Butia capitata

[tropicalb 46]

22F...large mature specimen in the ground located at the bottom of a major cold drain.

absolutely NO damage:

[Patrick 259]

no damage on a youngster at 23 deg. f. practically buuletproof.

[Cycadcenter 24]

Fallbrook   15-16 degrees two nights

NO damage

[Jon T 4]

b. capitata 14.7 - and lots of other nights under 20; NO DAMAGE.

Jon T

[MattyB 2,160]

24F, no damage.

This 8 foot tall plant was dug up earlier this year and has virtually no root ball.  I guess this palms lives up to it's hardy reputation.

[STEVE IN SO CAL 15]

One plant, 4' OA height

19f, many hours and nights below freezing

No damage

[fruitof76 1]

Had 13 degree temp in January and other nights below 20 F this past winter. No damage to by Butia C. About 4 feet tall or so.

[fdrc65 21]

My beautiful Palm in a 50 cm pot and about 150 cm high is dead after -7' C by night and -3' C by day and a lot of snow during the winter...

Regards

[GBN 2]

Hey,

I've got a small one 15cm trunk diameter. In our garage the temp gets down on -12,9C° this winter for at least a week. All fonds without one died in the spring and the inner spears gets brown too.

Now its still alive and im sure that the butia gonna regenerate in the next summer. This winter i'll protect the palm

best regards

Andy

[Moris 1]

the problem of butia is the high umidity and not the low temperature. The phoenix canariensis is more adatable to humidity

[GBN 2]

the problem of butia is the high umidity and not the low temperature. The phoenix canariensis is more adatable to humidity

Hey,

in Germany we got high moisture even in Summer but Butias growing well here as phoenix C. does (ofc phoenix is faster). But Phoenix dont survive our hard winters which are often below -8C°. Best Butia for countrys or areas with high umidity should be Eriospatha. But even Capitata should grow well if the winters doesnt get under -10C° - 14C°

best regards

Andy

[Takil-Explorer 33]

Andy,

How was last winter for Butias there? Here in the Netherlands lot of spearpull. Cold and wet and heavy frost is not their cup of thea...

Alexander

[GBN 2]

hey Alexander,

the last winter i pulled some spears aswell. But most of them survived the winter here. This winter on the most of them isnt even any damage by -13C° and a very long winter.

best regards

Andy

[Benjamin D. 29]

My butia of five, maybe six feet, survived a week of almost totally freezing temperatures and snow and wind. The coldest it got was eleven or twelve degrees. There was six inches of snow on the ground near it. I wrapped the trunk and put a tarp over it. I then put electric work lights under the tarp. It's foliage was about one third defoliated. And it was planted last fall.

[VAgrown 1]

I planted 5 pindo palms in the ground last spring (2011). These were planted out in the open, not next to a house or anything. I also did not protect them in any way from the cold. During the 2011-2012 winter our lowest temperature was about 15F-18F one night. We didn't get any snow, just a few flurries one night in February. I got 4 of the palms from a local Lowe's (these were grown at a farm in Florida) and 1 from Georgia. 3 of the palms from Lowe's had spear-pull, the other palm lost all of it's fronds except for the spear (weird ). The 1 from Georgia had no damage at all, and this one was the smallest of them all. The one that lost all of it's fronds except for the spear grew 3 new fronds and then died. The other 4 are healthy and have grown rapidly (I think it's rapid anyways) and I've replaced the dead one. As of today, the fastest growing palm has grown 10 full fronds with an 11th spear coming out. The slowest growing palm has grown 5 full fronds with a 6th spear coming out. I counted each new frond after the spear-pull, which was around March/April 2012. So far everything is looking good .

[CumberlandPlants 33]

I planted 5 pindo palms in the ground last spring (2011). These were planted out in the open, not next to a house or anything. I also did not protect them in any way from the cold. During the 2011-2012 winter our lowest temperature was about 15F-18F one night. We didn't get any snow, just a few flurries one night in February. I got 4 of the palms from a local Lowe's (these were grown at a farm in Florida) and 1 from Georgia. 3 of the palms from Lowe's had spear-pull, the other palm lost all of it's fronds except for the spear (weird http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/huh.png ). The 1 from Georgia had no damage at all, and this one was the smallest of them all. The one that lost all of it's fronds except for the spear grew 3 new fronds and then died. The other 4 are healthy and have grown rapidly (I think it's rapid anyways) and I've replaced the dead one. As of today, the fastest growing palm has grown 10 full fronds with an 11th spear coming out. The slowest growing palm has grown 5 full fronds with a 6th spear coming out. I counted each new frond after the spear-pull, which was around March/April 2012. So far everything is looking good http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/greenthumb.gif.

I am guessing the Butia you bought were blue pot palms? The box stores have or had been carrying blue pot palms which are suppose to be cold hardy varieties. However, these palms are becoming known for being consistently unreliable in USDA zones 8 and down. The blue pot growers of cold hardy palms that supply the box stores are definitely pushing cold hardy palms that they grow. Pushing palms with the wrong kind of fertilizer and possibly hormone treatments greatly decreases their overall cold hardiness. A few other members of this site believe the same.

You can see the difference for yourself because you have other Butia that were not grown by the blue pot growers.

[TexasColdHardyPalms 3,230]

15.4, not protection, one year from germination.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Dynodaddy

[NorthFlpalmguy 43]

Two nights in a row of hard frost 17 degrees last year. I have unprotected pindos from seedlings to 2ft clear trunk, thousands. Nothing over a seedling showed any damage at all.

[JeffinGarland 4]

In the winter of 2016-17, my Butia capitata, which was about 7-8 years old, and had survived the Feb 2011 freeze, froze and died.  In the general area, I see others that died, but many still alive.

The coldest temperatures at my house in the 3 coldest winters since 2010:  Feb. 2011:  11°; Dec. 2016:  14°, Jan. 2017:  11°; Jan. 2018:  10°.  As I said, mine died after 2016-17, and several in the neighborhood died from the even colder temperatures this year, but there are still a few that survived both last winter and this winter here in the chilly outer suburbs of Dallas, TX, zone 8a.

The warmest winter here was 2015-2016, when the coldest temperature at my house was 25°, but only only 27° at both D/FW Airport and Dallas Love Field.  Zone 9b?  Impatiens and begonias stayed evergreen that year.  That may have had something to do with my losses, not just the Butia, in the next winter, since so much new growth was not hardened off.

[John Sandham 0]

 Hi,

New Butia Capitata owner..8ft tall in pot. Will keep it in pot for 1st year so that I can be happy about where I'm going to position it. Also I have a large enough covered area I can move it to in winter. My question is how often does it need watering if in pot..many conflicting messages on Internet, would prefer a more accurate answer from an owner. I am in UK in the South.

[ShadyDan 322]

Report from 2021/2022 Vancouver Island freeze (late enough now that any delayed damage / spear pull would have showed up).  -8.3C was the ultimate low with 3 consecutive days failing to crack 0C. Lots of heavy, wet coastal snow fell before the deep freeze, which may have helped (insulation on the spear / on the fronds).

Butia capitata survived just fine. Some minor spotting on the fronds and some burnt tips, but no spear pull and the palm is actively growing again.