Bismarckia transplant tips? Mine got vandalized

[kylecawazafla]

I cannot express the frustration of being a palm lover and not having a garden. I thought I hit the jackpot when my work said I could plant "whatever I wanted" on the grounds of the hospital I work at, since it already has irrigation set up and so many planting sites. After 4 years and thousands of my own dollars later, I am constantly hit with the maintenance shutting off water for "construction projects" without telling me - even after asking multiple times. Cannot count the number of times clearly marked palms with barriers around them have been mowed over, weed whacked to shreds, or just outright removed.... the latest assault has been on my flawless Bismarckia palm that is the first thing I'd see when I'd walk into work from the parking lot.... anyways, I came to work to find this today. I am just so over dealing with their incompetence and abuse. I guess they already took care of the "frond removal" prior to transplant, so figure I'd just finish the job and transplant it to somewhere where I'm not constantly worrying about it getting mutilated or starved for water. Any tips for transplant? I've never removed such a big palm before so don't know how much rootball I should preserve. 

[Binhi Palms]

wtf is wrong with them miserable ah people

[Chester B]

From what I've been told Bismarckia are extremely intolerant to having their roots disturbed in anyway.  I think this might be one of those palms that can't be moved, unless you can get ALL of the roots.

[Darold Petty]

Yah, what Chester said.  They are thought to be extremely intolerant to root disturbance.  Here in SF a tree crew hired by the city "maintained" my Howea in the same way.  It died.

[aztropic]

Don't touch it! It will come back. Maybe give it some extra water when you can. If you try and move it, it's almost a guaranteed death sentence.

 

aztropic 

Mesa, Arizona 

[Aloha Palms]

I tried moving a 15 gallon one that had been planted and it died a slow death.

[happypalms]

They dislike transplanting or any root disturbance, the one you have there if you have to move it good luck and you will need a large solid root ball. My advice leave it alone odds on it will die if you move it. 

[Merlyn]

I agree with the others, if you touch it now it'll probably die.  Toss it some fertilizer and leave it be!

That being said, the local FDOT people have started planting Bismarckia just like Sabals on highways.  At a nearby interchange they did about 20-30 Bismarck and a similar number of Sabals.  All were trimmed about like your photo, bur of course with 5 to 10 feet of clear trunk.  Surprisingly enough I counted about 75% success rate with Bismarcks and 85% or so with Sabals.  Maybe the trick is just to chop off all the fronds and treat them like a Sabal for transplant?

[kylecawazafla]

I wish I had heard earlier since I had to move it this morning. Oh well. It would have died anyways in its current spot as they have already murdered dozens of my palms in so many different ways. I don't know what's so hard about people just leaving your plants alone. 🤬

[Stevetoad]

Nice Brazilian cut. I dug a Bizzy once about the same size and moved it to a different spot in my yard. It sulked for a long while and just when I was going to dig it up and toss it I noticed it had some new deformed growth. I left it alone and it started to look good. then it exploded and out grew my other two. I ended up having to cut it down a year or so ago because the leaves were landing on. my neighbors roof.  So In my experience they can be dug ( and I did a lousy job digging) but they take a long time to recover. I posted about it a bunch of years ago.  

 

[DoomsDave]

@kylecawazafla what @Stevetoad said! Don’t give up!

[happypalms]

2 hours ago, kylecawazafla said:

I wish I had heard earlier since I had to move it this morning. Oh well. It would have died anyways in its current spot as they have already murdered dozens of my palms in so many different ways. I don't know what's so hard about people just leaving your plants alone. 🤬

Plant a manchineel tree there (Hippomane mancinella) and a arbour of deadly nightshade, see how they go bashing them about! 🪴