Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Huge palms capable of cracking foundation?, 1 by FondOfFronds

FondOfFronds wrote:
I wish I could find the picture I have of my Queen that cracked our sidewalk. I can show you though, the location where it happened. I had to have my gardener pull the Queen. It had been planted in this location and allowed to grow unabated for 5 years and the trunk grew so wide and the roots got so extensive that it started to raise the sidewalk up and a crack formed in the crease in the concrete walkway. It was about 25'+ tall when we pulled it. And the sidewalk slab is the normal thickness of such a walkway. I'm growing a nice foxtail there now and I've been told that it will never be a problem in that location.

So palmbob, I know what you mean about the small Queen roots, but they grew so thick in there that just the quantity of the small roots and perhaps the thickness of the trunk, was enough to raise up the sidewalk. This absolutely was not a good place to grow a Queen.