Over-pruning is rampant

[Rd003]

Hate to be the bearer of palmy atrocities but this ones the last straw... Went outside to see my neighbors hired some cheap ‘arborist’ lawn company to ‘trim’ their palms. All of the palms look terrible now, including a Mn deficient Queen that needed every leaf it could get.. they also severely trimmed the most robust queen down to almost nothing, which might push it like its neighbor into decline or Mn deficiency. Coconuts look abused. Makes me mad! Wish i could get SoFl lawn co’s to stop this listless practice, let alone c h a r g e for it.

over and out, Rd003

[Darold Petty]

That's nothing, here in California Washingtonia robusta palms are pruned back to two fronds.  

[Gonzer]

I'm not seeing it. For "cheap", it ain't bad. I'd hate to see what REAL cheap would look like

[GottmitAlex]

13 minutes ago, Gonzer said:

I'm not seeing it. For "cheap", it ain't bad. I'd hate to see what REAL cheap would look like

Same here.

 

 

[Estlander]

38 minutes ago, Gonzer said:

I'm not seeing it. For "cheap", it ain't bad. I'd hate to see what REAL cheap would look like

How’s this for cheap, lol?! They have actually grown a lot since they pruned them about a month ago. They left nothing but a spear and another half open spear.  Took a pic of just those two, but there’s actually a bunch of them that look like that right next to those  :((((

Have seen them do that to W. Robustas around town as well. Pruned down to the spear with just a needle sticking out from the trunk. 

 

[GottmitAlex]

3 minutes ago, Estlander said:

How’s this for cheap, lol?! They have actually grown a lot since they pruned them about a month ago. They left nothing but a spear and another half open spear.  Took a pic of just those two, but there’s actually a bunch of them that look like that right next to those  :((((

Have seen them do that to W. Robustas around town as well. Pruned down to the spear with just a needle sticking out from the trunk. 

 

Now that fits the bill for being cheap.

 

 

 

[Merlyn]

The general "rule of thumb" is to cut off fronds only when they are below horizontal or damaged, right?  I guess the coconut might have had some above-horizontal fronds on it that didn't need to be trimmed, but overall it's not horrible.  If a frond is mostly yellow or is starting to yellow on a queen, you are probably better off slicing it off and giving it some quality fertilizer.  Leaving a crappy-looking frond on there until it's totally dead isn't going to solve a nutrient deficiency, it's just going to make it look crappy!