Coconut palm pruning today

Joshua Rugg

i trimmed 10 coconut palms today and had a blast! the first 9 palms were mainly just taking seed pods off, fronds hanging lower then 10:00 and 2:00 positions and slicing all loose paper out.
the game changed when i reached the last palm of the day. it had over 800 pounds of coconuts in it with about 10 fronds that needed to come off weighing in at 30 pounds each frond. i had to SRT up the palm because of the risk of the dead and low hanging palm fronds collapsing on me.
when i got to the crown, i took off a dozen seed pods, old boots from previously cut fronds and the racks of coconuts. each rack had 6-8 20 pound coconuts with about 5 racks on the tree. i just did the math combining all the palm frond, seed pod and coconut weights. its over 1,200lbs for one tree. thats alot for one coconut palm.

here's some pics and a great example of how a coconut palm should look after its been pruned. its not the one with all the nuts but it was a healthy dirty one.

Attached Thumbnails

     

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Stihl
MS192T 14"
MS200T 16"
MS261 16"
MS440 25"

Husqvarna 359 20"
394XP 32"

Poulan P3314 14" ( new hire/groundy saw)

Joshua Rugg

heres the palm that had over 800lbs of coconuts in it.

__________________
Stihl
MS192T 14"
MS200T 16"
MS261 16"
MS440 25"

Husqvarna 359 20"
394XP 32"

Poulan P3314 14" ( new hire/groundy saw)

Eric Frei

You spike climb them?

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Joshua Rugg

yeah i do for some but not all. we bid $65 a palm. these trees have alot of holes in them already. i just follow the old holes up as lose as can andi also disinfect my spikes and handsaw between palms.

__________________
Stihl
MS192T 14"
MS200T 16"
MS261 16"
MS440 25"

Husqvarna 359 20"
394XP 32"

Poulan P3314 14" ( new hire/groundy saw)

Joshua Rugg

im still learning alot about palm care eric. i dont feel comfortable on a platform yet and SRT takes too long.

__________________
Stihl
MS192T 14"
MS200T 16"
MS261 16"
MS440 25"

Husqvarna 359 20"
394XP 32"

Poulan P3314 14" ( new hire/groundy saw)

Eric Frei

Worry not, I know the dilemma. I appreciate your honesty.

It's a whole industry dealing with those palms, from coconet, to spike-less routines, machines etc. Even been $'s offered for best invention to pick coconuts without humans going up them.

But no real decent modern safe solution has been offered in reality. Of course some will argue about spikeless access and even with motorised ascenders it involves sending a person up to work at height suspended from the tree on a piece that has no known SWL.

At a resort we did, all those that could not be accessed by EWP got felled, simple. The future is about OHS, and risk (includes risk to targets).

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Joshua Rugg

Thanks eric. the palm industry can be pretty grinding. you gotta have a happy medium between efficiency and whats health for the palm. its slow when your using stands to be spikeless but i guess it all depends on the customer and if they want it done fast or if they care about the trees.

In this case, there were 9 palms to be trimmed and they were more of a pain in the arse then an asset to the property owners. i suggested removal but they dont have the money to get the coco palms removed and they said they want them there to add a paradise feel to the property but also need them trimmed when they are supposed to be.
they are supposed to be trimmed every 6 months but the last guy doing them was always slow and never showed up when he was supposed to.

for some reason, i have been getting allot of those types of palm accounts lately. someone has been doing them but never shows up on the regular date or gets half the job done and then comes back a month later to finish the last 4 palms. people love me!! cause i show up early in the morning, cleaned up and hauled by after noon.

lately, i have been getting these weird hate messages from the guys who were doing the palms before me at a few the new accounts i picked up. the HO told them "you never showed up on time and didnt do as good of a job as our new guy so, consider the new guy your replacement.....basically your fired."

__________________
Stihl
MS192T 14"
MS200T 16"
MS261 16"
MS440 25"

Husqvarna 359 20"
394XP 32"

Poulan P3314 14" ( new hire/groundy saw)

Jeffrey Lovstrom

Do you give them a discount for spiking their trees?
Jeff

Joshua Rugg

no jeff i dont.

__________________
Stihl
MS192T 14"
MS200T 16"
MS261 16"
MS440 25"

Husqvarna 359 20"
394XP 32"

Poulan P3314 14" ( new hire/groundy saw)