how to?

[Troy]

I cut pine trees in our Southern California mountains. I am NOT an arborist. I've had a client ask me to fell two 70 foot palm trees for them but I have never dropped one. Can I assume it comes down just like any pine I have cut?
Thanks,
Troy

 

[Nickrosis]

IB lots of comments from Southerners

 

[Stumper]

Troy, the principles are all the same. Please note that green palms come down HARD due to great weight and little air resistance. You will probably find that the kerf wants to grab your bar.-A new chain (which cuts the widest kerf) will help. Palms are nasty to cut on.:angel:

 

[Troy]

Thanks for the input Stumper. I hoped I wasn't in for any suprises. I was a bit concerned because one has a lean toward a deck and I didn't want it letting go early.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Well then don't count on your chainsaw expertise.

Set a line in it!

 

[Troy]

This is the stuff I was looking for. Thanks.

 

[NeTree]

Take pictures.

I've never cut one either!

 

[xtremetrees]

My Husky 136 averages 60, 40 foot palm trims a day.youll need goggles and be ready to escape from bees in palms.
Worked with a climber that had fallen the privious year while roping a dead palm top. The palm broke at the base and sent him and top thru a second story sunlihgt on the roof. Not hurt to bad but swears to never rope another palm.

Its about like cutting a big wad of clothes. Youll need a big saw to cut a little trunk.

Edit: not hurt to bad =200+ stiches

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

With high leverage line of pull we've gotten a lot of palms to hang on farther on hinge. They are a pulpy thing to cut though. They don't chip, grind, burn right either IMLHO. Bees, bats, rats, wasps, snakes, squirrels etc. In cutting palm, stay on clean area of stalk, suspecting sand in any root looking ball even 2'+ above grade. The palm dust is like insulation dust i think, itchy, fibrous, hard to breathe..

For a no climb line set; i throwline across crown and draw the eye of a running bowline up around the stalk as high as i want. To keep the loop open wide enough to ride up and only lock where i want, i lace the other side of the throwline under the running bowline loop on opposite side than eye of bowline. So as i angle the throwline out from palm, it keeps the loop of the running bowline open, till i allow it to close high. Over drooping fronds, or constricting on them with fair control. Sometimes walking a 'cone' around the palm (or other fairly clean stalk) with the end of the throwline, to keep the choke of the running bowline open, working it over small obstachles and grains. It works in pines etc. too that are fairly clean, or lay line on top of top branch of lower tier, to use this technique to draw the line up closer to the upper tier of branchings, when all the way up would be too weak a mount i can get over short stubs etc, stretching the loop of running bowline open with throwline.

Or something like that.
:alien:

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by RockyJSquirrel
We really don't know how to do it, but JPS read a book on it and told the rest of us.

That was SRT vs. spiking up a palm.

All I know about cutting them down is that if you let the saw bog down you can get a lot of fiber in your sprocket. Or that's what I've heard.

 

[xtremetrees]

The debate about spikeing palms is:
I remeber a guy use to debate with me on this at ISA_ARBOR back when its board was very active with spammers and the link. He was actually climbing palms without spikes.
His name was X-MAN.

I dont know if he climbed 60 a day with his throw ball but at 12-15 $ a tree plus cleaning up alot of hard to chip fronds, I dont think he climbed them much.

Ive understood that the cambium of a palm tree is on the inside, There fore spikeing isn't as harmful to them.
Is this one of those rare instances spikeing is kool to do/?
Ill upload pic of these palms I trimmed 3 years ago a visual for us to see if compartmentalization is occuring on the outside.

I couldnt market spikeless palm trims.

Certain right about that JPS. If the saw bogs down it will get clogged up as well as stuck quiet easily.
Yep he'll need a big saw and scream it.

 

[TreeJunkie]

In regard to spiking palms< They way i've been descrkibed the bio of a palm is that is more like a grass. it doesn't have the cambium layers like other trees, So yes it is'nt as detrimental to palms as other trees, but it's not pretty either..The wounds never seem to heal, and older palms after years of spiking look like all hell.

Palms will also ruin saws like no other.. I' ve seen a guy blow up 3 saws in one day.. I experienced this when going to work for my fathers co. in Naples, Fl, i had learned to climb here in K.c and well Palms will do all kinds of things to saws which would never occur from reg use in dec. or conifers.

 

[MasterBlaster]

So, the general concensus is...

PALMS SUCK!!!

 

[TreeJunkie]

???? right. Coconut Palms especially, dangerous...Only type of tree i never liked to climb; that is if you can even consider it a tree. Anyone else on here work southern Florida before? Besides RJS, b/c orlando isn't quite as south as i'm referring... Paps has had a business there going on 25 yrs, and i grew up doing palms, but after experiencing real tree work in other parts of the country: well, so long to south florida..Only tree i miss working w/ there is possibly the really big Ficus you occasionally find. that is if you can find a customer who doesn't want them topped....

 

[xtremetrees]

lol MB
Palms are bread and butter to many folks on the coast.
I know one climber he looks like Jesus. Braided beard. lol
He lives in a sailboat. No kidding he really does.
He sails up and down the coast doing tree work. Alot of it is palms. He'll anchor his boat. Get in a 14 foot aluimin boat with his tree gear and link up with a tree company. Its mostly seasonal work palms are. But he's got regualr companies he climbs for.
Once I see him doing a pine removal in flip flops. LOL

 

[Koa Man]

I have removed over 300 palms over the years, mostly coconuts. I use my 020T till the trunk gets over 14 inch diameter. As was mentioned, it will bite your bar before you can get the saw deep enough to use a wedge. What I do is make a cut about 2 inches deep, then start another cut right next to it and go about 3 inches or so deep. Take the saw out and do the same thing where your first cut was and alternate the depth. What you want to achieve is a kerf twice the thickness of your bar and chain so the saw won't get pinched. After that you can use a wedge to hold the cut open it you like. Another method if you need to cut and toss is to cut the trunk at an angle to achieve a very shallow V. The saw will usually not get pinched and the trunk will sit on the V, where you can lift it off and toss it. That will only work if the trunk diameter and length you cut is fairly small (under 14 inch). I love coconut palm removals. It is fast money. I charge about $375 to remove a coco with about 40 ft. of trunk and the whole thing can be done, including cleanup, in about 1.5 hours with one groundman.

 

[NeTree]

What about CHIPPING palms? Drum vs disc?

What's it like?

 

[Koa Man]

My Woodsman 18X chips the whole thing without a problem, fronds, head, trunk.

 

[wiley_p]

When I was in Sacramento at the TCI show last month I was checking out the Palm trees around the Capitol and noticed that they had all been gaffed, I was curious about that because all the othher tree work looked well done. So then is it common for you fellas that work on them frequently to gaff them? Also what is pruning on them, just cutting the dead fronds out?

 

[Koa Man]

I think most people who work on palms regularly do not want to say they gaff them on this site. Almost all coconut palms in Hawaii are climbed using gaffs. It is the only cost effective way, unless they can be accessed with a bucket. Many coconuts are too tall to reach even with a 60 ft. bucket. Yes, I gaff them. We remove dried and drooping fronds, seed pods, nuts, flowers and loose fiber. Coconut palms are normally pruned every 4-6 months.