Palm and tree questions
Can my lawn company take care of my palms?
Most landscape crews are hired to maintain turf, shrubs and beds, and palm health care is a separate discipline. Landscape maintenance usually covers everything up to about 12 feet, tree service prunes and removes, and nobody is responsible for palm health.
Reviewed by Jeff Kaulbars, ISA Certified Arborist FL-10118A, Ptolemy Inc.
It is not the landscaper’s fault
A good landscape crew does what it is hired to do. The trouble is the product: lawn fertilizer is heavy on nitrogen and lacks what a palm needs, and on a palm the extra nitrogen can make deficiencies worse.
What palm care adds
A complete palm fertilizer on a schedule, reading the canopy for deficiencies, watching for the four palm killers that have no cure, and a lab test before any disease call. Pruning that stops at the 9-and-3 line, because each frond above it is a store of nutrients the palm needs.
What to look for
An ISA Certified Arborist on staff, a licensed Florida pest control business (FDACS) for any treatment, a written standard for pruning, and testing before anyone calls a disease or a removal.