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Identify Cluster trunk Mexican fan palm???


Klmoon

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Please help identify this palm. I believe it is a Mexican Fan Palm but it has multiple trunks. Some have died after a freeze in Houston and I need to know what if anything can be done to save the remaining trunks. I have two different palms and both have more thank one trunk….

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7 minutes ago, Klmoon said:

I believe it is a Mexican Fan Palm but it has multiple trunks. Some have died after a freeze in Houston and I need to know what if anything can be done to save the remaining trunks. I have two different palms and both have more thank one trunk….

Welcome to PalmTalk Klmoon.  Yes those are Washingtonia robusta aka Mexican fan palms.  Not really clustering, just group planted as these are solitary palms that don't put out multiple trunks unlike some palm species.  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the dead ones look pretty dead to me.  Good news is that these things grow like weeds so you can start over again with some new ones if you like.  The existing trunks might make for some nice Tikis if you are so inclined.

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33.0782 North -117.305 West  at 72 feet elevation

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Thank you for the info.  Any recommendations on how I can separate the dead trunks from the living? Seeing as they all seem to be grown into each other?

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it kinda looks like a bunch of cold damaged livistona chinensis

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yeah no, these are Livistona, 

1 hour ago, Klmoon said:

Thank you for the info.  Any recommendations on how I can separate the dead trunks from the living? Seeing as they all seem to be grown into each other?

Cut them down, I had to do it, and be careful the sap stains bad,

Lucas

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When opportune, cut them down and replace them with any other palm which can thrive in your region. 

5 year high 42.2C/108F (07/06/2018)--5 year low 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)--Lowest recent/current winter: 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)

 

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They are very close to a retention wall of my pool. I would like them completely gone so that I may plant something else in the same location as space is limited. Does anyone have any recommendations on removing the palms completely roots and all?

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If you remove those two dead trunks the smaller one will be taller than those by end of decade 

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3 hours ago, Klmoon said:

 Does anyone have any recommendations on removing the palms completely roots and all?

I just had two Rhopalostylis stumps dug out.  It was insanely difficult, about 5 man-days of labor,  A shovel was useless, the laborer used a mattock to hack away and then scoop out the fragments.   Then he had to  sift all the soil through a hardware cloth sieve to exclude the root fragments from the soil, producing  eight or nine hundred pounds of waste roots and stump parts.  This only worked because I have very sandy soil.  I don't know if this would be possible with clay soil.

We had to use a chainsaw and steel wedges to spilt up the stumps into smaller pieces.

  I had the palms cut down about 18 months before the stump removal, but the stumps and roots were rock hard, with no signs of deterioration.  

San Francisco, California

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They are definitely single (non-clustering) palms planted in multiples, so theoretically it would be possible to cut out the dead trunks and leave the remaining live ones alone.  In one of the photos it looks like there are 3 dead big trunks 15-20' tall, and one single stunted 3' tall trunk.  Personally I'd remove all 4, because the smallest one has been choked out by the other 3 and is growing towards the fence.  I'd cut down all 4, grind it down below grass level far enough to refill with dirt, and let the grass grow over it.  Then plant new palms ~6' or so away from the dead spot, since there may be local fungi in the soil that could hurt or kill new palm plantings.  This is "conventional wisdom" to not plant in the same spot where another palm died.

It's hard to tell on the other photo of the pair, but sometimes you can carefully cut horizontally just at the base of the trunk, right where the roots come out.  For example, in the below sketch if one on the left is dead you could cut down in between and slice off the left one without hurting too many roots on the right one.  The risk, of course, is that the right one is still leaning over, and if you cut too many roots it could die or fall over too. 

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