Moving Palm Trees (to rent, to buy, live)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

How difficult is it to dig up and move palm trees?

They are fairly expensive, but I see plenty of ads where people are wanting to get rid of palms and they are cheap, or even free, but they must be dug up and moved.

[cagary]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

How difficult is it to dig up and move palm trees?

They are fairly expensive, but I see plenty of ads where people are wanting to get rid of palms and they are cheap, or even free, but they must be dug up and moved.

Most types move pretty successfully. You must try and preserve as much as the rootball as possible. This means that you are talking about a lot of weight if you are moving large palms. You need to rent or borrow a crane to do the job safely AND you'll need a long bed truck. You might also need some kind of equipment to dig the big holes you are going to put your new palms into.

Are you seeing some unexpected expenses here?

Some palms don't transplant well and I would avoid putting money toward moving them. One type is Pygmy Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii) another is any palm in the archontophoenix family. Alexander Plams (archontophoenix alexandrae are probably the most common "feral" palm on the eastside. Both are common and cheap to buy in a container so don't bother putting out money to transplant them.

[MickeyE]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

How difficult is it to dig up and move palm trees?

They are fairly expensive, but I see plenty of ads where people are wanting to get rid of palms and they are cheap, or even free, but they must be dug up and moved.

You might need a tree spade, similar to these Truck Mounted tree spades.

Mickey

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by MickeyE

You might need a tree spade, similar to these Truck Mounted tree spades.

Yeah, that's the ticket. When I lived in Southern California I used to see those things all the time, and big flat bed trucks pulling them with tall palm trees and huge root balls wrapped in wet burlap on board, headed down the road to somewhere. And they had the fronds trimmed back to almost nothing. Apparently that's done to reduce the moisture bearing load on the roots until they can re-establish.

In any case, my impression is that they are a lot of work to move, and expensive to move, hence the offers of free giveaways.

I wish I could grow coconut palms, because I love fresh coconut water and coconut jelly, but they don't grow up here at my altitude. According to my friend the Master Gardener, they will grow up to about 3,000' altitude, but they don't produce well above 1,500'.

Tree ferns, on the other hand, are ridiculously simple to transplant. I have a lot of hapu'u, and a few of some other kinds, and all you really have to do is cut the stem off at the base, trim the fronds back (same as the palm, helps keep from drying it out) and stick it in a shallow hole in the ground somewhere and it will nearly always take hold. Matter of fact, if they blow over in a storm they usually just reroot from where the top touches the ground and take off growing up in the new direction.

Of course the rainforest is kind of magical that way. I had a Russian Olive tree, and still have an Ohia that did that same thing. They blew over in a big storm years ago, re-rooted and kept growing! I took the olive out because it's an invasive, but I still enjoy watching the honeydrippers cavorting in my "lazy" ohia.

[terracore]

People keep telling me that the resorts will pay around $1000 for a healthy mature coconut palm, but I don't know if it's true.

I remember during a vacation at a resort in Cabo San Lucas, under the cover of darkness, some gardeners(?) came in and removed a dying palm tree and replaced it with a healthy one the same size. All by hand. If I wasn't up at 3:00am I would have probably never known that they were there.

[hotzcatz]

I used to know some folks who lived at Blackpoint on Oahu who would have their coconut tree moved around the yard. I'm sure the tree didn't appreciate it much.

Some tree ferns will die if the top is cut off. The hapu'u doesn't mind, but several of the other types of tree ferns won't resprout from a planted top so check to make sure before you whack one in half.

There's a ginourmous sago palm here in the yard you can have if you want to come dig it up. Phoenix palm, too, if you like. The yard is too small to have spiky plants in it. I want edible plants with soft leaves planted there instead of unfriendly inedible plants.