[bsliny]

MY palm was planted 2 years ago its doing well and has grown quite abit
It only gets water from my sprinkler system twice a week
By the way A&C EXTERIORS just paved my driveway and they did a BEAUTIFUL JOB
And there price was alot better then the other estimates i got
:hot: :beer2: :hot:

[Willaim]

My recommendation is to stay away from all palms they all required maintance. I have 2 Queen paLms and find cutting the PODs requrie more work than I want. Look for sometihng else easier to maintain.

[handieman]

A year ago I couldn't spell mini-irrigation and now I'm a firm believer in it. I am by no means an expert, but here is my experience.

Normal irrigation is from sprinkler heads that broadcast a pattern of water over a wide area such as your lawn, and that is fine. However it is not sufficient to provide enough water for some plants and new palms, in some cases. This is especially true when we are on water rationing.

So, what to do?? Many options are available, and I'll share my small scenario. Inside the fence of a patio villa are many sprinkler heads that broadcast over the shrubs and flowers. I took a centrally located sprinkler head off its main line (just dig down and unscrew it) and changed it to a 12 outlet drip system. A drip system comes in many outlet sizes and flow amounts. I then ran the 12 outputs via small black flexible hose ( comes in the kit) to the various flowers and shrubs directly at the base of the plant. This way i now know what amount of water is getting to each and every plant. In the case of the Palm tree, I ran 4 lines of the 12, every 90 degrees around the root ball so that it would get fully watered

All or any one of the sprinkler heads can be adapted to this method via a kit available at the home centers. Some good points to this are, it is usually not subject to water restrictions (check this out) and I feel I get maximum bang for my water bill buck by directing the water precisely where it's needed

I love this system so much I was thinking of getting into the business as a part time job, then again it's easier to say than to install on a hot summer day

I hope this helped

Handie :joke:

Next week, I'll show you my home made automatic liquid fertilizer system. Don't be late for class (Watering 101)

[Frangyomory]

We have Queen and European Fan and LOVE them both. They are over two years old and growing very well. We had Mike's maintenance do our landscaping and replaced everything planted by the developer!! Happy now with our palms and magnolias.

[PJ]

"Next week, I'll show you my home made automatic liquid fertilizer system. Don't be late for class (Watering 101)"

Handie, hope you're serious! I want to learn about this. My lawn looks terrible! I have to do something...

[handieman]

Originally Posted by PJ

"Next week, I'll show you my home made automatic liquid fertilizer system. Don't be late for class (Watering 101)"

Handie, hope you're serious! I want to learn about this. My lawn looks terrible! I have to do something...

PJ, I'll let you in on a little secret. Over in Home Depot, you can buy slow release granular fertilizer designed for your type of grass (consult a knowledgeable sales person, I forgot what the brand of mine is and I'm not there)

Get the small hand held fertilizer spreader made by Scott's or similar and broadcast this fertilizer 4 times per yr or follow the instructions on the bag. The spreader covers a wide area and the spreading goes fast. Don't get weed killing fertilizer and broadcast it where it will hit the flowers and plants.

You will not see results over night but be assured a yr from now you will have a nice lush lawn

This Florida sand is wonderfull to work with but has NO nutrients so your grass is begging for food and/or minerals to aid its growth

This is so simple and inexpensive and I like you love lush grass

Good Luck

Handie :joke:

[Bubbalarry]

Gotta get me some of those Sylvester palms, they look to me as the best. In Arizona when we lived in Scottsdale the landscaper added a drip hose to the sprinkler system. It adds water to a specific area or need and keeps the plants supplied better than what TV uses as a standard.

This will keep the palm trees and the plants supplied with water so during the hot summer the plants will survive. Since we have no grass we have no heads.

[punkpup]

Some hyperlinks which might provide assistance:

www.floridata.com
www.seedman.com
www.seedman.com/coldhard.htm (cold hardy Palms & Bananas)
www.toptropicals.com
http://www.toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/...atalog/cat.cgi (cold hardy plants)

You'd be amazed how many "cold hardy" Palms there really are!

I don't know about the bug thing; I've lived in Florida before, specifically Key West and Miami, as far as I can tell there are bugs all over Florida 1rnfl I remember the first time I saw a Palmetto bug. I said, "Holy S _ _ _, that's the biggest Cock Roach I've ever seen!!!" and my host replied, "No dear that's a "Palmetto Bug", well as you might imagine my response was, "Well you can call it whatever you want to but it's still just a giant cock roach to me!"

Now about snakes :yikes: I can only say this; when I lived in the California desert I was all excited at seeing my first Oasis. My friends knowing of my "Snake phobia" quickly informed me that Oases are known for harboring snakes so from that point on I admired Oases from afar.

Reality; I obviously have lived around palms; my Mother-in-law has a tall, stately stand of Areca Palms along the fence between her property and the neighboring house and once a year we thin them and clean up all the dead palm fronds, etc. So far I've never seen a snake..... in the palms that is lol, but I do remember the lawn guy saying that he'd seen a snake wriggling away from the lawn mower and into the AC housing :yikes: in her back yard. I was hoping perhaps that the compressor fan might chop the thing up as it was identified it as a poisonous one :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:

[PJ]

Handie, I'll get some of that tomorrow. Thanks much for the advice!!

[Lucko]

I finally got some truth about palms from the lady landscaper ( Kim Ph. 233-8621) with All American. Honest quotes with no suprises and no payment til you are 100% satisfied. Beware of deals on palms !!! A couple of landscapers mentioned in recent messages keep changing their names to ditch their poor reputations !!! Talk to people with good looking landscapes , forget bargains and remember, it is a lot of hard work!!!

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by Lucko

A couple of landscapers mentioned in recent messages keep changing their names to ditch their poor reputations !!!

OK Lucko, now you've got me nervous. :dontknow: You obviously don't want to mention names of these landscapers on TOTV. Could you possibly PM me with names of those companies that you would not recommend using?

Does the Kim you mentioned have her own company?

Thanks.

[JohnN]

Lucko,
PM me with the names too, please, if you're willing

[gfmucci]

While Palms are very "Florida" and can look very nice, especially if pruned periodically (and well-watered and fertilized in the first year or two after planting), we decided that Palms may not be appropriate everywhere. For example, we thought we would get several "clusters" of Queen Palms for our front yard. But upon studying the style of our house, with the "rocking chair-sized porch" in the front, we are deciding on more of a "deep south" style of landscaping, focusing more on the Live Oak with its' Spanish Moss, or similar tree in our front yard.

We may change our minds again after we move in - probably with the help of a landscape designer's opinion.

[dadspet]

Those oaks with Spanish moss are real nice but I sure hope you have a lot of room. They get awful big when they grow up.

[784caroline]

dads pet
....and you thought you were asking a simple question about buying a palm tree!! I think you have more than enough to think about before you proceed in doing whatever you plan.