I suspect you will kill the palms.

I actually killed a good sized Ptychosperma elegans (about 15 ft tall) by overmulching. Over time and without noticing, I ended up building up the surrounding area by 4-6" and this rotted the base of the trunk away in less than a year.

This is a joke, right?

The palm(s) will be killed by root suffocation and trunk rot.

Not a joke, that is why I ask. The building contractor had raised the grade for a pool, albeit there are small "tree wells" around them, maybe 2' on all sides. I can't believe they are not dead already, but they are actually still looking decent 6 months later. However, the grade is now screwed up in order to accomodate for the pool and we are left to figure out the mess of what to do to preserve them and keep them from becoming collateral damage. As I understand, they need about 60" of root zone, so should I try to arrange a recessed tree well of that size? Just thought this might be a good place to get a couple of opinions.

If it was only a couple of inches, I would suggest removing the topsoil mix and topping off with course pine bark or maybe some 2"-3" river stones.

12 inches of buried trunk is not a quick fix. If the Cocos are small, you could try replanting. BTW, can you provide photos? Your description is a bit confusing.

This was taken a while back. We've completed the pool deck and coping, and are preparing for the planting beds. The builder evidently added about 12" of fill from the excavation of the pool last fall. There is somewhat of a pocket around the trunks, but not much. It would be a terrible shame to loose them, but also an extreme challenge to remove the 40 + cubic yards of rocky fill. Was just wanting the opinion of a coconut palm expert about considerations for building tree wells to preserve them, and the likelihood of their survival and success. Thanks for any advice.

I'm in construction too & know the conditions you're stuck with when your scope of work begins toward the end of a project....I know it doesn't help to say,"you should have temp removed the trees for replant...", but you should have known better....now you have to dig those out by hand....I guess the GC is about to hire some extra laborers!

Good luck.

Ya' know, you can have a grate fabricated to surround the tree trunks, install them at fill level to prevent anyone from falling into the hole; this way you can keep the trees planted at the original grade.

...just a thought.

Excellent idea scaldude!

This is not a joke.. see the link..

Here is a link that might be useful: coco bonsai

Ya gonna post this on every thread s.utomo!?!

scaldude, thanks for your thoughts. The wall between the pool deck and the coconut trees is about 28" tall (since photo it was repaired/rebuilt and capped) and so nobody should be at risk of falling in. However, tree grates might be a good way to preserve the grade around the trunks and keep soil from collapsing around the trees. It was not long after the photos were taken that we learned of our fill problem, as were installing soil amendment for the plant beds. Since it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove all of the fill at this point, should I just try to dig down to to the original grade about 60" around the trunks and build a sturdy well around them to preserve the original grade? Maybe that's the best we can do at this point. It would be a shame to lose any of these, they offer such a great setting.

or... maybe we just take em down and replace with a couple hundred coco bansai?

:-)

davelanddesign - where do you live? that is a great looking place.