So I was trimming this palm tree...

[jomoco]

Wanna be arborists?

I take it from this wisecrack reply that you have no pictures or videos of your recommended method? This is Commercial Climbing not the joke forum Jomoco. If you are going to put others at risk by suggesting a dangerous technique than have the grace to back it up with evidence or just say nothing at all.

Polesaw away mate!

jomoco

 

[jomoco]

I picked the photograph to show the trunk finish and collar.

Verbal distractions like attacking evidence are a common technique employed by poorly equipped debaters. Once again you avoid a direct question.

You say it is safer to prune these palms with spurs, lanyard and belt. Please post visual evidence of the increased safety of such a technique. Anything less is an admission of failure to support your argument.

Yu got me mate, I'm a green newbie that knows nothing at all bout Aussie palm pruning standards whatsoever, thankfully!

jomoco

 

[outofmytree]

Polesaw away mate!

jomoco

Yu got me mate, I'm a green newbie that knows nothing at all bout Aussie palm pruning standards whatsoever, thankfully!

jomoco

More jibes without evidence. Your argument weakens with each post.

You have the temerity to call me a wannabe arborist and by inference unprofessional but you have produced only hot air to date.

Put up or shut up.

Show evidence of your claimed safer technique

 

[jomoco]

More jibes without evidence. Your argument weakens with each post.

You have the temerity to call me a wannabe arborist and by inference unprofessional but you have produced only hot air to date.

Put up or shut up.

Show evidence of your claimed safer technique

I willingly bow to your obvious superiority on how to prune a showcase palm that meets the Hotel Del Coronado standards mate!

Show us more of your stuff by all means.

jomoco

 

[outofmytree]

I willingly bow to your obvious superiority on how to prune a showcase palm that meets the Hotel Del Coronado standards mate!

Show us more of your stuff by all means.

jomoco

:chatter:

No evidence yet Jomoco?

 

[jomoco]

:chatter:

No evidence yet Jomoco?

Nope, I wouldn't want to embarrass myself by illustrating my feeble techniques to such experts as yourself, or your impaled colleagues.

jomoco

 

[outofmytree]

Nope, I wouldn't want to embarrass myself by illustrating my feeble techniques to such experts as yourself, or your impaled colleagues.

jomoco

I suspect this is closer to the truth than you wish to say.

I had hoped you were serious in your claims to have a safer technique. Obviously not. :notrolls2:

 

[ROOTSXROCKS]

I willingly bow to your obvious superiority on how to prune a showcase palm that meets the Hotel Del Coronado standards mate!

Show us more of your stuff by all means.

jomoco

Google maps street view does not leave me impressed.

 

[jefflovstrom]

We need Rich Magargal on this forum to teach proper palm pruning etiquette!

Hey Jeff, call Rich and get him to tutor these guys. Unlike me, he likes to teach.

jomoco

It would be interesting to have Rich here to view the ignorance. He showed me how to go over the whole head 20 years ago, He is getting old but a great teacher! If you do trees in Socal, you better be able to handle date palms. Maybe I will give Rich a call.
Jeff

 

[outofmytree]

I checked out the website of Hotel Del Coronado and it seems they don't like Jomoco's safe method of Date Palm pruning either.

Here is a link to the hotels photo gallery. I have used photo #6. http://www.hoteldel.com/GalleryPopUp.aspx?photogallery=promolistinterior.aspx?collectionid=28

If you havent seen a Canary Island Date Palm up close let me describe the fronds. They have 6-10 spines on each side each one up to 300mm long. These spines easily puncture leather welding gauntlets and even work boots. Each layer will have between 10 and 16 fronds on the palm above. There would have been up to 6 fruit bearing branches per layer all of which have been removed.

This means, according to Jomoco's "safe" pruning technique, some climber has made up to 36 cuts with a rear handle chainsaw, carefully avoiding no less than 360 spines whilst standing in spurs attached by lanyard to the trunk at the position shown above.

Simple mathematics says that in order to reach that high with that saw a climber would need to be 4 metres or about 13 feet tall.

Or perhaps the Hotel Del Coronado, like most commercial establishments with these palms on site, hired a team with an EWP to do the job. Perhaps they too realise that spiking up a palm of this size and value then cutting fronds directly over your head with a rear handle saw is something only a fool would do.

 

[jefflovstrom]

I did that very tree about 16 years ago. Nice ball and all the fruit. I did it for Homestead Tree. Ease up "outofmytree," You obviously dont do as many dates as we do here in California. BTW, Landscapers do the robellini ,windmills, trachycarpus , sago, etc.
Jeff Lovstrom

 

[jomoco]

Let him go on Jeff, it makes for good comedy.

Please continue on mister date palm expert!

jomoco

 

[jefflovstrom]

Right!
Jeff

 

[jomoco]

Right!
Jeff

Did you see his illustration of where your lanyard goes? LOL!

And remember, you must always prune over your head!

jomoco

 

[jefflovstrom]

We are amazed at ignorance.
Jeff:monkey:

 

[EdenT]

Hey I am one of these people who use a pole saw or EWP to do these things. And it would seem most others do to. If you two really do have a safer way of doing these things then stop playin' and start typin'.

 

[jomoco]

Rich Magargal has probably pruned more palms over the years than any other climber I know. And though he's getting on in years now, he is still very active in the biz and teaching palm safety now in the southwest.

Here is a link to an article he wrote for Helen Stone on how to recognise the dangers involved in pruning the mex fan palms that have killed so many climbers in the southwest.

http://www.swtreesandturf.com/articles/1606/safety11606.html

Rich is also widely recognised here for his expertise in balling and slicking canary island date palms.

jom0oco

 

[Bermie]

The one that got me in the elbow...and it was when I was loading fronds onto the truck...P. reclinata

Now, I don't do a huge lot of P canariensis...enough to not like them, but if they are over a height that I can get a good close cut with a polesaw, then its an EWP for me...if you can get up close enough to those fronds from below on spikes and a lanyard and not get punctures then I'll sub everything to you and take a 10% finders fee...
More power to ya

 

[EdenT]

Hi Jomoco,
Thanks for the article. Yes the Washingtonia spp. certainly can be a danger if you go up on a pole belt. I think these days most people either go over the top on a false crotch or EWP them.

Do you have a safe method for ascending, pruning and cleaning a Phoenix canariensis? If so please elaborate.

Thanks
ET

 

[jomoco]

The one that got me in the elbow...and it was when I was loading fronds onto the truck...P. reclinata

Now, I don't do a huge lot of P canariensis...enough to not like them, but if they are over a height that I can get a good close cut with a polesaw, then its an EWP for me...if you can get up close enough to those fronds from below on spikes and a lanyard and not get punctures then I'll sub everything to you and take a 10% finders fee...
More power to ya

Simply because old school climbers like Magargal, Morales, Whorral and myself have pruned thousands of dates to specs using saddle, gaffs and a sharp rear handled chainsaw, does not mean the average joe can do the same.

Which is why I hesitate to elaborate on the technique that has worked so well for me personally for over 30 years now.

I note that even Magargal himself, whose technique I copied so successfully, hesitates to recommend other climbers use the same technique, but rather recommends a bucket or crane to accomplish the job!

But the truth of the matter is that SoCal climbers have been using the exact same technique Magargal and I use since the 60's when Jim Whorral taught it to Magargal. CI date palms are one of the nastiest and challenging trees to prune or remove around, full of rats, bumble bees, centipedes, bird crap and a host of other disgusting stuff aside from their huge spikes, which can put you in the hospital plenty quick.

Why would I recommend other climbers use my technique when doing so could get them hurt or killed?

There are only about a dozen other SoCal climbers I know that are even capable of dealing with date palms without getting into trouble using the old school method of pruning them.

By all means, use a bucket, a polesaw or whatever it takes you to prune these monsters without injuring yourselves. The most important thing to me is that you make it home safely at the end of each work day guys.

jomoco