If you are staying, I think letting the trees alone to heal themselves is the best option (consulting an arborist is even better) and I think wrapping the wounds with tree wrap, or burlap, would not interfere with the healing and would ease your aesthetic concerns.
Different tree, Swamp cabbage comes from a sabal palm. That is a native Florida tree. Queen palms are weeds. (exotics) In fact, if you don't pick up the seed pods you will have a yard full of these things. I have a patch behind my house on the FPL right of way that is covered with queen sprouts. I can send the guy some seedlings if he wants a new one. The bark of the queen will recover somewhat over several years but trying to grind off the char will kill the tree.
You get the idiot of the month award on alt.home.repair.
And from personal experience, most trees die after a hot enough fire. The bark will begin to fall off and the tree will die. Of course it depends on the type of tree too. Get some real dark glasses and some prescribed drugs to calm your nerves. Nature will do what it must, and there is noithing you can do about it. If the tree lives, rain will clean them eventually. Your home was saved, what the f*ck more do you want? You must be one of the people that complains when their coffee cup is half empty.
We speak of the same thing. I didn't mean to imply swamp cabbage came from a queen palm, if I did.
(*Swamp cabbage is an old-time Florida cracker favorite vegetable obtained from the heart of the cabbage palm (S. palmetto), which is the official state tree of Florida. The plant is known by such other names as palmetto palm, sabal palm, and swamp cabbage tree.
...The central core is the part called swamp cabbage. It is cylindrical in shape, creamy white in color, and composed of layers of undeveloped boots (leaves) with the consistency, tenderness, and texture of regular cabbage. The trimmed edible product may weigh 5-10 pounds. *
I have a couple of queens that have suffered a serious freeze (for Las Vegas anyway) and then a serious summer heat. IMO, queens are tender palms and not as hardy as other varieties. My blue palm, next to the queens has no damage.
I'm almost certain the queens will die from the fire the OP had.
But you get the twerp award. When did you get a vote?
People here who have been around a while don't think much of queens but they do survive brush fires. (Queens are "dirty" trees, needing lots of maintenance once they mature) I think of them like cats (or dogs for you cat people), they are cute when they are young. Palms drink up through the core so they do better than most trees with bark damage although natives in Florida (slash pines, mahogany, gumbo and the live oak family) willl do OK if the fire doesn't burn the crown of the tree. Fire is part of the natural ecosystem here. Queens usually die from diseases or insect damage and the bark is a protective layer against some of them. BTW if you have sandy soil and you are planning on cutting this down, also plan on sharpening your chansaw before you get done cutting it up and you may just want to toss the chain when you are done. They also draw sand up with the water so the "wood" will be very abrasive. If you (carefully) wipe your hand over the end of a cut palm log you will come away with grit on your hand.
On Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:00:59 GMT, "SHOPDOG" wrote Re Re: How to remove burned bark?:
Why not go back to Northern CA? The CA people would like that and the PA people would be thrilled.
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