How to kill/stop queen palm roots from continuing to grow after removal?

[SoCal Angler]

Newbie to palm trees and need some expert help.

 

I reside in SoCal.

 

I needed to remove 6 queen palms that were an average size of 15'.  They were close (6'-8") to my septic tank.  My fears were that the roots would get into septic tank plumbing. 

The palms were cut down and each one will also be stump ground.

 

Now, how can I be sure that no further growth of the roots takes place?

 

Thanks!

[Allen]

Roots won't grow anymore after all that

[Chester B]

The palms are dead.  The roots will start to rot, they can't come back from the roots like some trees can.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Roots can’t grow without the nutritional support of a living palm tree. The remaining roots in the ground will eventually rot away. 

[Darold Petty]

Any thoughts about how to accelerate the root decay ?  I removed a struggling Pritchardia last week, and wish to install a new palm in the same spot next spring.   Thanks 

[Darold Petty]

bump !

[miamicuse]

On 10/8/2024 at 9:56 PM, Darold Petty said:

Any thoughts about how to accelerate the root decay ?  I removed a struggling Pritchardia last week, and wish to install a new palm in the same spot next spring.   Thanks 

I would like to know as well.

I cut down a 50' tall 22" diameter trunk Royal in 2020 due to ganoderma butt rot, almost flush to the ground, was hoping that it will start to rot out and I could plant something else besides palms at that spot.

This was in July of 2020.

A year later, the stump remains.  It's subjected to constant rain and watering, but no rotting, the pencil sized roots radiating from it's center started to dry up but the center stump showed no sign of any decay.

So I hired a stump grinding service 15 months later to grind the stump down.  They were able to do it 8-10 inches down basically made a bowl shaped cavity.  This was in October 2021.

Since the stump grinding, I occasionally would take a iron breaking bar to try the bottom of this "bowl" hoping one day it will be mushy and soft enough to break off and remove.  No such luck.

So finally in December of 2023, 40 months from date of initial removal, I decided it's going to come out one way or another.  I scooped out all the mulch & topsoil that I filled the "root bowl" with keep moisture high to accelerate the rot and the bowl is still there.  Used iron breaking bar and nothing, it bounced off like hard wood.

So I took out some 18" wood drill bits and attached it to my hammer drill, and just drilled down the middle of the bowl, with the intention to (1) drill as many holes as I can to break allow water to drain through the bowl and accelerate the rot, and also to gauge how deep this stump run before I hit dirt again.  The result is with a 1/2" bit it went in about 2 inches and the bit started smoking.  I have never seen that before except when drilling hard wood, very surprised.  May be bit is toasted, switched to another bit, same result.  Turned on hammer mode to see if it makes any difference, nope.  Hey you know what, may be it's not the wood, it's wood embedded with sand and what's happening is the wood bit can't chew through both, tried a carbide bit, same result.  Finally took out my Bosch SDS+ rotatry hammer with a masonry bit to drill, didn't make a dent.  Frustrated, changed to hammer action with a pointed chisel bit, nothing.  This is 3+ years later, nothing, and everyone tells me you are in Fort Lauderdale, roots and stumps rot out in a year!

So next approach is to go from the outside perimeter in.  The idea would be to use a long reciprocating saw blade to cut from outside in like trying to cut a cake into slices, if I could do that I can wedge each slice out with a breaking bar.  Well that quickly stopped because I started with a 14" long carbide blade, and the blade bounced back violently.  After some investigation, I learned that the previous owner, had put down a layer of river rocks across this entire area, as small as a ping pong ball and some as large as a grapefruit.  With frequent flooding he then hauled in and dumped 6 to 8" of mulch over that later on, hoping to dam the yard from flood water.  So my task switched to digging out the rocks around the perimeter of the root zone, and very difficult to remove since these rocks are not only embedded in soil/sand but they are also strangled by the royal root, A few hours later I half filled a wheel barrow with river rocks and gave up.  No idea how deep these rocks go because it's not one or two layers.  I guess the good news is I now know within this 20'X8' area I have tons of river rocks underneath the soil.

So today, October 2024, 4+ years later, I still have not been able to reuse this spot for planting.  I originally was going to plant something else not palm, since ganoderma is there and any palm will be a problem.  But then I noticed no problem with other palms within 5' of it, and I kept hearing some said ganoderma is already everywhere in the soil if it hits a particular palm it is because that palm had something going on that invited ganoderma.  So my current plan is if and when I can reclaim this spot, I will plant a palm in here as an experiment.

Sorry I know this is not much help with one single data point, and may be it's the exception not the rule.

[Darold Petty]

My condolences !  

[miamicuse]

I have seen youtube videos of people using epsom salt or setting on fire after pouring gasoline into drilled holes, but I don't want to try those methods.

[Fishinsteeg234]

@miamicuse @Darold Petty I had a similar situation last year with removing 4 queen palm stumps and rootballs and had success with using a vertical axe.
 

In the beginning once the trees were cut, I also attempted to drill 18” deep holes and poured stump rotting solutions down the holes in hopes to speed up the rotting process, but 2 months passed without any signs of stump decay. I rented a stump grinder from HD and got the stumps down to about 12” deep in the ground. The grinding removed most of the hard wood, but was left with a solid underground rootball mass. This is where the vertical axe did wonders. The weight of the bar drove the axe through roots about 4-6” deep on each cut, then a strong pry would lift out a cut chunk. Eventually I was able to get a hole the size of my next planting, in this case a 30gallon container size. Some residual roots were still extending outside of the newly dug hole, but the new palm wouldn’t care and should still grow just fine while the old roots slowly decompose. 
 

I think once you get the hole as big as you need for the new palm, the remaining old roots decomposing in ground shouldn't be an issue. The new palm will grow right through what’s remaining. I replaced 4 queens affected with suspected fusarium wilt with 4 Royals planted in the exact spots. Completed February this year. I hope this helps your situation to get a new hole dug through the remaining rootball and get a new palm growing on its way. 
 

 

[Darold Petty]

Thanks very much !