Wind tolerant fan palm?

[JohnAndSancho]

Is there such a thing? I'm obsessed with Pritchardia and I'd love to have one on my patio but my Washy gets it's butt kicked in wind here in SE TX 

[Looking Glass]

Thrinax, Leukothrinax, Coccothrinax, Lantania loddigesii aren’t quite classic “fan palms” I guess, but are pretty nice and can tolerate serious winds.   Decent size and growth rate for a porch too.  

[idontknowhatnametuse]

13 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Is there such a thing? I'm obsessed with Pritchardia and I'd love to have one on my patio but my Washy gets it's butt kicked in wind here in SE TX 

Any Sabal

[PalmatierMeg]

Agree with blue & red Latania (haven't been through a hurricane with yellow). Also, Livistona decora those "ribbon" leaflets let the wind through. My Coccoithrinax argentata went through Ian without a frond mussed up. Sabals, of course. If you want to keep a Sabal minor in a pot, try Sabal minor Blountstown Dwarf - gets 15" x 30".

[JohnAndSancho]

So that's a no on Pritchardia 

[Fusca]

49 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

So that's a no on Pritchardia 

Not necessarily.  There's several grown in SoCal that have to endure Santa Ana winds.  I believe @Tracy grows one and could comment.  Plus the fact that you'd be growing one in a container would make a difference.  Washingtonia here do fine in windy conditions but your small one probably doesn't have enough of a root system to handle it.  Here's my Livistona chinensis that has endured several days of 30 mph sustained winds with occasional gusts up to 50 mph.  A little tattered perhaps but still looks good.

[GoatLockerGuns]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

Washingtonia here do fine in windy conditions

Concur with @Fusca on this point.  Washingtonia spp. have fairly robust fronds and can take some wind.  In fact, I think the fronds of most palmate palms are pretty wind hardy (up to a point).  Also, I lived on Oahu for over three years, and I know it can get mighty windy in Hawaii at times as well (many Pritchardia spp. are native to those islands).  I never saw any Pritchardia spp. dying from wind damage when I was there (although, I never experienced a hurricane there either).

 

3 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

my Washy gets it's butt kicked in wind here in SE TX

Are you saying the fronds get ripped and damaged by exposure to wind on your balcony?  I experience some pretty intense winds living on top of a hill here.  Frond damage to Washingtonia spp. palms is not a real problem for me.  The biggest problem I face related to wind and my outdoor juvenile potted palms (both palmate and pinnate) is not frond damage; rather, it is immature trunks getting bent over (and/or root snapping) from strong wind gusts (i.e., anything over 25 mph).  A sturdy stick and some tie downs around the small trunk bases usually solves this problem.

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

There's several grown in SoCal that have to endure Santa Ana winds.  I believe @Tracy grows one and could comment. 

Pritchardia seem to do fine here in Southern California, even during Santa Ana events.  My tallest one is a Pritchardia maideniana, seen in the center back of the photo.  It's above the tennis courts now, which are on the top of a coastal ridge.  It gets the full force of winds coming off the ocean from the west, northwest and southwest.  It also takes the brunt of Santa Ana winds typically coming from the northeast.  So wind isn't an issue for it here

7 minutes ago, GoatLockerGuns said:

I experience some pretty intense winds living on top of a hill here.  Frond damage to Washingtonia spp. palms is not a real problem for me.  The biggest problem I face related to wind and my outdoor juvenile potted palms (both palmate and pinnate) is not frond damage; rather, it is immature trunks getting bent over (and/or root snapping) from strong wind gusts (i.e., anything over 25 mph).

Also, I lived on Oahu for over three years, and I know it can get mighty windy in Hawaii at times as well (many Pritchardia spp. are native to those islands).  I never saw any Pritchardia spp. dying from wind damage

I agree with the analysis about potted versus in ground, there is a difference.  Also well stated about habitat.  On Maui, the Trade winds get an extra acceleration when blowing through the valley between the lobes formed by Puʻu Kukui to the west and Haleakalā to the east.  The fact that many Pritchardia are native to this windy environment seems to say it all.  That shoreline to the north was the mecca for windsurfing in the day, followed by kite boarding and now wing foils are taking over.  All those sports are taking advantage of some of the most consistent, not gusty, wind on the planet.

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

In my experience, many palms on any kind of a balcony that gets a lot of wind are going to look ratty and burn.    I over in a townhouse that had 4 patios / balconies and 2 faced Tampa bay (east) and man it’s the windiest place I have ever lived.     The two palms that I had that seemed to suffer no damage at all from the winds were the pigmy date palms and my Thrinax Radiata.   Those did just fine.   The rest had some kind of tearing / burning from the. Early constant and often very strong winds.   We were 2 and 3 stories up and in between two buildings that were off to the sides in front of us which made the  winds even worse by funneling them.   
 

the worst ones were Dypsis Lutescense.   They just fried in the winds and looked terrible until I moved them.    Even in ground some of the ones there looked fairly ratty in the windy areas.  

[JohnAndSancho]

22 hours ago, GoatLockerGuns said:

Concur with @Fusca

 

Are you saying the fronds get ripped and damaged by exposure to wind on your balcony?  I experience some pretty intense winds living on top of a hill here.  Frond damage to Washingtonia spp. palms is not a real problem for me.

Maybe Dirty Sanchez' problem is he's in a corner and the wind slaps the fronds against the railing? He does seem to take a beating when we get these 30-40mph gusts, and there's def a wind tunnel between me and the building across from me.