Drilling through queen palms

[Mike M]

A buddy of mine has 3 mature queens that he wants to build a tree house in for his kids. They are set up in a triangle pattern. Can these be drilled and keep growing and can they support a tree house of sorts. Let me know.

Thanks.

[PalmatierMeg]

Not a good idea. Unlike dicot trees palms cannot heal from injuries to their stems. And to build a safe treehouse you will have to drill and hammer many wounds to their trunks. And because those wounds can't heal, you open the palms to attack by insects and pathogens.

[rprimbs]

I would think it would be fine to drill holes in the trees. Drilling would not really damage the palm tree -- but anything that girdles it might. On a palm tree I would be inclined to attach a board to a single side with a large lag bolt and large nuts and washers.

I have seen shows on tv and the latest thing is to suspend the tree house from cables looped over branches and crotches. But you can't really do that with a palm tree.

[edric]

I agree with Meg, Ed

[Xerarch]

Unlike trees, palms have vascular tissue throughout the trunk, so they should still be able to move enough water up to where it's needed. I might worry about maintaining structural integrity though, plus the invitation for diseases and such, as has been mentioned. All in all I think it would be a shame to mess up 3 nice trees like that. He might as well jus pound 3 huge posts into the ground and build a treehouse between them instead.

[Zeeth]

I agree with Meg. It won't kill the palms but it might kill the kids when the treehouse collapses.

[MattyB]

I would totally go for it. Dowel all the way through it, don't rely on lags.

[MattyB]

What if you made mounts by wrapping heavy duty nylon webbing (semi-truck tie down straps) around the trunks?

[QUINNPALMS]

I would totally go for it. Dowel all the way through it, don't rely on lags.

I agree , go for it I've seen mature queen with only a third of its trunk left where a vehicle impacted it, been that way for yrs and is health and happy as can be...

[The7thLegend]

Not a good idea. Espcecially with a Queen.

[PalmatierMeg]

Looks like we have a bi-coastal disagreement. You gotta really hate queens to torture them like this.

[ErikSJI]

I would not recommend drilling through a queen palm. I have done it to my Cedar trees for a swing set with no problems.

Why not build around the queen palms? I stayed at a house a few years ago that did just what you are requesting without putting holes in the palms.

[MattyB]

You could put a 4" x 4" post running down the side of each queen and it would look like the house was up in the trees

[dalmatiansoap]

We use "band-it tapes/tools" to tie stuff for power poles at work without drilling.

[Rafael]

Obviously not a good idea.

Surprisingly it comes from the father, concerning kids security...

[Palmdude]

Queens blow over easily as it is, add the weight of a tree house to that equation with kids in it........

[Palmdude]

Matt I like your 4x4 idea could build it on stilts with the trees coming through the structure, that would be neat