Cleaning up a Hyophorbe

[Matt in OC]

Has anyone ever cleaned up their Hyophorbe trunk with a sharp knife (thanks for the suggestion, Dale!)? As you can see, this has some pretty good size but has really not shed any of the leaf bases which are extremely hard. Should I carefully try to cut those off? I'm sure there's a beautiful trunk underneath there somewhere!

[SeanK]

I had a Spindle in a pot for many years. It typically carried 5 leaves. I think yours needs more water.

[Silas_Sancona]

34 minutes ago, Matt in OC said:

Has anyone ever cleaned up their Hyophorbe trunk with a sharp knife (thanks for the suggestion, Dale!)? As you can see, this has some pretty good size but has really not shed any of the leaf bases which are extremely hard. Should I carefully try to cut those off? I'm sure there's a beautiful trunk underneath there somewhere!

Can be done, very carefully...   Knife / very sharp carpet knife worked well to remove the old boots / leaf bases when i cleaned up about a dozen or so neglected specimens at a similar size at a nursery i'd worked for in FL. years ago. Used hand pruners to get the bigger sections off first, then worked on the parts attached to the trunk w/ the carpet knife..  Took a couple hours but yes, there should be a nice trunk awaiting under there..  Sold through the ones i'd cleaned up pretty quickly after their "make over"

[Looking Glass]

Small tin snips work very well for me.  Tough enough to do the job, and minimal damage to the trunk.  I use these…

 

[D. Morrowii]

I did my potted bottle palm with a sharp pocket knife and was rewarded with some neat colors. 

[quaman58]

Matt, Like a lot of palms, the leaf bases that accompany the first couple rings of trunk are pretty persistent.  When my spindle was about the size of yours, I carefully used nice sharp pruning shears and worked my way around the trunk.  After that,  they began separating like any crownshafted palm.  Often,  the ones above it will then pull off easily, as each leaf base was just being held on by the below it.  You gotta see the crown and trunk of Hyophorbes; that's where the beauty is. Yours is plenty big enough..

[Merlyn]

I used a pair of heavy dury shears to cut the smaller hairs, and strong pruners to cut the thick sections back to where I could snip around them.  A razor knife could work too, I just decided not to use one.  My Spindle out front with 5 feet of trunk is self cleaning.  

[Matt in OC]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I made some progress this morning. 

[Merlyn]

@Matt in OClooks great!  What did you end up using? 

[Matt in OC]

@MerlynA serrated Cutco hunting knife. 😈

[ruskinPalms]

I’ve had this question for a while now. My Hyophorbes do not self clean. Yet i have seen plenty of spindle in my area that happily shed their old fronds but they have much more trunk. I’m guessing it is just an age thing?

Edited September 23, 2022 by ruskinPalms
Typos yet again…

[ruskinPalms]

On 9/22/2022 at 3:16 PM, Looking Glass said:

Small tin snips work very well for me.  Tough enough to do the job, and minimal damage to the trunk.  I use these…

 

I will be buying some of these. Thanks!

[Matt in OC]

30 minutes ago, Matt in OC said:

@MerlynA serrated Cutco hunting knife. 😈

Just noticed I am now missing a few teeth from that knife. 👀

[Looking Glass]

45 minutes ago, ruskinPalms said:

I will be buying some of these. Thanks!

I just cut across the top to free things up, then trim along the trunk edge like a pair of scissors.  They are pretty beefy and cut through the tuff stuff easily.  They come in all sizes but these are the smallest.  You can get very close with no trunk damage except minor abrasions at most.   Went outside just now and cut this one off in 30 seconds for this post.  I've got 3 in pots out back, due for a 1st time trim.   I'll post the hack jobs maybe tomorrow if it doesn't rain.   

1 hour ago, Matt in OC said:

@MerlynA serrated Cutco hunting knife. 😈

Yours looks great after the trim.   I know some people like the scruffy-trunk look on these, but I think they look really nice circumsized.   

[ruskinPalms]

Yes. Must be careful circumcising these things (sorry couldn’t help it 😂). Very easy to damage the underlying flesh and introduce pathogens… I feel like the tin snips would cause the least harm. 

[Matt in OC]

+1 for the tin snips! 

[tim_brissy_13]

On 9/24/2022 at 8:02 AM, ruskinPalms said:

I’ve had this question for a while now. My Hyophorbes do not self clean. Yet i have seen plenty of spindle in my area that happily shed their old fronds but they have much more trunk. I’m guessing it is just an age thing?

I’ve noticed many palms don’t shed the lowest fronds attached to the trunk naturally but then start to further up the trunk. Of crownshafted palms, Hyophorbe and Dictyosperma come to mind. I think it’s the growth in diameter at a flared base that locks the leaf bases together, then as the palm grows with a relatively stable diameter they fall off easily. 
 

Many fan palms are good examples of this too. Old Livistona and Washingtonia specimens which have never been touched often have clean upper trunk but leaf bases attached closer to the ground.