Does anyone have any tips on trimming mexican fan palms?

Question:

Answers:
Ideally, only brown or yellowing fronds should be removed when pruning a palm. If green fronds must be removed, prune off as few as possible. Under no circumstances should palms be severely pruned! Severe pruning is characterized by the removal of any fronds between the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions on the palm canopy. This can be visualized by imagining a clock face placed over the palm canopy, with the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions being aligned with the trunk.

Like trees, palms manufacture their food through their leaves. But palms are not as efficient as trees at storing their food for needy times. So palms are more dependent on their leaves to provide necessary food for growth. With relatively few leaves, compared to trees, removing even one green frond can significantly reduce the palm's ability to feed itself.

Severe pruning also stimulates an unhealthy survival response in palms. Energy is burned, to quickly produce new leaves to replace those lost. Instead of storing food, palms that are severely pruned begin depleting their reserves of energy. If this happens on an annual basis, the palm=s trunk gradually decreases in diameter and becomes weak. It is more likely this weakened trunk will break or shatter in a storm.

Palms also move nutrients from the older fronds to the new growth. When all of these older fronds are removed, so is the source of much of the nutrients that palms need. As a result, nutrient deficiencies can develop. These nutrient deficiencies can be difficult to correct.