Hi, this is my first time on this forum. We have a Giant Bird of Paradise in our back yard, it's about 35 years old and about 20ft. tall. One of the stems is drooping downwards into the yard and it doesn't look nice.

We would like to remove this stem, and my question is, can it safely be done now, (July) without harming the plant, or is there a better time to do it?

Thanks,

Bert

2 hours ago, Bert Speggly said:

Hi, this is my first time on this forum. We have a Giant Bird of Paradise in our back yard, it's about 35 years old and about 20ft. tall. One of the stems is drooping downwards into the yard and it doesn't look nice.

We would like to remove this stem, and my question is, can it safely be done now, (July) without harming the plant, or is there a better time to do it?

Thanks,

Bert

Welcome to the forum..

Any pictures of the entire plant / stem that is drooping?

If it won't take away from the overall form of the plant, don't see why you can't remove it..  ..And yes, now is the best time to do any pruning, esp. on tropical stuff like these.

@Bert Speggly yes, generally you can chop off any trunks at will.  They are pretty heavy, probably just as heavy as a pine or oak branch of the same size.  Just keep that in mind if you try to cut a big piece off.  They are fairly easy to cut with a reciprocating saw with a "medium" TPI.  You could also use something like a drywall saw/keyhole saw.

On 6/29/2024 at 12:08 AM, Silas_Sancona said:

Welcome to the forum..

Any pictures of the entire plant / stem that is drooping?

If it won't take away from the overall form of the plant, don't see why you can't remove it..  ..And yes, now is the best time to do any pruning, esp. on tropical stuff like these.

Here's a couple of pictures, the stem circled in red, and the base of the plant.

9 minutes ago, Bert Speggly said:

Here's a couple of pictures, the stem circled in red, and the base of the plant.

Yep.. go head and lop it off ..Giving yourself maybe 6-8" of trunk above the soil line, just to be sure the cut end heals off properly.

As Merlyn mentions, stem will be heavy, so be mindful of where it will end up when taking it down.

You can hack into them anytime they are tough as nails and it will regrow not a problem I had 3 very large clumps I removed about 3 years past and iam still trying to kill them by removing the suckers coming up so don’t worry about your one they are hard to kill without chemicals good luck.

Richard 

Thanks for all the very useful answers, and it seems that there's no problem with cutting the stem down. One last and final question, we've now entered our summer here in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, and temperatures are hitting 95 degrees. I presume that's not an issue?

 

Thanks 

Bert

18 minutes ago, Bert Speggly said:

Thanks for all the very useful answers, and it seems that there's no problem with cutting the stem down. One last and final question, we've now entered our summer here in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, and temperatures are hitting 95 degrees. I presume that's not an issue?

 

Thanks 

Bert

Not at all

..Gives the cut end plenty of time to heal over before things cool off / rains start up in the fall / winter.  ( The time of year i'd avoid doing any pruning of anything tropical due to the increased potential of introducing cool season fungal issues in our part of the world )

Bet you'll see new growth emerge somewhere near the cut stalk before things cool off too.

Thanks!

Stem successfully removed yesterday. Yard looks much better. Thanks for all the replies.

Bert