Palm trees thrive in desert landscapes

Palm trees are a potentially beautiful part of our desert landscapes. Unfortunately, either people mistake them for desert plants, and therefore do not water them, neglect them, or tree trimmers abuse them.

Palm trees should have a great green canopy, like a fluffy ball on a stick. The leaves should be bright and shiny, reflecting the sunlight. If they are gray-green and dull with brown edges and dead ends, the tree is not getting enough water. Such palm trees do not die, they hang on giving the false impression that they are arid-land plants. Their leaves will continue to become browner and fewer new ones are produced. Eventually, they just will fade away.

Palm trees are summer growers, so indulge them in the hot months. Palm trees grow vigorously from May to August, if you take care of them. That means giving them good deep irrigations and monthly applications of ammonium sulphate. Ammonium sulphate is soluble in water, and is changed into the nitrate form before plants can use the nitrogen it contains, which occurs only when the soil is warm. Palm trees too often are watered incorrectly.

They should get a three-foot deep soaking in a six-foot wide basin every 10 or 12 days. Invest in a soil probe available at any local garden center, or nursery. Use the soil probe often. When the probe meets resistance, it is time to water again.

Palm trees blow around like crazy when a desert storm builds, even if no rain comes. Nevertheless, palm trees take the beating. It would take a hurricane to break them; all that can come down is some dead seed stalks. Palm trees never or almost never blow over.

Often palm trees receive too much attention from hard-working, unskilled workers who want to cut out many leaves and to remove last year's leaf bases. The palm tree does not benefit from either of these practices. Dead brown leaves hanging from a palm tree may be unsightly, although some believe they add beauty to a palm. They do not hurt the tree in any way, and in fact, they help shade the trunk from strong sunshine. In the same way, old leaf bases clasp the trunk, and give it protection. For the tree's sake, it is better to leave them.

Palm trees do not need to have many green leaves on the top. If you do not like the idea of a palm tree having a skirt, it is easy to cut the dead leaves off. However, never cut leaves that are showing any sign of green. Green leaves are working for the tree, manufacturing sugars from the energy of the sun. The tree needs many green leaves. Unfortunately, we have too many displays in public places of overdone trimming jobs that lead us astray. It is the same with "skinning" a palm tree. It is often overdone in an effort to impress the customer.

If you feel you must remove old leaf stalks, use a linoleum knife to make horizontal cuts into the trunk at the base of the twin stalks. Cut about a quarter-inch deep, no deeper. The broad paper-like base comes off with a slight tug. Keep cutting around the trunk, a little higher each time. As you go, you will notice that the underlying color of the trunk becomes paler. Stop when it is a light tan. You have gone too far if it turns a creamy color. As you go higher, you are removing protection from the hot sun along with older leaf stalks, so this is not really a job for summer months. You can too easily expose bark to burns and blisters. This accounts for those palm trees you see in public places that have trunks of uneven thickness, the thin part is where someone a few years ago was carried away with skinning.

Palm trees that have been well trimmed, cut close to the stalks retain adequate foliage and leaf stalks. Trees that exhibit a cone-shaped trunk is a result from regular excessive frond removal. Another example of what over enthusiastic skinning and frond removal can do is; instead of growing in a uniform column, it develops an hourglass figure.

Going up a palm tree is a risky thing if you do it yourself, and it costs money if you hire a professional. If you hire someone, he should go up in a hydraulic lift. Some energetic workers climb the trunks using spiked boots to maintain grip. Do not let them! Those spikes jab into the trunk and open it up to infection. If a trimmer must wear climbing boots, he should use serrated bars instead of spikes. The bars are not the best solution but they are far less damaging to the trunk than spikes. Make sure your tree trimmer is licensed, insured and bonded.

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Debi Papp is a member of the Yuma Garden Club and various other gardening organizations. She may be reached at 928-783-3189 or greenthumbs1@roadrunner.com