One of many of our Windmills that survived this New York winter

[islandwidepalmtrees.com]

I wanted to share a few pictures of one of over 100 windmill palms that survived this past winter in New York. We are Long Island's largest seller of palm trees and if there is anything I can do for you just let me know.

This past winter was the first time we offered our customers a winter protection service on windmill palms they purchased from us. This service came with a limited warranty stating that if the customers tree didn't show signs of life by June, they would have the option to buy a new tree at half off retail price. As far as i know, we are the only company that offers such a warranty.  I know a few mail order companies offer a warranty but has anybody had any success getting it honored especially on windmills with some decent size to them.

I used a vented box method that worked pretty well for me. I had hear you should use lights as a heat source on a thermo cube and have heard you don't need anythings. After this winter I am a firm believer in using lights. I base this on the fact that the 90% of my trees that good used the lights.. The trees that looked so-so had no lights.

www.islandwidepalmtrees.com

[Hammer]

What was your low temp there this winter?

[islandwidepalmtrees.com]

We had a few record breaking cold days here on Long Island that were just below 0 degrees in February .... All in all it was a mild winter. I had over 100 trees to wrap for my customers, so I had to start mid-November. We didn't get done wrapping all of them till mid-December. Like I said in previous post, we used the box method with ventilation up top and down below. Even with the ventilation, I still had a lot of moldy fronds, more than I thought I would have.  I think it might be cause by the extremely mild December and January we had.  We had record breaking high temps, I think it was even 75 degrees on Christmas Day.  If it was up to me, I would not wrap my own tree till January, but with over a trees to do; it would not be possible to wait that long. I have noticed that trees that were left unprotected,did not show any signs of damage till mid-February.  I am not sure if it was showing signs of damage due to temps in Jan. or Feb.

With so many trees to wrap and even more I expect from my new customers, I am giving my customers Three options

1. Have them wrap their own tree following the instructions on my youtube video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxKOR_6ZV0g 

2. Have us wrap the tree for them but taking chance of wrapping it to early due to the amount we will have to wrap.

3. Have them wrap their tree with our new system. This is a system they can use year after year, no need to buy lumber and material year after year. This new system will allow them to wrap the trees easily and give them the ability to vent the tree on the mild days with the attached zipper. We are still working on the final finished product but I attached  a picture of prototype..  This should cost about $450 for an 8ft tree.

[sashaeffer]

Scott here in Nebraska. I have 7 windmill palms in the ground that I protect. I only have a issue with one as far as fungus damage goes and that is the one that gets the least amount of sunlight directly on it. I protect mine using white/clear 55 gallon barrels that I stack, Christmas lights on thermocube etc. The other 6 trees of various sizes and time in the ground come out of protection looking just like they did in the fall when I cover them up.

I will say, there are two screw in "caps" at the top of the barrels and I usually always leave 1 out to keep humidity out. The one palm that suffered fungus again this year I put the cap back on during a cold spell and I think that is when damage started. Like other years it will recover nicely and by end of June won't be able to tell anything was ever wrong.

 

[DoomsDave]

Whoa.

Kevin!

That is NUTS.

IN-[EXPLETIVE]-SANE!

Wonderful too! Want some free palm seeds? Do you have a second home in Florida?

[DoomsDave]

2 hours ago, sashaeffer said:

Scott here in Nebraska. I have 7 windmill palms in the ground that I protect. I only have a issue with one as far as fungus damage goes and that is the one that gets the least amount of sunlight directly on it. I protect mine using white/clear 55 gallon barrels that I stack, Christmas lights on thermocube etc. The other 6 trees of various sizes and time in the ground come out of protection looking just like they did in the fall when I cover them up.

I will say, there are two screw in "caps" at the top of the barrels and I usually always leave 1 out to keep humidity out. The one palm that suffered fungus again this year I put the cap back on during a cold spell and I think that is when damage started. Like other years it will recover nicely and by end of June won't be able to tell anything was ever wrong.

 

Pictures!

To spread palm nuttery in Ohio! I know just the person who might do that, near Cleveland, which is balmy compared to NE.

 

[sashaeffer]

For the life of me I can't find pics of MY palms in barrels but did find a picture of a palm nut in a cold state that does it as well.

His picture doesn't show how to keep stack stable so I will explain what I do.

I insulate the barrels using  spray foam that comes in cans (takes 4 cans to do one barrel so $20 total)

Stack the barrels and in 3 spots drive a 3/8 inch by 4 ft long rebar into the ground as close to barrel as you can.

Slide 1/4 or 1/2 PVC pipe over the rebar to the height of the stack of barrels, then simply use a ratcheting strap around the outside that pulls the PVC pipe tight against the barrels so keeps them tight together and stable in high winds. In my case I did install in 3 locations eyelets in top barrel to use ropes or cables to further secure stack in high winds but never needed to use them. 

On nice days, simply remove the top barrel. Top barrel naturally has it's top on, but make sure you unscrew both "caps" to allow it to vent.

 

Again this isn't my pic but you can get idea.  Barrels can sometimes be found for FREE, but some plastic recycling centers will sell them for $5-$20 each.

 

 

 

 

[Hammer]

Do you guys spray the palms once wrapped?  Meaning with Daconil or Copper to fight mold and fungus?  Might help to do at kickoff and one time again mid winter.

[DoomsDave]

9 hours ago, sashaeffer said:

For the life of me I can't find pics of MY palms in barrels but did find a picture of a palm nut in a cold state that does it as well.

His picture doesn't show how to keep stack stable so I will explain what I do.

I insulate the barrels using  spray foam that comes in cans (takes 4 cans to do one barrel so $20 total)

Stack the barrels and in 3 spots drive a 3/8 inch by 4 ft long rebar into the ground as close to barrel as you can.

Slide 1/4 or 1/2 PVC pipe over the rebar to the height of the stack of barrels, then simply use a ratcheting strap around the outside that pulls the PVC pipe tight against the barrels so keeps them tight together and stable in high winds. In my case I did install in 3 locations eyelets in top barrel to use ropes or cables to further secure stack in high winds but never needed to use them. 

On nice days, simply remove the top barrel. Top barrel naturally has it's top on, but make sure you unscrew both "caps" to allow it to vent.

 

Again this isn't my pic but you can get idea.  Barrels can sometimes be found for FREE, but some plastic recycling centers will sell them for $5-$20 each.

 

 

 

 

Wow.

And I thought I was nutty . . . .

[sashaeffer]

22 hours ago, Hammer said:

Do you guys spray the palms once wrapped?  Meaning with Daconil or Copper to fight mold and fungus?  Might help to do at kickoff and one time again mid winter.

No, I didn't. Again, only have issue with the one. While it get's West exposure, the garage sticks out from the house on the south side and keeps it from getting sun the others get so inside of barrels don't get warm as long.  I had the top barrel off for a few weeks and palm looked great about mid winter. It wasn't until I think I went and screwed the caps back in the top for a forecasted cold spell that it sealed it up too much.

I have seen at a local box store a bag of 2..maybe 3 inch round vents meant for garden sheds etc that I thought about installing a few of them in the barrels to let air exchange but still keeps water out.  It's all a matter of fine tuning specific palms to specific locations.

[cm05]

Nice!! I've seen your location before, with all the palms lined up.

My own Windmill Palm went largely unprotected this winter, it was buried in snow when the temperature dropped to 0F. All fronds remained intact, however its new spear is showing some damage, yet the one before it opened up nicely.

[Jimhardy]

I have tried spraying the foliage with fungicide

but if ventilation is not adequate it will make no difference.

[islandwidepalmtrees.com]

Guys thanks for the response on this page..  I think that barrel idea is great... I do the biggest thing is ventilation.... I never tried the sprays  but I am sure they would help out.. I just try to keep the expense down for my customers...   I am getting a ot of calls from customers saying they are seeing a lot of new growth thanks to the warmer weather.

[Explorer]

Trachycarpus fortunei has survived here in The Netherlands temperatures of minus 20 C in some areas. In my area, close to The Hague its becoming more populair now as a garden plant. And here in Leidschendam there are some nice specimems in shelterd towngardens. And mine are grown from seeds I collected from local T. fortunei. So I guess in shelterd towngardens in New York it should be pretty hardy. And you get much longer warmer summers there!

 

Trachycarpus takil could also be tried there, see my profil picture.

Alexander

[islandwidepalmtrees.com]

Here is "The New Windmill Palm Cover" system. I have been selling windmill palms up here on Long Island and across the Northeast for the past seven years..... Last year was the first time I offered a wrapping service for my customers that came with a limited warranty..(if we wrapped the tree and it did not show signs of life come the following June they had the right to buy another tree for half off the normal sale price) I wrapped just over 100 trees and I did not have to replace a tree I am proud to say.... The system we used was tying up the fronds and wrapping the trunk with C-9 Christmas Lights plugged into a thermo-cube (lights were an option). We then built a square wood frame around the tree 2 ft wide as by how many feet the tree was tall. Then we wrapped it with 6 mil plastic around the frame twice. We attached a plywood roof covered in plastic and place 4 shrink wrap vents onto the sides.... 2 up top and 2 on the bottom to help vent the tree.  This system worked great especially if the customers choose to have the lights installed. The ones without lights did not fair as well but still survived.

I had a few concerns about that system that I thought I could improve on. One of the biggest things I wanted for a new system was the ability open and close up the structure to help vent it on the mild days ( we had 75 degree weather last year for Christmas, I am sure that was the best thing for the tree even though we had vents on it) and be able to access the tree to check on it.

My second biggest thing I wanted to achieve was the ability to use the new structure year after year. That was also easy to assemble and dissemble.

I have come up with "The New Windmill Palm Cover" system that meets all those needs. It is made out of a custom Sunbrella canvas. The whole system snaps together with my custom fitted PVC support tubes that attach to 4 galvanized pipes. In addition you can add on a 2 ft attachment as the tree grows. I am enclosing a few pictures of the new cover. I would like feed back of what you think  or any questions you may have. 

for more info visit: http://www.islandwidepalmtrees.com/palm-cover.html

[Palm crazy]

Very interesting and great protection set up. 

[islandwidepalmtrees.com]

 thanks   

[PalmTreeDude]

Awesome! Islandwidepalmtrees, do you make videos on YouTube? I think I might have seen some with your palms in it before! If it was you. 

[Las Palmas Norte]

A friend of mine built a similar but much larger domed frame for one of his Med palms. He's in a marginal climate and wanted a bit of extra protection.

Cheers, Barrie.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Las Palmas Norte

[islandwidepalmtrees.com]

 I do have a youtube videos  i posted..  I just made two new one with this system.    

[Jimhardy]

Those are really nice covers...

I am going in another direction apparently trying

to make them as cheaply as possible so I can grow more palms.