a few yars ago I panted a small Trachycarpus Fortunei in the yard of my ground floor Condo in Vancouver. It has done vey will is now about 12 feet tall. The yard sits atop the garage, with a minimum of three feet of soil. We recenty aquired a new property manager who has said the roots will damage the protective coating of the garage below. Can anyone tell me if this makes sense? is the Windmill palm shallow or deep rooted? I would hate to have to remove it. thanks
Trachycarpus Fortunei develops deep roots especially on a 12 footer. I have not heard of any destructive root stories but is Your garden directly above the garage. 3 feet sure does not seem like a lot for such a large palm. If its got to go I would gladly remove it for you and replace it with maybe a large phormium or yucca. Let me know.......Cheers.....Brian, e-mail, palm-bay (at) cablelan (dot) net
Depends on the quality of the roof it is on top of. If it is solid and well sealed, no problems. Any cracks, and you're asking for trouble.
Getting back to soil depth, three feet probably isn't enough to firmly anchor this palm as it gets any taller. That would be a bigger concern, having it fall over on a windy night and the liability associated with that. Cheers, LPN.
I agree, I doubt the tree would be able to damage the garage, but the tree would normally use depth to hold up against the winter winds.
Take a look here http://www.opensquares.org/detail/Roof.html personally i'd say it could go to 20' maybe more before you'd have to worry about stability problems, a lot would depend on the medium its growing in and how far it can spread its roots.
ok. thanks to all who have replied. It looks like I will be removing it and putting it in a planter box which I may or may not build myself. My next question is what dimensions should it be, particularly the depth? thanks, dbr
