Chipping Palm Fronds

Therrin

Hello all,

Long time no post. I know. Internet has been down and it'll be another week till I can get it up and running again. Have to run conduit and hardline all the way to the house in lieu of my wireless range boosters. <sigh>

Anyhow... I've been working on palms lately (damn bloody things) they truly dont deserve to be called "trees".... I continually orate new things about them while up under the skirts, but most of that isnt printable here.



Ok, here's the question.... what are your experiences as far as chipping dead palm fronds? Is it do-able or is it a waste of time and effort?

I've got this contract cleaning up six palms which have about 30 ft of beard on each of them. I've already done 2, and trailered the debris back home for the dumpster. For the completion of the job I'm going down on Saturday and was going to rent a chipper but I had heard some nay-say about chipping them and how effective it is. Once again this is ONLY the fronds, and they're quite dead.... not green. Is chipping a viable way of doing things?
The 4 remaining palms which I've left to clean have a SH*T load of fronds, and it's looking like several trips to the dump and back with truck and trailer to attempt dumping them all. I was thinking I'd go in with a chipper and do it that way.

Yes? no? what say you all?

<ps JohnD, when you made that palm-loving icon, you must have had something seriously wrong..... those things are BASTARDS..... crappy excuse for trees...ugh....>

Done it

I've been wondering where you were, I'm guessing Washingtonia?

I chip dead ones, just to shrink them & save loading, still costs the same to tip them. Depends on the chipper but they chip ok.

newguy18

Ng gets a big grin on his face,glad to see you like palms Ken.Seriously though,hope some of my advice helped you out with them.I always try and tell clients with palms that they palms would look better at the dump.

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old schooler

Eric Frei

Chip them, minimum 12" chipper.

The dust when under the skirt gives you a scratchy throat for a while eh. Plus it stinks, is hot, and frankly I'd rather cut them down. Overgrown grass.

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OutofMytree

Hehehe. Welcome to arbor hell Therrin. Dead fronds are about as nasty as it gets.

Tips for chipping dead fronds.

Hire the largest chipper you can safely tow. If you have a choice between two, pick the one with the largest internal chute measurements.

Ensure there is a "throat" inspection panel on the underside of the chute. If it's going to block thats where they will be.

When feeding the chipper wear a dust mask.

Watch the debris leaving the chute. If it stops you stop.

Feed large quantities of fronds at the same time. If you put just one in the drum will often catch it and rip it through and jam a yard long piece in the throat. I have had best results feeding dead fronds "feathered" end first. It seems to reduce blocking.

Last and most important. Get your groundie to do it!

ArborealTerror

Therrin, Deepest condolences.

If you do happen to take any green fronds as well chip them after the dry ones. They hold a lot of water and if it mixes with the dry stuff it will swell and block the chute. When you start chipping let the chipper run for a few minutes just to dry out any moisture that might be in the feed path.

Best of luck and watch out for the spiders, cockaroaches, ants, gekkos and rats that love making these things their home.

Therrin

Thanks for the advice guys

Frond end first huh? I'll try that.

I was wearing a dust mask while up under the skirt Ekka, it helped alot with not breathing in that really fine dust junk.

However, it made my goggles fog up horribly. My stihl helmet with the face mesh flew out of the truck some months back and I never found it. So for really dusty stuff I've been using goggles. They suck! I'm looking for someone around here who sells those mesh "bug eyes", since they look like they'd really be the trick.
Can't seem to find a local supplier, I'll prolly have to get some online.
I figured that my Petzl helmet (non-clumsy like the big stihl one), some bug-eyes, and a dust mask is a pretty good setup for doing palms.

I just realized how many palms there are near where I live too, so I'm gonna see about getting the job on alot of them. The job where I'm doing these 6 big ones is 80 miles away!

OutofMytree

Hmm. You didnt remove them from the top down??

I used to do them from the bottom up but having checked out a few threads and posts here am going for the recommended top down beard removal. Try searching Washingtonia and check out the threads that discuss this particular technique.

scooter1962

Can't begin to tell you of my detestation of palms.

hard to remove
easy to lose money on transplanting

We all need to charge TOP dollar for dealing with them...well maybe not Q'landers....

ArborealTerror

I saw a great instructional video for dealing with palms.

It was called 'Apocalypse Now'.

Therrin

LOL, looks like anyone who works with them hates them!

As for Top Down or Bottom Up.....

Hmm.... the ones in the back yard arent far from transmission lines and secondaries, so the thought of trying to throw a line over the top really didnt appeal to me.
The ones in the front dont have that problem, but I remember back to other posts on this topic when it "sounded easy", and it really isnt. Being able to access one side of the palm makes it dificult to get the other side as well unless you do a Top to Bottom on one side, then go back and ascend the other side of the line, changing over the running bowline at the base, and doing the other side next.

Going up under the skirt really didnt pose much of a problem. Granted, its messy as all hell, but it actually went pretty quickly that way. Makes you feel like you're tunnelling TOWARD something. =)

I didnt have any trouble at all with hunks of dead fronds braking off and coming down in a pack. They havent been pruned in 15 years, but those things were attatched FIRMLY. the only ones that pulled out werent the actual fronds, they were the flimsy parts. (what're those called?)

I used a corona hand saw on some of it and the 200T on the rest.

Only other thing I might mention..... I pushed with my back on the inside of the skirt to let some air in, because otherwise the fumes from the 200T get a little noxious.

Eric Frei

Those bloody fan palms suck!

Planet's better off without them.

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Done it

Therrin, do you remember vl2007, he had it sorted. Don't know where he's gone, maybe PM him, he seemed a good bloke. If you're going to keep doing them he might give you a few tips.


http://www.treeworld.info/f9/so-whad...html#post32056

Loadstar

You're right Therrin, palms aren't trees, they are a grass. On chipping them we just came back from Houston Texas where millions of Sago and other palms were hammered from the hurricane. We have two Bandit Hurricane chippers and found out that feeding them alongside some dry oak branches or other dead woody stuff from the yards destroyed helps the chipper feed take in the greener fronds. I learned to lay two or four fronds into the feed by laying each one opposite the other one, it takes them in better.

We're loading up for a trip to Alexandria, Louisianna to clear some swampy lowlands and looking forward to meeting Boyd Edgar Ballowe also known as a sex-offender. I shall see in person how much a pussy he is.

Eric Frei

Loadstar,

If you are going to be in Alexandria near Butch's joint can you please do us all favour, a real important one.

Please go to the Rapides Parish Court, 701 Murray Street - Alexandria, LA and for a small fee like $1 a photocopy you can get a copy of the 4 CONVICTIONS against him, that's the real deal.

In fact here's a direct phone number to the records search dept 318 619 5845 ... a lady called Laura if she's still there, ask for her. Also tell her that the Aussie guy never got his in the mail! I sent her $25 cash in the mail to post it to me (but it never came), they have 4 convictions for him on file and we'll know exactly what the scum bag has been up to.

It's Boyd Edgar Ballowe 2 by the way, just double check coz you'd be sad to find his dad has convictions to but I never checked that.

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Loadstar

Okay will do. He's just a low level slob who attracks other low level slobs according to his website I've been reading the last few days. Won't be too hard to get him his early retirement and shut him up. We have a contract starting in December for 2 months of pine work and 10 miles of city utilities. He is a little cry baby according to another site they kicked him off of and we'll see just how tough he claims to be and how white his racist skin glows.

Eric Frei

Watch him, he's got a pack of pussies (we call them Hosers) that you have to pry out of his butt on his side.

Gets his kicks out of gang warfare, you know, had to amass and army onto me, he changes posts, posts in your name, starts trolls in your name or similar and carries on, alters your emails then posts them and does all this tough stuff on his forum where you're banned and cant do a thing, real wanker!

You know, before I had this place AS even unbanned him there to come over and have a say ... no show. Then we did the same here ... no show.

But funnily, he now has the lowest membership forum, lowest growth rate and it's like his prison, Karma is a bitch eh.

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Loadstar

He just gives treemen a bad name and Americans (real ones) an even worse one. His followers in general seem carbon-copies of his personality although there are a few names I recognize but truthfully, we never thought too much of them in the first place. Like I suspect, many loggers out of work here torch forests for the work that comes in controlling the blazes, we all lost friends fighting the recent fires and arson is suspected in most of them. It would not surprize me Mr. Ballowe could be an arsonist as well as a sex offender. He fits the profile too well for our taste. I leave that be for now just a feeling. Got work to do for tomorrow and next.