Trimming sagos down to one set of fronds?? Is this good?

I just posted this in the Tropical Plants forum and then realized there is this forum, sorry for the duplication!

I have a sago palm about 2' high that was doing well and had several sets of fronds and one new set growing in the middle. Our gardeners just trimmed it and cut off all the fronds except for the new set in the middle! Is this good for the plant? There are sagos everywhere and I don't see them being trimmed this way.

not really good or bad... perhaps unecessary is all. Some people like the full look and others like the super-trimmed look. Obviously from the plant's point of view, it would rather keep its green leaves as they can all be used to make food. But in cultivation, keeping all the leaves is rarely necesssary.

palmbob, thanks for the reply! If the worst they did was something unnecessary that is better than something harmful. But if the green leaves are used to make food isn't it harmful to cut them off? Especially to cut off so many on a relatively small plant?

A cycad stores all of its energy in its caudex and can easily tolerate having leaves cut/burned/eaten off (unless the caudex is really dinky). However, chopping all the leaves immediately over and over will eventually drain it and it will die. What is 'relatively small' mean?

It's about 2' high. When I bought it, it had 6 leaves and didn't grow much at all for quite a while. In fact, I posted something in Dave's Garden asking about it. This past year it seemed to wake up and grew several more sets of leaves. (Correct me if I'm using the wrong terms.) Now they're all cut off except for the newest set.

2' is pretty big when you consider small is about the size of an acorn.

Their is a link somewhere in the internet where it is recommended to remove all the fronds to make the Sago grow quicker. I believe it is from a grower in Florida. At what age should you do this. I don't know. I did it this year but not sure it increased its growth.

I've been growing them for a while and this what I do, sometimes. Most of younger ones in pots almost always get all to partial yellowing on fronds due to our mild winters, I cut them off.These seem to be a second row, leaving a top row. In Spring after the cut, the new flush comes quickly and they look very normal. On large ones in ground, I usually prune only when necessary.

I recently pruned all the outside fronds on my sagos. Apparently this brings on more vigorous growth?

I have a sago in a pot , my father inlaw brought up from florida three year ago. it has grown a new set of leaves every year except this one. The only thing I've done differently was to transplant it in the spring. However this year in cincinnati was a very cool summer Is it normal for a cool spell to effect them or would a little fertilizer help, or a good trimming