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How to dispose of palm fronds?

manisalem45
Finding My Feet

How to dispose of palm fronds?

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I have an old Palm tree in the rented house backyard close to a neighbour’s fence. It grows long Palm fords (spiky) and falls off the neighbour’s backyard near their swimming pool. Occasionally they keep throwing it back into our backyard and over a time it has accumulated! 
How do I Cut it and dispose off through Green Organic Council cleanup or any other way?

Please advise.. 

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: Disposing off Palm Fords which have fallen off or pruned

Hi @manisalem45,

 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. We're really pleased to have you join us and look forward to reading all about your projects and plans. Please don't hesitate to post whenever you need help or have something to share - we have amazing members sharing project inspiration and helpful advice on the site every day.  

 

To kick this one off, I might direct you to a previous discussion on the topic as it has lots of useful information from other members: Chopping up palm tree fronds

 

I'm sure @MitchellMc would also be happy to make some product recommendations for you. 

 

Please let me know if you need a hand getting the most from the Workshop site. We're here to help. 

 

Jason

 

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MitchellMc
Bunnings Team Member
Bunnings Team Member

Re: Disposing off Palm Fords which have fallen off or pruned

Hi @manisalem45,

 

I'd like to also welcome you to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's great to have you join us and many thanks for your question.

 

It looks like you have a reasonable quantity of palm fronds to deal with there at the moment. You might like to consider a garden shredder that is capable of not only processing standard garden material but also palm fronds. Not all shredders are able to mulch palm fronds. I can recommend either the Ryobi 2400W Crushing Shredder or the Ozito 2400W Silent Garden Shredder for the job as they are suitable for palm fronds.

 

Alternatively, you might find a pair of bypass loppers would be of assistance in cutting the fronds to a size that fits your green waste bin.

 

Please let me know if you need further assistance or had any questions.

 

Mitchell

 

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Re: Disposing off Palm Fords which have fallen off or pruned

These shedders will do absolutely nothing to palm branches other then break the shedder. That is horrible advice I have a petrol mulcher with a 65mm diameter branch capacity and that struggles with palm branches due to there structure 

MitchellMc
Bunnings Team Member
Bunnings Team Member

Re: Disposing off Palm Fords which have fallen off or pruned

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @alex8819. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your input to the discussion.

 

Not all shredders are suitable for palm fronds, as their leaves and inner core are very fibrous. Mulchers that use a high-speed disc with smaller blades are not suitable for palm fronds. They wrap the stringy core and leaf material around the disc, binding it up as there is no way to severe it. Crushing shredders are needed for palm fronds, and I've only ever seen those offered in electric models. These operate at low speed and have a large barrel with many blades around its perimeter. When the barrel is correctly adjusted, it severs the stringy inner core and the fronds against a stationary anvil whilst pulling the material down into the machine. 

 

Personally, I can't say I've ever encountered someone that has had an issue with a machine designed for palm fronds not working with them. However, I have helped many customers that have had an issue with normal machines not working with fibrous material. An example would be, this Ozito 2400W Rapid Garden Shredder is not suitable as it is the high-speed disc version, but this Ozito 2400W Silent Garden Shredder is suitable as it has the barrel.

 

If you were able to stop into a store, I trust a helpful Power Gardening team member will be happy to show you the difference between a machine that is capable of mulching palm fronds and one that isn't.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Mitchell

 

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Ari_
Getting Established

Re: Disposing off Palm Fords which have fallen off or pruned

Thank you for the advice @MitchellMc the Ryobi specifically mentions 'palm fronds' and the Ozito has a Palm picture right on the shredder.

Re: Disposing off Palm Fords which have fallen off or pruned

Both shredders mention have an opening that is way too small to put in palm fronds.

Palm frond can be bigger than 15 cm (150mm+) but the shredders you mention have an opening no bigger than 4.5cm (45mm). Please explain how I can put 15cm+ into a space of 4.5cm.

Sounds like you do not know your products or how to use them.

 

MitchellMc
Bunnings Team Member
Bunnings Team Member

Re: Disposing off Palm Fords which have fallen off or pruned

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Ozycash. We're pleased to have you join us and look forward to reading all about your home improvement projects and plans. Many thanks for your question about shredding palm fronds - we understand it can be a challenging problem with mature trees.

 

The specification of 45mm is the maximum capacity for solid branches. The machines also include a wider slot for green and larger materials, as pictured below. However, if the head of the palm frond is particularly large or hard, I would recommend removing it before inserting the frond section into the shredder.

 

Please let me know if you have further questions. We are here to help.

 

Mitchell

 

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