CHANDLER, AZ — Walk around just about any Valley neighborhood and you'll see a clear sign of our record setting summer, dried out, brittle palm fronds drooping toward the ground, some of them nearly bald.
Brandon Varney with Pristine Green says typically they'll remove up to 30 palms over the course of the summer months, some just meeting the end of their 10 to 15-year lifespan. However, in the last month alone they've been removing about four palms a day with no signs of slowing down.
Queen Palms seem to be the ones hit the hardest.
Varney says while a lot of clients worry it’s the cause of over or under watering, this year he says the heat has been too much for that variety to handle.
“Try not to get too frustrated. Everyone had a difficult summer because of the heat, I think the palms are feeling the same way we are, they're just over it. It'll get better.” Varney said.
He says the telltale sign your tree is a goner is to look at the innermost palm fronds. If there's any green still coming up from the heart of the palm you can save them. He suggests saturating the base every three days with about 20-gallons of water until the temperatures consistently cool below 100-degrees and also liquid fertilizer.
However, if the fronds are all brown and the stalk is oozing sap it's time to take the tree down, a process that usually takes a couple of hours and will run you between $150 to $300.
If you're just not sure Varney says wait a little longer and resist the urge to trim the dead fronds because at this point they’re working as a protective shield.
“I would say by the second week of November if you don't see any green coming out of it, it's gone.”
