Palm Repair from Hurricane Winds

[_Keith]

OK, first bear with me. All the prep work is done, so now I am bored and nervous. That means lots of posts.

So, we will have about 10 hours of 65+ mph winds and gust just over 100. All of my palms are still fairly small. I suspect nearly total frond loss or severe damage. No doubt with nearly all being planted in the last 2 years I expect most palms to be leaning in their plantingin holes.

So, many of you have been through this. So, what are the steps of triage for palms of this size having gone through this experience? From "do nothing for a while" to "hear are the first 100 steps" I want to hear it all. I got nothing to do for the next 12 hours but read.

In the meantime, assuming everything in the shade house will be lost, let me go cherry pick a few seedlings.

[surgeon83]

First off, hopefully the forecast is worse than the actual case will be. That's how it usually works, but I definitely like to prepare for worst case scenario myself and so I appreciate that type of forecast.

Anyway, I don't think you will find "total fond loss." When Rita was supposed to demolish Galveston in 2005, we wound up getting a maximum wind gust to about 68mph, at least before the meter stopped recording (right before the peak of the storm for that area...) and I didn't have really any damage at all. I had only lived in my house for 1 year, so the palms had been in the ground less than that. I had (1) 7' queen that had already spend the previous winter at a different 45-degree angle every day from all the cold front winds, and it went back to this configuration after the storm. I just staked it back up and it eventually rooted in fully. My bananas were leaning to about 60 degrees from the gound and the leaves were shredded terribly, but the leaves were still there. Stood up straight on their own after being staked for 2 weeks. My windsail traveler's palm which had been in the ground for 1 month with 1 leaf took a beating, but it recovered nicely from the suckers.

I'm sure long-time FL people will be able to contribute more. I think you'll be pleasantly relieved when its all over and you get home. Best to always prepare for the worst though.

[Mark Heath]

The water and wind combined will cause your palms to lean, but no worries, just stake them up again and they should be fine. I would though go out and "hurricane prune" them. Cut off the lower fronds to help minimize wind damage.

It's hard to believe but i lost a bunch of fronds from Tropical Storm Fay, and that had only 55mph gust!! Granted i'm only 20 miles west of Titusville (coastal town). It did stay for a cpl of days though and that's what did it. Only the Syagrus's like Amara, Botryophoras were affected. Pheonix palms just laughed it off.

BTW, you said you were leaving at first light, is'nt that when it will be hitting you? I would'nt be driving in that, be carefull!!!

[_Keith]

The water and wind combined will cause your palms to lean, but no worries, just stake them up again and they should be fine. I would though go out and "hurricane prune" them. Cut off the lower fronds to help minimize wind damage.

It's hard to believe but i lost a bunch of fronds from Tropical Storm Fay, and that had only 55mph gust!! Granted i'm only 20 miles west of Titusville (coastal town). It did stay for a cpl of days though and that's what did it. Only the Syagrus's like Amara, Botryophoras were affected. Pheonix palms just laughed it off.

BTW, you said you were leaving at first light, is'nt that when it will be hitting you? I would'nt be driving in that, be carefull!!!

A 5am'ish, the storm will still be offshore. Due to the northwest path it is taking, I am quite a bit inland. If it was moving northeast, that would be a whole other matter. Winds here should be 30 mph or under.

But I will be watching thoughout the night for any changes, just in case.

[Davidl]

Gusts at 100 or over is not good and little palms can be traumatized and die. If your palms have some shelter it will help. Here we had sustained winds of 60 + from fay and it was only damaging to very small plants and a few fronds getting tore off and of course the usual leaning palms. The palms that were not in the ground a long time were leaning (1 yr or less). I would try to straighten them in the first few days its always easier for me when the ground is wet.

Edited August 31, 2008 by Davidl

[PalmatierMeg]

Keith, back when Hurricane Charley hit me as a Cat 4/3, I didn't have the palm collection I have now but I did have 7 queens, 3 majesties, 2 spindles, 1 bottle, 1 foxtail, 1 royal, 1 Licuala grandis, 1 Coccothrinax argentata, 1 Thrinax radiata, 1 silver saw palmetto, 1 Livistona deciens. I didn't lose a single palm. Many palms grow in places subject to wicked storms and they evolved to deal with them. Their fronds are able to move with high winds. Small palms are supple enough to bend with the wind. My ribbon fan palm had its fronds twisted into spirals but within months I couldn't tell it had been through 130 mph winds. My T. radiata did lean over and I had to stake it for a while but today it's growing skyward. These palms also went through Frances and Jeanne in 2004 and Wilma in 2005.

So I think your palms in the ground should be okay. They should even be able to survive short term flooding with freshwater. Potted plants should be moved indoors so they aren't blown away. Palms can be tougher than dicot trees in a hurricane. I lost a mahogany tree when a microburst literally spun it out of the ground. Melaleucas and Australian pines fell by the thousands and blocked roads but very few palms succumbed. In Cape Coral there are palms that now grow at 45 degree angles, courtesy of Charley. But they still grow.

Good luck.

[ariscott]

We got cyclone Helen in the beginning of the year... .and it was about 120km/h wind. My property is cleared and it has no protection whatsoever. But funnily enough, all the little palms went through ok. So, I think it is more the bigger ones that might suffer more, as they act as sail to the wind. So, I think you should come out of it ok. We get 100km/h wind even in the 'normal' storm, and they stand up ok to them. So, I reckon you would be fine....

Regards, Ari

[DoomsDave]

KEITH!

Gee, I might get noosed for this . . .

Palms schmalms!

Just run, be safe, we're rooting for ya!

This is gettin' NASTY.

[_Keith]

No noose from me. My family is safe. I can't sleep worrying about my damned house.

[Tala]

all bets are off when hurricane force winds are involved. Here the cat. 1 and 2 storms produced problems of small consequence (ripped fronds, leaning stems, etc.). The fronds are eventually replaced, and the stems can be braced & staked, or left leaning to form a little "character". The cat. 3 and higher cause a multitude of issues as they will hit palms from different angles - as the storm arrives the fronds/bud are pushed in one direction, as the storm leaves they are pushed in the opposite direction. For instance some innocent low growing Allagoptera arenaria had their buds twisted so much the hearts were "broken"; some stems recovered and some did not. On the whole palmate palms have been proven to stand up to high winds better than pinnate, but those w/ heavy large leaves e.g. Bismarckia, Corypha, etc. are highly susceptible to the aforementioned bud damage.

We had three cat.1's come in here 4 yrs ago and a basic rule resulted from this: 1- be hesitant w/ that chainsaw, and 2- look for new growth. Its still middle of growing season, and all that rain will expedite spear emergence, etc. Watch them for a wk or so, if you see movement chances are you're in the clear. If nothing give a slight tug on the spear of any suspected problem child. If it pulls loose take the appro. measures, i.e. use copper fung. in bud and wait.

Hardy palms that prefer it high n' dry such as Butia, Syagrus & their ilk may slowly "suffocate" if your water tables remain exceedingly high. Others like Sabal, Phoenix, Wash. & Liv.'s will sit in water for wks as long as it remains warm. Cold soggy soil is a no go but thats not a worry for now. Good luck to you, I've been there and it comes back eventually, sometimes only in memories but if nothing else this a learning tool you'll put to use for the rest of your time.