Asked on Dec 14, 2016

How do I deal with palm tree berries?

Mary
by Mary
I have a seed bear palm tree and I hate the berries, they go EVERYWHERE. Is there anyway to eliminate (kill) the berries without killing the tree?
  7 answers
  • Shawna Bailey Shawna Bailey on Dec 15, 2016

    If you cut off the flowers as soon as you see them appear there will be very ittle if any berries on your palm.

  • Mary Mary on Dec 15, 2016

    Are you referring to those whitish flowery things? The berries are attached to hard orange branches.

  • MiTmite9 MiTmite9 on Dec 15, 2016

    What species of palm? Can you reach the clusters of flowers? You do realize that bees, wasps, flies and sometimes even bats will harvest nectar from palm flowers? Hooray for bees! Why not just learn to love the fact that your palm is providing nectar and then, if you can reach the flowers, cut them off after they have died back a bit?


    I have a 60' Queen palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) at the top of my walkway. She has been "throwing down" fruits (mini-coconuts with an orange pulpy casing) for decades. I collect these fruits (bending over and back up and raking can be great exercise), pile them in a corner of my yard, and let nature take its course. The coconut pile provides its own habitat for tiny life. Lots of critters like the orange pulp, as it is very sweet.


    Otherwise, you could just put your "seeds" in your green waste container. People always seem surprised when trees create leaf litter and such. PLEASE don't use any kind of pesticides, if that is what you were thinking.

    • Cindy Picha Cindy Picha on Nov 05, 2020

      Because the seeds are sticky and messy and get tracked in and my get stuck in pets goes. Dont need to compost or I will get more palms. Ugh

  • Sandy Sandy on Dec 16, 2016

    You will need to have the palm trimmed as soon as you see the flower. twice a yr in Phoenix.

  • Marsha Morris Sturgill Marsha Morris Sturgill on Jan 21, 2017

    I don't know the kind that you have, but on mine when the berries turn orange and get ripe I like to eat them. Bees, birds, squirrels, raccoons, possums and deer also feast on them. Someone told me they would poison me, but after eating them for over 30 years I'm still alive and kicking. Wish there were enough to make a batch of palm berry jam.

  • Jenny Strong Jenny Strong on Feb 04, 2017

    Chop the palms down. We had to do that. Those berries are poisonous to animals and our dog kept chewing them. He eventually died. The dried out husks of the palm fronds are the perfect home for about 750 million cockroaches. Make that 950 million. I was collecting the nuts for years after we chopped the trees down. There were 13 palms around our house when we bought it.

  • Judy Ginder Martin Judy Ginder Martin on Feb 24, 2020

    Are the berries poison for dogs