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Weights of various palms?


Bob Johnson

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Our society recently recieved this question from a local landscape architecht:

"I am currently conducting research on a rooftop garden and would appreciate any help you can offer.  We are in the process of designing our planting materials and are looking for weights of different palm trees in various sizes.  Do you know of any calculations or tables that would be useful to us for calculating weights?"

Does anyone know of a source of such info? I would like to be able to give him some data or at least point him in the right direction.

Bob Johnson
Orlando, Florida, USA

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Bob,

I am not aware of such calculations....there are so many variables, I am not certain how such a calculation take be possible.

Height

Girth

Rootball size

Type of soil

How many fronds?

The possibilities are endless when given all of the species. Where is this rooftop garden going in? A more probable question would be how much water is needed? Are the species chosen wind tolerant?

Rick Leitner

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

26.07N/80.15W

Zone 10B

Average Annual Low 67 F

Average Annual High 84 F

Average Annual Rainfall 62"

 

Riverfront exposure, 1 mile from Atlantic Ocean

Part time in the western mountains of North Carolina

Gratefully, the best of both worlds!

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I can understand that weight is an important consideration if you're going to do a rooftop garden, but I fail to see why the current weight of a particular palm is of any relevance (unless they're planning on removing it in a year or two, which would seem to be a waste). Take Roystone for instance (Royal palms). Probably not a good candidate for a rooftop garden, but just an example: if you plant a 15G specimen the weight is obviously not too impressive - maybe 40 lbs or so (just a guess). But after it's planted it's obviously going to keep growing and add on weight, and by the time it gets to 100-120 ft tall, the weight is obviously considerable, and that would seem to be the important issue? And who knows how much a 100 ft tall Roystonea weighs....! ???

Leilani Estates, 25 mls/40 km south of Hilo, Big Island of Hawai'i. Elevation 880 ft/270 m. Average rainfall 140 inches/3550 mm

 

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I was thinking about Ken Johnson's Borassus move.  He gave a weight for that puppy.  Anyone who's had experience moving large palms has to know an estimated weight before bringing the applicable crane out to the jobsite.  Then can't they weigh it once it's up?  Ask Ken Johnson.

Ken's Profile Page

Matt Bradford

"Manambe Lavaka"

Spring Valley, CA (8.5 miles inland from San Diego Bay)

10B on the hill (635 ft. elevation)

9B in the canyon (520 ft. elevation)

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(MattyB @ Nov. 28 2007,17:47)

QUOTE
I was thinking about Ken Johnson's Borassus move.  He gave a weight for that puppy.  Anyone who's had experience moving large palms has to know an estimated weight before bringing the applicable crane out to the jobsite.  Then can't they weigh it once it's up?  Ask Ken Johnson.

Ken's Profile Page

You ask him, it was your idea. :D

Happy Gardening

Cheers,

Wal

Queensland, Australia.

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I just know Trithrinax species are light (no heavy) compatively with another palms Washingtonias, queen palms, Butias of the same size in trunks and palms without ball roots.-

A single trunked 2,5 metres tall trunk of Trithrinax campestris weight is around + 300 kilogrames mostly in the ball root.-

Perhaps Nigel can give more info about this.-

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they should just plant Borhidianas..Licuala Mapu & Obicularis...thy wont hafta worry abought weight...they'll never get too big

The Palm Mahal

Hollywood Fla

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(Bob Johnson @ Nov. 28 2007,15:43)

QUOTE
Our society recently recieved this question from a local landscape architecht:

"I am currently conducting research on a rooftop garden and would appreciate any help you can offer.  We are in the process of designing our planting materials and are looking for weights of different palm trees in various sizes.  Do you know of any calculations or tables that would be useful to us for calculating weights?"

Does anyone know of a source of such info? I would like to be able to give him some data or at least point him in the right direction.

I see an open roof 1st floor palm garden when they grow ... sometime in the future.

the trunk and the dirt/rootball (with water) volume will probably dominate the weight, which means it depends on how big they grow and how much dirt in the planter.  To a first approximation assume the weight of water 64 lb/cubic foot.  Then use basic math to calculate the volume of the planter and the trunk(use cylinder approximation here).  

Vcyl=pi*r^2*height(all in in feet)

Vbox=lengthh x width xheight(all in ft)  

now weight ~(Vbox+Vcyl)*64 lbs

Formerly in Gilbert AZ, zone 9a/9b. Now in Palmetto, Florida Zone 9b/10a??

 

Tom Blank

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Having recently moved some very large Jubaeas, I learned more about this than I really wanted to, and to the surprise of the tree movers my calculations were better than their estimates.  In fact, my calculations were almost exact according to the crane scales.

1st calculate the volume of the trunk, don't include the fiber if any, and make sure to account for any taper.  That last part is very important on something like a Jubaea where you have a cylindrical section of trunk that is 3.5+ feet wide tapering to maybe 6" at the top.  If that is the case you need to calculate the volume of a cylinder and the volume of a cone to get the correct volume.  Multiply the volume of the trunk in cubic feet by 64 lbs/cu ft.

Next calculate the volume of dirt, then multiply it by 100 lbs/cu ft for good compacted, moist soil.

Add the two together and you will have the total weight of the tree.

  • Upvote 1

Martin Farris, San Angelo, TX

San Angelo Cold Hardy Palms and Cycads

Jul - 92F/69F, Jan - 55F/31F

Lows:

02-03: 18F;

03-04: 19F;

04-05: 17F;

05-06: 11F;

06-07: 13F;

07-08: 14F 147.5 Freezing Degree-Hours http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?sh...ee+hours\;

08-09: 23F;

09-10: 12F 467.6 Freezing Degree Hours, Average Temperature During Freeze 24.2F;

10-11: 13F 1,059.5 Freezing Degree Hours with Strong Winds/Rain/Snow/Sleet, Average Temperature During Freeze 19.4F;

Record low -4F in 1989 (High of 36F that p.m.) 1,125.2 freezing degree hours, Average Temperature During Freeze 13.6F;

Record Freeze 1983: 2,300.3 Freezing Degree Hours with a low of 5F, Average Temperature During Freeze 13.7F.

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martin, your calculation sound good and you do have the experience.  One thing I might add is the leaves or fronds (canopy).

I know on larger stout palms (washintonia, bismark, royals, queens) they can way a good amount.

anyone have some cexact figures of certain species?

Luke

Tallahassee, FL - USDA zone 8b/9a

63" rain annually

January avg 65/40 - July avg 92/73

North Florida Palm Society - http://palmsociety.blogspot.com/

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And the overall weight of the entire project will double after a good rain storm!

I would contact Carrabba's corporate headquarters.  They do roof top gardens on all of their restaurants and I am quite sure they have calculations to get those approved by local building inspectors.

On the bay in Tampa...

10a,9b...

Elev.  10 ft

My current weather station....

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you everyone for your replies - the information you have supplied on calculating the weight of palms (as well as the other considerations) is most helpful. Sorry to start this thread and abandon the post for so long - my December was consumed by several other projects.

Again, thanks! I appreciate all of the information that you have shared and will pass it on to the person who inquired.

Bob Johnson
Orlando, Florida, USA

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I sell tons of big field grown queens all the time and hear this question quite frequently. I mostly sell 15' BTH (from the soil level to the base of the emerging spear) Queens which are 20'+ overall height and they weigh between 1200-1500 pounds depending on trunk girth. Keep in mind that when we dig these up the have about a 24" box sized rootball. I hope this helps

Dave Hughson

Carlsbad, Ca

1 mile from ocean

Zone 10b

Palm freaks are good peeps!!!!!

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