How to get a "curved" trunk...

[Rtrw]

I am considering planting some palms close to my house.   I would like to have them grow away from the house and eventually develop a nice curved trunk.   Can I achieve the by simply planting the trees at an angle??   If so what varieties are capable?   I am in san Diego CA zone 10.  Thanks in advance for any info.

[Pando]

Depends on the species. Some just start growing sharply upwards from there without a gentle curve. Just look at some washies next to In-n-Out.

If you plant some Archontophoenix in a as group, the fattening of the trunks will gradually push the trunks naturally away from each other at the base, achieving a gentle curve.

For a single palm, you may have to do that manually by using pulleys and tension. Either that or create a microclimate to grow a coconut 

[RedRabbit]

Good question! I planted two palms 1 foot from the wall, approximately where the overhang ends. I'm really hoping they curve out a little at some point so they don't hit the roof, but I just planted them so no big deal yet. I kind of assume they'll curve on their own to chase sunlight... Purposely getting them to curve though for aesthetics, not sure where to begin on that one.

Edited June 12, 2016 by RedRabbit

[Pal Meir]

No problem … at least, if you try it with a Chamaedorea:

[Rtrw]

Does the chamaedorea do well outside in zone 10?   If so what variety and would I simply plant at an angle to get a curve?

[Pal Meir]

If you have a palm which has already grown a straight trunk, you can plant that palm at an angle and the palm will make from that angle on a bend and grow straight(er) upwards. — If a Chamaedorea would be the ideal palm for you I can’t say, perhaps Ch. tepejilote:

http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Chamaedorea_tepejilote

[crystal creek palms]

I've seen royals simply kicked over when young then grown up like a banana to achieve that effect..

[palmfriend]

Hello there,

This week I found this curved/beachy...

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis.

I guess it must be caused by a typhoon, ...ages ago.

best regards

 

[Pedro 65]

On 6/13/2016, 2:48:06, Rtrw said:

I am considering planting some palms close to my house.   I would like to have them grow away from the house and eventually develop a nice curved trunk.   Can I achieve the by simply planting the trees at an angle??   If so what varieties are capable?   I am in san Diego CA zone 10.  Thanks in advance for any info.

Buy  a tall" trunking" palm of your choice  and plant it on a 30 deg angle or your desired degrees but if your after a curve 30 deg  would give a very good curve. Alexanders or Kings are seen with great curves in the Nat Pks around here. Happy planning and planting.  Pete  

Edit..Jeff Searle has a "cracker" curved  Solitaire ( ptychosperma elegans)  over his pool..

[Walt]

Geotropism will always cause a plant to grow vertically. You can plant a straight trunked palm on an angle (say 45 degrees) and it will eventually turn up another 45 degrees to the vertical position.  When I first got into the palm growing hobby in 1998 I purposely planted three queen palms on a 45 degree angle in hopes of achieving the curved trunk look. The palms weren't trunked yet, but they quickly (matter of months) turned straight up.

In 2005 I had two trunked queen palms (planted as a double) blown over to a 45 degree angle by a hurricane. Today they have an opposing 45 degree sweep back to vertical. It's not a long graceful sweep like you may see in some coconut palms, but a more abrupt sweep. Many palms will attain a long graceful sweep by the palm constantly  partially falling over due to erosion around the root zone on one side. The constant readjustment of the palm (due to partially falling over during the course of many years) causes the long graceful sweep in the trunk. I've seen this where palms grow along river banks and sea shores.

More than 15 years ago I planted (out of ignorance on my part) a very small ponytail palm (non palm) close to my house and front entryway. As it grew it sensed the structure of the house and grew away from it, totally offsetting around the roof overhang. This is some form of tropism that causes this. That's all well and good, but the problem will be (down the road in a few years) the huge base that will eventually be growing into the exterior wall of the house and the concrete entryway slab.

[GMann]

I can think of two ways palms get curving trunks:

1) Some palms curve to get out of shade and into sun. Coconut palms seems to do this a lot. But most palms do not do this.

2) When palms are planted very close to each other or new palms sucker out from the side of an existing palm (i.e. as doubles and triples) they curve away from each other. You often see this happening with pygmy date palms, Phoenix reclinata, Montgomery, Mediterranean Fan Palms, etc. You could plant a suckering species or a triple to get the curving effect and simply cut down the extra heads after you already have the curving look you want. Though I am not sure maybe in the long run after cutting off the other heads the remaining head will eventually correct itself and grow straight. Even if this does happen it would take many years.

[Stelios]

I believe kentias make a nice curve. They have this coconut look and the trunk makes a curve as l remember from some photos from Lord Howe island. They are an easy grow in San Diego.

[Pal Meir]

Sometimes when two palms are growing too close together they don’t grow straight upward, but slanted in an angle of ca. 30° between the two stems: 

[Pedro 65]

14 hours ago, Pedro 65 said:

Buy  a tall" trunking" palm of your choice  and plant it on a 30 deg angle or your desired degrees but if your after a curve 30 deg  would give a very good curve. Alexanders or Kings are seen with great curves in the Nat Pks around here. Happy planning and planting.  Pete

Edit..Jeff Searle has a "cracker" curved  Solitaire ( ptychosperma elegans)  over his pool..

 Heres Jeff Searles, the large curved King palm in Nat Pks "already" have a large trunk when they have fallen over as Jeff also would have had a "long trunk" to get the curved effect..  Pete

[Alicehunter2000]

Slower growing palms have a more gently sweeping curve....faster growing palms have a more abrupt curve when they are both planted at an angle.

[Pedro 65]

2 hours ago, Alicehunter2000 said:

Slower growing palms have a more gently sweeping curve....faster growing palms have a more abrupt curve when they are both planted at an angle.

Rtrv is asking  , if its possible to grow it curved "away" from his house , I think this is main point of Q, and  it certainly is, and for fastest results use a faster frowing Palm, I think Jeffs Ptycho looks "Awesome" . Name me a  "slow" Palm for better results  rather than an Archo, or single Ptychosperma for San Diego's climate that going to give a sweeping curve.      Pete

 

                                                      

[Ben in Norcal]

21 minutes ago, Pedro 65 said:

Rtrv is asking  , if its possible to grow it curved "away" from his house , I think this is main point of Q, and  it certainly is, and for fastest results use a faster frowing Palm, I think Jeffs Ptycho looks "Awesome" . Name me a  "slow" Palm for better results  rather than an Archo, or single Ptychosperma for San Diego's climate that going to give a sweeping curve.      Pete

 

                                                      

That just looks weird/unnatural.

[Pedro 65]

9 minutes ago, Ben in Norcal said:

That just looks weird/unnatural.

 Gardening is an "art".maybe you dont have very good imagination and creativity  

[Ben in Norcal]

Just now, Pedro 65 said:

 Gardening is an "art".maybe you dont have very good imagination and creativity  

That must be it!!! I just prefer a bit more of a natural look.

[Pedro 65]

1 minute ago, Ben in Norcal said:

That must be it!!! I just prefer a bit more of a natural look.

I like "Honest" folk, thanks for the positve comment.

Happy gardening.  Pete 

[tropicbreeze]

Nice curves! ...............for a palm that is

[Pedro 65]

Zig, you could pull them quite low with yr tractor n tie em down for a few yrs  to give  em a real curve  

1 hour ago, tropicbreeze said:

Nice curves! ...............for a palm that is

Zig, you could pull em over or dig em up and put em on a real lean for some fun if you "ever" get bored   Pete

[doranakandawatta]

10 minutes ago, Pedro 65 said:

Zig, you could pull them quite low with yr tractor n tie em down for a few yrs  to give  em a real curve  

Zig, you could pull em over or dig em up and put em on a real lean for some fun if you "ever" get bored   Pete

Sorry, What are these species? very elegant shape, thanks.

[Pedro 65]

15 minutes ago, doranakandawatta said:

Sorry, What are these species? very elegant shape, thanks.

Carpentaria acuminata from the Nthn Territory Oz Philippe, they would love Sri Lanka's heat and grow very fast for you  .  Pete   

[doranakandawatta]

9 minutes ago, Pedro 65 said:

Carpentaria acuminata from the Nthn Territory Oz Philippe, they would love Sri Lanka's heat and grow very fast for you  .  Pete   

Yes of course! I already have 2 or 3 Carpenteria and one is very beautiful in Peradeniya gardens. Thanks

 

[Jeff Searle]

8 hours ago, Ben in Norcal said:

That just looks weird/unnatural.

Ben...start thinking outside the "box". Customers pay premium prices for palms with a curve or twist in a trunk on new landscapes. And as far as unnatural, have you ever left your development and walked in a forest? The forest is full of leaning, curved palms and trees. And as far as your compliment about Copernicia's, don't blame the genus just because you can't grow them. In general, they command big bucks compared to a Livistona sp. Of which very few people here... want.

Pete....I lost that leaning Ptychosperma awhile back to a very heavy wind and rain storm. It twisted the head and the trunk cracked right below it. I was sorry to see it go! I got many, many compliments on such a common palm!!!

[Ben in Norcal]

2 hours ago, Jeff Searle said:

Ben...start thinking outside the "box". Customers pay premium prices for palms with a curve or twist in a trunk on new landscapes. And as far as unnatural, have you ever left your development and walked in a forest? The forest is full of leaning, curved palms and trees. And as far as your compliment about Copernicia's, don't blame the genus just because you can't grow them. In general, they command big bucks compared to a Livistona sp. Of which very few people here... want.

Pete....I lost that leaning Ptychosperma awhile back to a very heavy wind and rain storm. It twisted the head and the trunk cracked right below it. I was sorry to see it go! I got many, many compliments on such a common palm!!!

Jeff, I love curved trunks and have them in my yard! They are great! That particular one just looks odd to me, that's my only point. To each their own!

[Tampa Scott]

Here is a photo of my Livistona australis taken today showing a nice curve courtesy of Hurricane Charley in 2004. It had about 10' of trunk at the time of the lean.

 

Edited July 2, 2016 by Tampa Scott

[Ben in Norcal]

33 minutes ago, Tampa Scott said:

Here is a photo of my Livistona australis taken today showing a nice curve courtesy of Hurricane Charley in 2004. It had about 10' of trunk at the time of the lean.

 

Now that looks awesome! I love the gradual sweep!

[Monòver]

3 hours ago, Tampa Scott said:

Here is a photo of my Livistona australis taken today showing a nice curve courtesy of Hurricane Charley in 2004. It had about 10' of trunk at the time of the lean.

 

Very nice!

Thanks, hurricane Charley

[Pedro 65]

12 hours ago, Jeff Searle said:

 

Pete....I lost that leaning Ptychosperma awhile back to a very heavy wind and rain storm. It twisted the head and the trunk cracked right below it. I was sorry to see it go! I got many, many compliments on such a common palm!!!

What a darn shame Jeff, I thought  the placement of your Ptycho elegans to curve above yr pool like that was awesome imo,  Pete  

 

                                                                                       

                                                                          

[BS Man about Palms]

I have 2 palms out front that are doing the lean unintentionally. I'm pretty sure it was gophers that got under one side, ate roots, moved soil so the palm leaned that way. I either killed the gophers or made it less appealing and since the palms are now stable in that position, I don't want to "right them". Worst thing is, the "awesome" you can barely see!

 

Here is my Kentiopsis magnifica with over a meter of trunk and the crown is well into a Jubea, Howea, Cypho. elegans tangle so Not anxious to move/kill anything..  hopefully neither are the gophers.

[BS Man about Palms]

The other one is a Dypsis saint-lucei. Both palms would probably look cool as hell over a water feature, But I'm not touching them!

[ErikSJI]

[Danilopez89]

So you say you want a "curved" trunk?

 too much curve?

[Pedro 65]

21 minutes ago, Danilopez89 said:

So you say you want a "curved" trunk?

 too much curve?

Not at all, just needs sun hardy bromeliads all over it  now.     Pete

[JJD]

I bought a D. Leptocheilos and never quite got around to putting it in the ground, so it sat in the bag for a couple of years under the roof of my Bali hut in Brisbane. I was moving back overseas so needed to get the garden in order and the house ready for renting so tried to move the Lepto. but it was well established by this stage and looked too big job. My only option was to try a persuade the trunk to curve around the roof which I did by wedging a piece of 2" x 3" wood against the side of the Bali hut and the trunk. Every couple of months I would put a longer piece of wood in place and the trunk moved enough to miss the roof.

The first pic is the real estate agents web photo (early 2011) clearly showing my Dypsis Leptocheilos wedgie still in place........

The second pic is  2015 wedgie is gone and good result achieved.

[Pedro 65]

John, is that a Tahina or Kerriodoxa behind the Bali Hut.   Pete  :)

 

 

                                                                  

 

 

                                       

[JJD]

Pete, if only........unfortunately it's a Pandanus Utilis "Red Edge". 

 

[Pedro 65]

OMG< I "Bet" many thought like I thought from yr old pics, thanks for replying John. The Bali hut looks great with the tiled or faux tile roof rather than thatch for rats n mice to build nest in..  'All" Philippine women Ive met in Oz are  always smiling and pretty darn beautiful...   Pete