Palm trees are commonly planted near primary playing areas on western golf courses for aesthetics and perhaps to influence strategy. Some courses are planted with hundreds of palm trees. While shade is typically not an issue with palm trees due to their narrow trunk and canopy, experience has shown that palm tree roots can be a real problem. The general rule of thumb is that tree roots will spread two to three times the radius of the tree canopy (drip line) and may extend up to five times this distance. If a tree canopy is 40 feet wide, the radius is 20 feet and the roots can be expected to extend from 40-100 feet from the tree trunk depending on the tree and location.

The radius of a palm tree canopy is usually only 5-10 feet and therefore root competition is often not considered to be problematic based on the rule of thumb mentioned above. However, palm trees have a fibrous root system, not a taproot, and experience at numerous courses in Arizona and southern California reveal that palm tree roots can extend easily over 100 feet from the base of the tree. Palm tree roots were discovered throughout entire greens during a renovation project this summer at a course in the Coachella Valley area. These roots were competing with turf for nutrients and water and compromising drainage pipe.

If the potential root impacts aren’t enough, palm trees are also very expensive to prune, often requiring $1,000 or more per tree annually. For courses with hundreds of palm trees, this adds up fast! Given these issues, be sure to include palm trees when planning for tree removal and root pruning operations. Remove unneeded specimens and be sure to root prune every two or three years.

West Region Agronomists:

Brian  Whitlark, senior consulting agronomist – bwhitlark@usga.org

Cory Isom, agronomist – cisom@usga.org

Information on the USGA’s Course Consulting Service

Contact the Green Section Staff