Driving nails into queen palm trunks

[insipidtoast]

Hi,

Can you hammer nails into the trunk of queen palms in order to get vines to grow up their trunk, or will that kill the palms?

[PANGEA EXPRESS]

depends on the nail. if its a copper nail it can kill the tree

[Stevetoad]

ive used electrical fasteners to hook orchids on queens before. the nails only go in about an inch but the tree didnt mind.

[pogobob]

Not a good idea

[insipidtoast]

Not a good idea

Why not?

[Stevetoad]

The gaffs that the tree trimmers use are huge spikes. They scar up the trunks but the palms never seem to do badly from it.

[Darold Petty]

Copper in large amounts is toxic, steel nails rust and discolor the trunk (even galvanized nails), all nail penetrations are a potential site for infection. Try hot glue with a bit of nylon line as a tie. If you must use nails, stainless steel siding nails would be the least bad choice.

[ErikSJI]

Landscapers have been driving there metal spikes into palms for quite awhile as well as nails to keep guards on them to protect from the animals. I would assume a few nails will not be a problem in a mature palm. Here is a couple photo's I posted in a previous post of a coconut palm on Molokai HI. Instant ladder with quite a few nails. None however seem to be copper.

[rprimbs]

Aren't palms a bit like trees? You won't harm them much with screws or nails but if you wrap something around the trunk and "girdle" it you will kill it.

I once drilled a hole completely through a large branch of my parents tree -- that had split wide open after cold weather. Then I put a great big lag bolt through with the biggest washers I could find and clamped it back together. It worked and it healed and grew over the bolt which I just left in the tree. Of course that wasn't a palm.

Also I used to work as an electrician and I've seen various lights mounted on date palms with screws.

[Stevetoad]

Palms are different than regular trees. Palms move food/water through random areas inside the whole trunk where trees move food/water through the outer ring of the trunk. That's why you will see strangler figs completely wrap around a palm and not kill it. Same reason why you can't graft a palm.

[Jastin]

Palms are monocots. They also can not "compartmentalize" meaning that if they get injured I.E. spikes, nails, any damage to the trunk, they will not heal themselves. Thats why you will always see the same wounds on a palm trunk. If you trim an Oak tree for example it will heal itself by growing over the wound. So with that being said, if you drive a nail into a palm it leaves that hole open for anything like rot, fungus, or pests to get in and damage the tree or kill it. Just don't do anything to the tree that you wouldn't do to yourself like driving a nail into it and you will be fine!

You can try other things like bungee cording some wood to the trunk that way you can nail into that or wrap the vine around the trunk and tie it with string until it can climb for itself. just don't leave the string on for over a year cause the trunk will expand and cause a mark in the trunk