phoenix roebelenii seeding control

[Ed C.]

I'm in the coastal San Diego County area and have approx. 10 Roebelenii's in my backyard that seed profusely from appox. March through November. I spend a lot o time removing the seed pods because I've found that they attract ants, which then results in other pests on the palms. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to reduce the seed pod production?

[kinzyjr]

Short of removing the palms, the only thing you can do is what you are currently doing; remove the seed pods.  Mine do the same thing here in Central Florida.  All of my phoenix roebelenii give off hundreds of fertile seeds, and the birds that nest in them do their part to eat the thin layer of fruit and deposit the seeds everywhere in the yard.  Mine are still green:

 

 

[PalmatierMeg]

We have 3 of these - 1 male and 2 females, darn it! We trim inflorescences off all 3 every spring. Part of maintenance.

[Rickybobby]

I would love these seeds my top bad sending to Canada isn’t easy. I haven’t had any luck germinating these 

[kinzyjr]

5 minutes ago, Rickybobby said:

I would love these seeds my top bad sending to Canada isn’t easy. I haven’t had any luck germinating these 

Wish you were in the US.  I literally have hundreds of them pop up without any assistance from me.  They come out of the mulch easy and transplant at a very high success rate.

[Rickybobby]

8 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

Wish you were in the US.  I literally have hundreds of them pop up without any assistance from me.  They come out of the mulch easy and transplant at a very high success rate.

I’ve gotten some from seedman well all kinds of different species. And literally the most common palms always germinate and the rare ones don’t or slightly rare. I’m sure the way the trade war is going soon palm seeds will hurt national security lol

[pj_orlando_z9b]

I swear these put out more seed than fronds. I too just trim them all off. One year I missed one and had about 40 seedlings I had to pluck. 

[PalmatierMeg]

8 hours ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

I swear these put out more seed than fronds. I too just trim them all off. One year I missed one and had about 40 seedlings I had to pluck. 

They do and they are weeds. I'm not crazy about the Phoenix genus. My husband, who professes to hate thorny plants, bought our spiny devils as a trio and stuck them in the ground. At least they've grown tall enough not to attack us whenever we draw near.

[Kim]

Haha, I spent a couple of hours yesterday trimming the seed pods off my 6 P. roebelenii (San Diego coastal garden). I already removed 2, but these 6 remain and their future is in doubt. In particular, one of them is getting rather tall. Trimming the fronds was fun, too, trying to avoid all those wicked spines. Stuffed all the fronds in the trash because green recycling doesn't accept palm fronds. I wish there were a product to prevent seeding like there is for olive trees.

[Tracy]

On 7/1/2018, 2:32:00, Ed C. said:

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to reduce the seed pod production?

Reduce the number of Phoenix roebelenii by removing a couple (or 10 if you feel adventurous) and you gain two benefits:  1)  you reduce the roebelenii seed pod production in your yard and 2) you have new spaces to plant something that isn't already growing in 50% of your neighbor's gardens.  If it's a sunny spot, put in a Dypsis heteromorpha or two and if your afraid you will miss the spines, put in an Encephalartos genus cycad.  If it's in a shady part of your garden, I'm sure you can find plenty of other great and interesting palms from Madagascar or New Caledonia that will do well in your garden AND distinguish your garden from most of the neighbor's gardens.  Good luck!