Palm Trees
 

How much attention do you have to give to a Palm tree ? Can you leave it unattended for long periods of time without water ?
Dapper Zapper Buttonwood

You need to water the s*** out of it for a month. And then you are okay.

What I did, I added a soaker hose zone to the irrigation system and the trees get watered whenever the sprinkler is set. I have been away since mid August and my neighbors report that the trees are doing well. I also live in Buttonwood.

Imho
 

Don't water it and let it die!....Ha!....We cut all of ours down, too much maintenance.....Tree guys were in our will!

I saw a story on CNN yesterday "What is killing Florida's Palms?" Turns out to be a bug that bites the leaves of the Sabal palm (Texas Phoenix Palm), which makes up at least 25% of landscaped palms in FL. After the bug bites the leaf it vomits a deadly bacteria and hops on to the next tree. It has killed 1,000's of Sabal palms throughout the state. The center crown of the palm decays within six months. Experts have narrowed the bug down to three different sap eating bugs. Hope they find the deadly one soon!

We agree with Tom's approach. It's worked well for us. And we live in Canada so there are long periods of time when our palms are unattended.

You have to water frequently for the first month, so only plant palms when you're in residence. Once the palms are established (after a month of daily soaking), the irrigation system seems adequate. We had a double Sylvester planted last year, and requested that a soaker hose be added to the irrigation system.

Are Palm tree a lot of maintenance?
I Love Palm tress

I love palm trees also. Palms such as Robellini's are awfully cute, but have to be covered when there is danger of frost. So we replaced them with frost-hardy palms.

I don't find palms to be high maintenance. Our lawn company removes the dead fronds and fertilizes twice a year. Of course many Frogs prefer to do their own maintenance.

Twice on Tuesday's recommends a great fertilizer for them. It's Lesco sold at John Deere on 301. It works really great. You can contact the Sumter extension service or Twice on Tuesday's classes and they will give you the best informaiton for palms. Something new each month in the classes.

Barefoot, our landscaper, Jamie, suggested
 

a Sylvester palm. What is a Double Sylvester and how high do they grow and how fast? I want something that is taller than the house but not as high as the Queen and not too fast a grower, and low maintenance. Does the Sylvester fit the bill? Thanks for any info.

LW888 on the road back to Canada til the end of Feb.

One of the reasons we are moving to Florida is so we can have palms instead of pines! I guess we will just have to maintenance them.

I'll try to post a picture here tomorrow of our double Sylvester. It is a slow grower. We fell in love with this particular speciment.

Yes same here That well be the first thing I do once I move into the house.I been checking on them now ..That all I need outside is Palm trees .I am like you tired of pines .

Here is a picture of our Sylvester. The double trunk was diamond cut, a process that took the craftsman at least eight hours. (In one picture you can see our neighbour's queen palm behind the Sylvester, it isn't part of it). I think I'm also including a picture of our resident Gator.

I can't seem to post pictures. They're not large enough and I've lost the one of our gator! :024::Screen_of_Death: