Step one

Drag the old ones out from hiding and using secateurs, sever the spathes and cut the remaining leaf in 1 to 2 foot pieces.

Dispatch cut spathes into bin. Collected by noble local bin collector. I pay $12 per month.

Spread remaining leaf pieces as mulch, looks good, works well, palm is recycled to assist itself. Too easy.

Etc.

Etc.

Dear Wal  

lovely pictures of the recycle bin,Iam glad to know that leafs of palm trees can also be used as mulch,humas & root cover protection.

Since we here in India use leaves from trees as mulch and we dig huge pits of 4 feet by 4 feet wide and 7 to 8 feet deep.and old leaves from banyan tree,neem tree,ficus,oak,dolenix regia etc are dumped in to the pit after 6 to 8 months later we dig it back and it is beeten in to powder form and used in the foot of new plants.

When iam ready with the camera i will upload those pictures.

our forum members patience is greatly apprieciated !  

Love,

Kris.

Does any one else do this recycle routine ? If not, where do all your fronds go ?

Yeah, I do Wal, except for the really spiny species. The main trick is, as you said, to cut off the leaf bases, as they take years to decompose and are a nice breeding ground for mossies etc.

Daryl.

Looks like it's just good old aussie know how to the fore yet again  

Hi Wal

I do the same, except that I crush the old leaves by hand when they are really dry, smaller pieces decompose faster than big'uns.

Go the Springboks!!! Please.......

Dennis

(PalmsZA @ Aug. 04 2006,20:19)

QUOTE

Hi Wal

I do the same, except that I crush the old leaves by hand when they are really dry, smaller pieces decompose faster than big'uns.

Go the Springboks!!! Please.......

Dennis

Did you see them today ? They all got their photo taken individually with Tony Grieg. That can't be good for luck  

Hi Wal

You could probably mulch an entire medium sized garden with a Raphia leaf.

Wal,

I have also done similar things with the palms here in Manaus and also in Florida.  But, I would have a very hard time with my wife as she complains that even using wood chips from wood planers (which are smaller than the mulch sold in the states, but still do not compact) is too messy.  Since I have a big supply of that material and she at least accepts it I am going to have to stick to that.  I have been cutting up the palm material less the leaf bases and throwing on the compost heap though.  In our climate it breaks down ok.

dk

Wal, I do similarly what you do with the spent palm leaves.  It makes a good mulch for most palms and other plants as well.  Any organic matter added to my rather porous soil helps out a lot.  Surprising how quickly it can break down here as well.

welll sorta, we use a large tractor with a disc and mechanically till them back into the soil.

Hi Wal everything goes back into the garden as years ago I purchased a Hammermill chipper sheader. Thou it was to be mainly used for mulching the sugarcane I was growing, I found that palm leaves worked well through the chipper as long as they were fresh. Well worth the investment providing you have the time to use it.

By the way Happy Birthday

Cheers Mike

All of my clippings, prunings, organic matter, etc.  goes into the green colored trash bin (we also have a blue bin for recycleables & grey bin for refuse) and is picked up as part of our trash service @ about $30 per month.  They compost it and we can go pick up a load for free or very cheap depending on where you live.  I prefer the look of processed mulch/compost to the leaves lying on the ground.  It dosen't look bad at your place Wal with your dirt walkways, but I have sort of a formal stone walk w/ bordered planters and I think it looks better kept neat.

We put all our palm and cycad leaves through a chipper/shedder (attached to the tractor)  Queen palm seeds go to the dump in pick-up load lots.

Our chipper/shedder does a pretty good job of reducing a large heap of leaves to manageable mulch in a relatively short time.

I was out at Ellis tree Farms in Borrego Springs a couple of months ago and they had just finished trimming their 300-350 acres of palms and they had a windrow at least 300-400 ft long x 40 ft wide and 15 ft high which they burn during the winter when it drys out.