Triming Canary Island Date Palms

[Ashton]

A friend has a 25-30 ft. CIDP in his front yard. For many years the tree retained short leaf bases. Recently about ten feet of trunk started losing the leaf bases and now clean trunk is showing. I suggested that he remove the remaining leaf bases to give it a cleaner look.

He is willing to buy a new set of tools so that whoever trims the tree will not infect it with Fusarium.

Do the trimmers use chain saws for such a job, or is there a special tool that does an even better job? Also, does anyone know of a reputable tree service company in the southbay area of Los Angeles?

Thanks for all thoughts.

Ashton

[Kris]

Dear Ashton  

its been a while we heard from you in our discussion boards..

welcome back !

here is a lovely site i visit often and i really admire these peoples work..and kindly visit this link and see how they have trimmed the cidps..some call it a close shave but i love it and iam growing small cidps only to trim them in this fashion in the years to come..And yes they use gas powered chainsaw to do the trimming work.with a hand operated knife or a saw one cannot complete the trimming work fast and it would be difficult staying long hanging up there !

http://www.datepalm.com/palminfo/canary.asp

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/7410/

lots of love to u,

Kris  

[amazon exotics]

sawsall work good. This is a hand saw known for cutting metal. They also do a great job on Sylvestris boots ( trunk trimming) for that nice diamond cut.

[Kris]

Here is a phoenix sylversteris palm at our home,which is regularly trimmed by me using only kitchen knife..but i would say the fronds of sylversteris cannot be compared with that of CIDP !

here is a still of our palm :

[Ashton]

(krisachar @ Dec. 05 2007,09:58)

QUOTE

Here is a phoenix sylversteris palm at our home,which is regularly trimmed by me using only kitchen knife..but i would say the fronds of sylversteris cannot be compared with that of CIDP !

here is a still of our palm :

Kris,

If only P. silvestris could look that good in So. California. Wow!

It has been a while since I've been on the board. Family issues my friend.

Ash

[redant]

After hurting myself to many times with hand tools I discovered this add on tree trimmer  It attaches to any weed wacker that uses the ez-link system. Cuts real nice through the boots & your hand is nowhere near the spines of death.

[MattyB]

Ashton, they grow great in CA!

Here's Bob Hastings' beauty.

That's Bob

Looks like a boy

[fiji jim]

The best tool for this kind of work is a chainsaw pole pruner.

It has a telescopically adjustable chain bar drive that can be as close to the operator as 8 ft or about 15 ft away.

I have  Stihl HT 75 and it is my favourite tool.

I use it for all those nasty jobs like pruning citrus trees and palms of any kind and anything that does not allow a close working situation.

One can do the job without being barbed or scratched by thorns. A very handy tool.

Jim

[Kris]

Dear Matty  

your stills are fentastic but the yellow cycas seen in the first still was mind blowing ! what variety is that ? i love it...

Love,

Kris  

[MattyB]

I don't know Kris.  Bob has a ton of Cycads. His Encephelartos collection is comprehensive.  I think he only has 4 left to get last I heard.  His species list of cycads and palms is pages long.  It's nice to walk out on my deck and look next door over at his huge garden.  It's inspiring me to make mine look great too.

[LJG]

Hi Ashton,

Hope all is well soon.

Give him this guys info. He and another guy do all the 'pineappleing' of trees at B&C tree in Escondido. They might go out to LA. I think it is $300/tree. Chain saws and tree spikes are tools of choice.

Mike - 760-846-4402

[palmislandRandy]

Tree spikes, yikes!

[Kris]

Dear Matty  

thanks for the information and i suppose by the time you reach your neighbour's age,certainly you will have a lot better garden than he has..since iam shure that he should have started his collection pretty late of age !

lots of love to u,

Kris