The ladder is getting a bit short now, as the palm is growing about 1 foot per year, so I can only reach the seed branches by standing on the top rung of the ladder which I have done in the past but is a bit precarious as fully 10 feet off the ground. This time I used telescopic tree loppers to allow me to stay a bit lower down the ladder, The branches are up to 4 feet long and weigh about 20 lbs. The problem with some is the seed have formed around the leaf petioles below so are not easy to lift away.
The main problem in positioning the ladder was the smaller plams around the base, one of the oldest self sown seedlings is about 10 years old and over 6 feet tall. You have to carefully part the leaves and insert the ladder to avoid insightly damage. Then have to climb up through the palm to get to the mother trunk. All in all it took about 1.5 hours to remove all the ripe seed which if previous years are to go by are numbers 30,000+ but cutting down is far easier than picking them all up off the ground individually. Some pic showing the progress below
Trudi Trachycarpus Seed May 2009
I hope Trudy don't mind you looking up her trunk like that Dave 
