How to respond to dry leaves and tips

Palm top hats are taboo

It is characteristic of all real palm trees that they can grow from a single point of vegetation - the so-called plant heart. The vital centerpiece is located within the palm tip and controls the growth of the evergreen crown. If you use the scissors in this area, you will inevitably hunt down the palm.

In contrast to the trees we are familiar with, palm trees do not have sleeping eyesfrom which they sprout again after pruning and branch out cheerfully. The classic shape and maintenance pruning to promote growth and branching is consequently counterproductive for a palm. Only growth problems on the magnificent leaves can make a pruning sensible.

Precisely cut off brown leaf tips

The most common reason for pruning measures on palm trees is dry, brown leaf tips. Drought stress or low humidity cause the widespread problem. Once the tips of a frond are affected, there is no prospect of regeneration. This is how affected palm leaves shine in their old glory:

• Best cutting tool: household or Secateurs with two sharp, straight blades (bypass scissors)
• Cut off the brown tips of the leaves
• Important: do not cut into the green plant tissue

Cut off the dried-up tips of palm fronds to within a millimeter of the green leaf tissue. Otherwise the leaf will continue to dry out and the pruning will become a “bottomless pit”. We recommend spraying the fronds of your palm every two to three days with soft water.

Remove dried palm fronds systematically

Evergreen palm fronds have not leased eternal life. As long as the plant heart remains undamaged, the leaves are continuously exchanged. This process can be recognized by the fact that the lower fronds move in and dry up when fresh leaves sprout in the crown tip. At the right time, you can cut off a dried-up palm frond. That is how it goes:

• Wait until a palm leaf has completely died and dried up
• Cut off at the base with scissors or a knife
• For petioles from 3 cm in diameter one Folding saw(€ 17.68 at Amazon *) use with Japanese perforation
• Carefully clean and disinfect the cutting tool
• Important: leave a small piece of the leaf stalk

The typical, rough trunk of a palm results from the remains of dried-up leaf stalks. A short frond should remain on the trunk, and not just for visual reasons. This incision also prevents the trunk bark from being injured. Palms don't have any Cambium, which forms wound wood when the bark is damaged.