Palm tree ident
 

Can anyone give me the name of this palm? Are they fast geowing and maint intensive?

Appears to be a Sylvester palm, part of the Date palm family. They put out a ton of messy seed pods in spring that drop a ton of seeds. You can pay someone to trim 'em each year, but I got tired of that. They are a very pretty tree, though. Good luck.

I agree, that looks like a Sylvester Palm. It is native to India and requires fertilizer three times a year in March, June and September. The best fertilizer is Lesco 8-2-12-4. You can purchase it on line at Fertilizer Direct and they will deliver it or you can buy it at Site One in Leesburg. There is some maintenance with these trees. For appearance sake most people cut off the dead fronds. It is best to cut only solid brown fronds, leave half green palm leaves on the tree. Cutting too much off a palm can weaken the tree and make it look like a “Rooster tail.” You do not want to cut off any fronds above horizontal. No cutting past a “9 to 3” shape. If you fertilize correctly you will have less of a problem with brown fronds as there will be no nutritional deficiencies. This is what makes some non native palms look so brown, a lack of proper fertilization.

There are two sexes to a Sylvester palm, (only two!) male and female. If you are lucky you get a male. The male only has pollen stalks, no dates. The female has dates and some people like to cut off the dates as they can be messy. If you have a natural landscape with bark or pine straw mulch you can just let them fall.

:bigbow:

Home Depot also has Lesco fertilizer with Magnesium, which is what Palms need.

I used Fertilizer Direct for a bit before Home Depot carried Lesco.
I had some poor service from Fertilizer Direct, paid but no delivery, etc.

Here are some pictures of more mature Sylvester Palms. The first two photos are male trees, the third is a female tree. The female produces the dates.

What about the palm rats? I just discovered that rats climb the palm trees to eat the fruit/seeds. Then they make a hole in your roof and breed. If the tree is too close to your home - trouble. Anyone else have this problem? Oh, The Villages!!

There are rodents all over the Villages. Rats and mice utilize various food sources. Unless you blacktop all the lawn areas and use plastic trees and shrubs you will probably have rats around. You do want to keep shrubs and trees away from your house so rats, squirrels, and mice will not have quick access to your roof. Don’t worry too much it isn’t that much of a problem.

I remember when I was in college out for an evening with friends drinking down in an old Irish bar down in Greenwich Village. (New York City) We were walking back uptown in the wee hours of the morning and we saw so many huge rats scurrying around that we were careful where we stepped! There were no palm trees around! Roof rats live in trees, attics, and wherever they can. There are snakes, rats, squirrels, mice, bats, opossums, raccoons, spiders, coyotes, alligators, etc., in the Villages. Most of the time they aren’t a problem.

If you leave them on the ground they start to rot and stink

They are also one of the most common palms affected by lethal bronzing disease, which is becoming more common in Florida.

I told my husband that the only palm trees I wanted are those I can see from afar. They require a fair amount of attention and cost to keep up and I spend a lot of time in my garden but will not do a palm and I was correct. They are pretty though.

Had a Sylvester Palm here in TV for 15 years. Grew in that time to 18 feet tall with no Fertilization except what was put on to feed the grass. It was a good-looking tree. We had a landscape company out of Tampa that came by and wanted to buy it. We had been thinking about getting rid of it anyway due to with that height it became a burden to trim.

There are two sexes to a Sylvester palm, (only two!) male and female. If you are lucky you get a male. The male only has pollen stalks, no dates. The female has dates and some people like to cut off the dates as they can be messy. If you have a natural landscape with bark or pine straw mulch you can just let them fall.[/QUOTE]

Great response. Very informative and right on. Thanks very much. We have one as well. A male and love the tree. And, relatively slow growing.

And, TOTV might consider having a category each month of “best, most helpful, informative response” — yours would be at the top of the list. TOTV at its best.

Considered slow to moderate growers. Had ours 6 years. Just started having a company trim it last year. We are too old to climb ladders to do it ourselves. Has grown about 8 inches a year I’d say. We enjoy decorating it for Christmas but wish we had not bought it. Should have stayed with our Roebelenii palms. Still require care but I can reach them.

This is a great source for info

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