Nick's Palm Thread

Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

hey nick..the other day i had to rope down 2 fan pams 1 70' and 1 60' side by side. i rigged out the top of the short tree first,8' of top and trunk and went for a hell of a ride. after that i tip tied the blocks and pulled them over to the neighboring tree. i kinda scared my crew because i did 12' blocks. after it was on the ground i re ascended the tall tree and rigged it down first with an 8' chunk like the other and 10 and 12' blocks..its all on who is working the rope brake.
for safety i doubled my lanyard around the trunk and set a false crotch and pulley in case i had to come down in a hurry....palms are generally super strong and usually got some jiggle to them. when in doubt shake it about.. i worry about palms that are absolutely rigid or dry rotted at a twist or bottle neck.
I use a 3/4 inch 3 braid rope with steel cable in it for my lanyard. it is easier on the hands to grip it than those thin little wire flip lines.
you have obviously figured out the health concerns about palm... just dont spike queen ,king and any smooth skinned palm .. i suggest a ext. ladder and if you have to spur from there. try to use old spur marks and just barely stick it... watch how low you tie in because i have seenguys break the husks off the bud and fall from tying in too low..and keep a lanyard on the tree for a little while till you know your rope has set...
enjoy the palms they are fun although dirtyoh and my trainee climber discovered they can be full of bees, wasps, hornets,rats possums and bird crap that can make you sick...enjoy..dave
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

Oh

A palm thread I missed!

Best way to do those Canaries is a bucket truck and HT75 Pole pruner.

Also, if you have to hold those fronds for a drop zone I use a tape loop, just girth it on and chuck it down, collect them later or have the groundy send them up, take a stack of them with you.

Also, how did your one handing a saw go?
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

[ QUOTE ]

Also, how did your one handing a saw go?

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn! Busted!!!

It was fine. That's part of the reason I used the Ibuki a lot. It seems that a large pair of loppers would work best. Or a machete.

Yeah, bucket woulda been nice.

love
nick
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

It's almost impossible to not one hand and not cut above the shoulders isn't it?

They certainly started you off on the worst first. Those big azz palms are awful to get at the flower spikes. Now a days I only do them out of buckets or from the ground if they are small enough.

Also, palms will test out your footware and spurs as you'll be standing on them all day long ... we dont have those steel shanked boots here so I bought a couple of those foot pedals which help.

Take care mate and dont trust the fronds too much for life support.
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

I just thought my attachment would get this thread back on track.
 

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Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

hobbit...hobbit.. nope me more like sasquatch. 6'7 200lbs sasquatch....id be like two or three hobbits stacked up on top of each over...
these bartlett guys keep freakin on me for one handing my saw when i need to. does anyone else one hand on a regular basis or is this another trait of the mighty euc man.....
as funny as it was last week myself and a line clearance trimmer were falling sections of tree along a house and i was scaring the sales rep (for fun)..when i overheard him saying god d..mn euc men as he was walking away....
we had a good laugh when he left.
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

I'm retraining my left arm to cut and my right to catch, getting the ole tennis elbow back again in the right so you need to balance the act ... preferably before a strain injury.
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

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1-Spikes are OK in palms. Not only are they OK (since they are not trees anyways, and have no cambium), they are the fastest way (besides a ladder) to get the job done

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One thing I'd keep in mind about this: palms can't seal over wounds. The holes you make are there for the life of the plant. They do compartmentalize internally, but these wounds can still be entrance courts for pathogens such as Phytophthora palmivora or (in Florida) Ganoderma butt rot. The vascular tissue is distributed throughout the stem, and so the outer tissues can be damaged by spikes, though the mechanical damage itself is unlikely to cause serious harm.

So, I'd say in terms of promoting palm health, spikes bad.
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

We dont have any palms in Detroit, but this thread reminded me of the litle picture in the sherrill catalog of Martin in san diego using that mini bull rope they sell to set a false crotch through the fronds. Seemed like a good idea to me to avoid using spurs and having to climb through the fronds, working instead from the outside.

I visited India a few years ago and was blown away by the skills of the coconut palm climbers. They would simply take off the turban type thing from their heads and tie it around their bare feet. Sort of a strap between their feet. this would act to hug the tree as they kind of leap frogged up the tree. Amazing. they could really fly and Some of those super tall skinny palms seemed scary as hell. They seemed as comfortable as could be though, and they made it look easy.

I wonder if there is any way to imitate that concept of a foot lanyard for the American palm climber who wears boots, jeans and a harness.
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

Here's a pic from another palm I did on Thursday. The boss called this a Mexican Fan Palm. I think it's a Washingtonia robusta or a Washingtonia pilifera fwiw.

Ladder to the first 25', then spiked up 25 more feet. THis tree hadn't been trimmed for 4 years. I crawled up under the skirt. It woulda been KILLER hot under there, but it was super breezy that day. I've read a few times times that people have died or passed out from suffocating under those things, but the breeze kept my oxygen supply sufficient!

Well, here's how it turned out....

love
nick
 

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Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

hey guys,
just thought id put my two cents in,We seem to do alot of phoenixes here in Nz, and its usually cheaper to send a climber up than use a bucket. We usually spike up and clear a hole, and then rope into 2-3 fronds and do this twice in the palm when tidying them up. It seems to be the best way and are close enough to do good cuts and avoid those nasty spikes. Taking them down usually is very time consuming and the water content makes them so heavy. Possums and pigeons love to live in them so is interesting around spring time. Also im sure all you people familiar with these great palms that the sap or resin disolves the magnesium in the chainsaws, especially sidecovers, so a good cleaning is required otherwise there are permanent air flow holes!We have been trimming PHOENIX ROBILINII recently and although the spikes are smaller swell up and hurt a heck of alot more than normal phoenix palms,small and pack a big punch!! All those who dont have to deal with them are very lucky.
treekiwi
 
Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

I climbed a little palm tree today. I don't know what kind it was, but it was only about 35' tall, and I swear 8" DBH. I slight lean to it. Man, did that thing sway with the slightest move!

Sorry, the pic is hard to see.

love
nick
 

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Re: Nick\'s Palm Thread

Hey Nick

Have a look down when they're swaying, some actually bend and bow out in the middle!

Imagine when my fat ass is up'm, especially those thin Alexandras and Bangalows. Believe me there's a few times I thought I was going over.

Hey, we have been coming across quite a few with decayed bases and root system. Check them all before you climb.

The other day I was setting a rope in one and when I went to pull up the running bowline the whole thing cracked and fell ... just missed the customers house. I called that one and said I wouldn't be climbing it but I honestly thought it was stronger ... it caught me out.
 
FIRST REMOVAL!!!

Did my first palm removal today. Another fan palm. Maybe only 30' tall, nothing crazy. It was right next to a garage. Spiked up, cutting (with the 200T) about 3 years worth of fronds as I went up, then when all the fronds were gone, started dropping maybe 18"-24" pieces.

The first cut I did, I tried to go all the way through (with a 026) in one cut, but it got pinched and I could hold the piece up and cut at the same time, so I pulled out, did a bypass cut, then put the saw away and snapped the piece off and dropped it. I finished the rest of the tree making snap-cuts like that.

At about 15', the thing coulda been easily felled (I think), so I asked the boss man if i should continue, or if he wanted to drop it from the ground. He said keep going, so I worked all the way down. One time I looked down while making a cut and realized I was only standing a foot off the ground!

All in all, a messy job, strenuous for my scrappy 160lb self, but not complicated in the least bit.

Lesson learned: when cutting off the fronds, cut as close to the trunk as possible. When coming down, the little frond "stubs" stick out and make it hard to get the gaffs in.

Oh, I had my XTC flipline, and the climbing line was choked always about a foot below the flipline. Usually I'd sorta loosen the choke and just slide the climbing line down, but here I had to unclip the spliced eye (yes, I used a carabiner instead of a knot to choke the tree), pull the rope around, spike down 2', set my flipline right were I wanted it, then reset the climbing line. It's a pain in the but trying to get rope DOWN a palm trunk!

Sorry, no pics on this one.

love
nick, junior palm slayer /forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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