How to Trim a Sabal Palmetto

Walk around all sides of the sabal palm to evaluate the site and the need for trimming the canopy. Getting up close to the palm and reaching your arms upward lets you gauge if a ladder or extension pole is needed for safe and effective pruning maintenance. Look at the canopy of fronds. Earmark brown, dead fronds and flower or fruit stalks for removal.

Put on leather gloves and eye goggles when working around the palm. The stiff edges on the frond petiole stems can cut into skin. Eye goggles ensure dust or debris from pruning doesn't drop into your upward-gazing eyes.

Position a sturdy A-frame ladder next the palm's trunk. The ladder's feet need to be firmly on the ground, and reposition the ladder so it is level and its legs don't sink into any soft soil spots once you climb onto it.

Cut away the lowermost, brown fronds with a pruning saw. Downward fronds with less than 50 percent green living tissues may also be removed. An extension pole attachment increases your reach with the saw on the pole's end. Instead of a ladder, an extension pole may allow you to prune the palm with your feet firmly on the ground. Make the pruning saw cut at the end of the frond's stem, as close to its point of attachment to the trunk.

Step away from the palm and look at the shape of the canopy from 15 to 20 feet away. Imagine the rounded canopy as a clock's face. Only remove fronds that are downward-angled, or below the horizontal line between 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. Healthy green fronds must not be cut away as they photosynthesize light and provide a buffer from wind to protect the palm's long growing tip on the top of the trunk.

Continue to remove fronds one by one from the canopy, making pruning cuts at the base of fronds. Exercise caution and control when sawing to prevent the saw blades from accidentally cutting into adjacent, healthy fronds you aim to retain. Step back and look at the palm's canopy every few leaves removed to ensure you are only removing fronds below the 9-to-3 horizontal line. This also lets you determine if you are removing fronds evenly from the canopy on all sides.

Remove any unwanted emerging flower stalks or those that have already bloomed, showing fruits or already dropped the fruits. Make the cuts with a saw at the base of their attachment to the trunk. Simply removing old flower and fruit stalks greatly improves the lush green appearance of the sabal palm without trimming out any fronds.