Palm tree question

We have a small palm by the fence at the edge of our property. The trunk is only about 8' tall & maybe 10" in diameter. It's tilted at a bit of an angle inward from the fence & unfortunately is in the way of being able to back up the RV & hitch to the trailer. 
 

I hate to cut it down since it's healthy. From the way I see palms blown over after storms I'm thinking they must not have a very robust root system? What's the likelihood I'd be able to dig out around the base & tilt it so the trunk is vertical(or even leaning slightly the opposite direction)?

Lots of different palms with various root systems. Typically they have a fairly large root ball that can be dug up and successfully moved. There's not a lot of runners like with deciduous trees. But for most palms you're probably looking at 3-5 times the diameter of the tree to be safe. 

Got a pic? That would certainly help with ID

I straightened up a Sago palm that was taking over a sidewalk.  It is about 12" dia but only about 3' of trunk. I dug out the low side with my bobcat and packed dirt under it as I pushed it up straight.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Here you go. Of course I didn't think to post this until after dark last night...

The base is 9" in diameter, though the trunk is a bit shorter than I thought. It's just over 6' tall. 

And here's a good shot of how much I need to straighten it up. 

Thanks!

I don't know how successful it'd be, but I'd still eyelets into the fence post then ratchet strap the tree towards the fence. Doing it at the height of the two middle (of the 4) horizontal fence braces. This is assuming that the fence post are at least 24" deep. 

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

Oh that fence is the condo's next door & if I sneeze on it it'll fall over. Seriously. 

I can't be the only one that thought of this?

In reply to ddavidv :

I totally missed that connection 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

We have a small palm by the fence at the edge of our property. The trunk is only about 8' tall & maybe 10" in diameter. It's tilted at a bit of an angle inward from the fence & unfortunately is in the way of being able to back up the RV & hitch to the trailer. 
 

I hate to cut it down since it's healthy. From the way I see palms blown over after storms I'm thinking they must not have a very robust root system? What's the likelihood I'd be able to dig out around the base & tilt it so the trunk is vertical(or even leaning slightly the opposite direction)?

Palm guy here. If you like it, have a better place for it, and are willing to give up a day to move it that's what I would do. If not, personally I'd cut it down.  If you put it out in an open area the new leaves will have shorter petioles than the current fronds that developed in the shade. Here's a link to a thread on moving such a palm and yes I'm NOT A TA on the palm forum also ahahaha.   https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/69209-any-way-to-save-and-transplant-this-sabal-palmetto/&tab=comments#comment-1002471

That said, you could straighten it. Chop off the roots on the side away from the fence (not easy) and then push it upright (difficult by hand), then stake it with an angled support while you fill the dirt back into the hole (using water to prevent air pockets in the soil). Keep it staked or strapped to the other tree and water it a lot for 6 months or so and it should be fine.  Then while the trunk will remain mostly vertical after the support is removed the growing point will start leaning again reaching for light unless you cut down the other tree.  So you'll have a tree that has a 45 degree kink in the trunk years from now.

I'm currently straightening one using big ratchet straps. Had two palms tipping away from one another and want just one straight palm.  Need two straps to do it like this because one won't pull enough strap. So crank one down then put another one on and crank till the first one is loose and remove it. Repeat every couple months till the Palm is straight. Takes about a year, then will cut down the unwanted one. Almost done in pic below, couple more months.

[URL=https://app.photobucket.com/u/NOTATA/a/a9e133f6-ea0a-4ae6-bb19-5891278f9f2c/p/a6857080-8099-417a-b589-67632a6c2ca0][/URL]

In reply to NOT A TA :

Thanks! I'll have to ponder, and maybe poke around a bit, before I decide what to do. 

Any guess what it might weigh? After reading that thread I wonder if I offer it for free on Marketplace if someone would come dig it up & take it?

Might get a taker on Marketplace. As for weight, calculate it as basically a column of water including 2' below grade. If moved, cut off all the fronds except the newest spear. They're awkward to move so cut the boots (petiole bases) really short so you can roll it.

In reply to NOT A TA :

Dumb question - the newest fronds are the ones in top, right?

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Yes

In reply to jgrewe :

Thanks!

I tried a ratchet strap & it worked better than I expected. If I cut off some more fronds I might have enough room. 
 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Palms are generally a lot more flexible compared to most deciduous trees people are familiar with and that's one of the reasons the ratchet strap thing works with many palms.

You can clean a lot more junk off that trunk (He laughed to himself after typing that)

Even the fronds that aren't vertical anymore can come off.  NOT A TA will know more but I've seen trees being shipped with one or two spears sticking out. I would clean everything in the way on that side of the tree right off.

In reply to jgrewe :

Awesome, thanks!

Yes, jgrewe is correct, you can just clean off that side to the trunk.

Buzz Killington here...  Did you know that they aren't trees?  They are monocotyledonous plants as opposed to dicotyledonous, which means they are more closely related to grass than they are to a tree.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

That actually makes a lot of sense. I guess I'll just mow it if it's still in the way. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Standard disclaimer... Might take a slightly larger mower than you probably have now.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

Buzz Killington here...  Did you know that they aren't trees?  They are monocotyledonous plants as opposed to dicotyledonous, which means they are more closely related to grass than they are to a tree.

 

When I went to The Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMASS for a degree in arboriculture (over 40 years ago) they rarely mentioned palms other than to say they didn't consider them trees because they were monocots. However in my Turf classes they never mentioned palms either ahaha.  Same thing when I went to an Ag program in high school and other college degrees in related fields. So in 8 years of ornamental horticulture education palms were never discussed. Things have changed although I still have a hard time referring to palms as "trees".   I donate seed to the high school I attended and they grow them in the greenhouses.

As a young man I managed nurseries etc. up North where we didn't deal with palms at all.  Now I'm down here in S FL where palms are ubiquitous so I had to start from scratch learning to identify palms, their Latin names, diseases, pests,  etc.  Most people think there's only a few types of palms but there's over 2600 species in the the Arecaceae family. I have a backyard nursery with several thousand palms in growers pots I sell locally and sell seed on the internet for common S FL palms. This year I expect to sell around 100,000 seeds, that's a lot of palms and I'm just a small seed supplier compared to some others.

Right now is the season for Areca palm (Dypsis lutescens) seed and I'll harvest about 20,000 seeds during the next several weeks. They don't stay viable for a long time compared to other types of palm seeds so they'll all need to be in the germination process by about the end of Oct. I'm just finishing collecting the last of Foxtail palm (Wodyetia bifurcata) seed which have a much longer viability period that I can sell through the winter.  While some palms produce seed during a certain season some palms like Coconuts (Cocos nucifera) produce seed year round.

Seed prices range from less than two cents each for inexpensive seed purchased by the thousand to sprouted coconuts I sell for $10.00 each when sold individually. A lot of the differences in pricing have to do with the amount produced by each plant, time/difficulty to collect, preparation for storage/shipping, packaging expenses, and the time spent packaging.

Got a bit off track rambling but hopefully someone learned something .

In reply to NOT A TA :

Wow, well that certainly explains your vast knowledge of them!

This is fascinating!

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Want a free palm tree? I'll help you dig it up. No guarantees on its survival up there though.