, while in Florida, where they get all the rain they need, they can grow, grow, grow (dagnabbit).

[STLOUISPALMGUY]

Is this @Brian a Green Bismarck ? Or just not as much silver?

[PalmatierMeg]

33 minutes ago, mnorell said:

And Latania loddigesii makes a perfect replacement for Bismarckia. You'll be able to prune this one without hiring an arborist's crew, they are perfectly sized for viewing and in scale with most structures, have an arresting blue/white color, and are just about indestructible once they are established, withstanding limestone, salt, Cat 5 hurricane winds and severe ocean inundation for a day at least (probably more). This and the other two species in the genus were star performers in the Keys in Irma (borderline Cat 4/5) and I never saw one from Islamorada to Key West damaged (unless physically hit). The only problem with Latania is that cold limits their range northward into Central Florida. But in coastal areas where hurricanes are the most intense, freezes are less common/severe, so maybe less of an issue.

My blue and red Latans planted west of our driveway did not budge and suffered almost no damage. I was so impressed with how they handled that monster storm. Also my largest Ravenea rivularis lost a few brown fronds but also stood tall. I lost/am losing a number of Syagrus spp and have doubts about this genus and major hurricanes. Just recently one of my Livistona decora gave up on life - 2 years after Ian. My husband says one of my large Archonotophoenix (cunninghamiana?) in the back yard is dying. Hurricane damage is not a one-off situation; the effects linger for years.

[Jonathan]

How about a simple lath house built around the trunk? Provides shade and protection, win/win!

[Brian]

46 minutes ago, STLOUISPALMGUY said:

Is this @Brian a Green Bismarck ? Or just not as much silver?

It’s the Mayotte island  green form. 

[WaianaeCrider]

Lucky I have 2 acres and don't have to place palms to close together that I have to worry about that.  I only have to worry about the CRB killing all my palms.  So far w/bucks spent I'm holding my one and only lost 1 pritchardia

[Palmfarmer]

6 hours ago, Brian said:

I have another one that I still can prune and it does well however every year it gets harder to prune.

 

Mine is a ton smaller and rubbing up against the fence. I pruned it today. Should I keep on pruning it like this until it clears the fence or is it better to just let it crush its fronds up against the fence? If the fence breaks its not a big deal. 

 

[mnorell]

50 minutes ago, PalmatierMeg said:

My blue and red Latans planted west of our driveway did not budge and suffered almost no damage. I was so impressed with how they handled that monster storm. Also my largest Ravenea rivularis lost a few brown fronds but also stood tall. I lost/am losing a number of Syagrus spp and have doubts about this genus and major hurricanes. Just recently one of my Livistona decora gave up on life - 2 years after Ian. My husband says one of my large Archonotophoenix (cunninghamiana?) in the back yard is dying. Hurricane damage is not a one-off situation; the effects linger for years.

I also noticed that there's very much a "settlement period" where things decide to die or survive after a major hurricane. I was so thrilled that my beautiful and fairly large hybrid Cyrtostachys had survived (albeit not looking perfect) while a pure C. renda blackened immediately...but over the course of the next year or so the hybrid slowly declined and finally petered out. I think I might've been able to save it if I had literally put a hose on it round the clock for some time to leach the soil of all the residual salt, as I assume the dehydration that salt causes in the roots finally just took it out. That happened to most of my small Licuala grandis as well, although they tried valiantly to keep producing new leaves for a while. We also lost plants from torquing/twisting in the wind (and the tornado-like "mesovorticity" in the eyewall). This is common with the slash pines (every one was killed in our area of Big Pine between salt-flooding and torquing), and for palms, this wrenching of the crown seemed to be a big issue with Coccothrinax argentata. Quite a few of those palms in our native stands collapsed, while the accompanying Leucothrinax were generally okay. And all of the Thrinax radiata I had planted were just fine, and seemingly the native stands of that species (it grows naturally only within sight of the ocean) also did fine.

One thing also about Florida's environment is that the intense humidity can fool you in apparent vs. actual health...because a plant that has a fatal interruption in the xylem/phloem system (or perhaps a fatal destruction in the apical meristem of a monocaulic palm) can hang on for a long time just using stomatal absorption of atmospheric humidity and rainwater...then suddenly everything breaks and the plant collapses. This happened with quite a few other plants at our place on Big Pine...where they looked great after the storm but the cambium at the base had actually been destroyed from the caustic saltwater. Common with Gumbo Limbo trees, Plumeria pudica, various Philodendron and other plants. If you realized what was happening and took top-cuttings you could re-root and keep the plants going. Unfortunately with palms that isn't usually an option!!