Protection techniques

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I am curious what sort of things people do to protect their palms. Unfortunately, the landscape we have is part of our livelihood since we're in the hospitality business, so we have to keep the stuff from getting any cosmetic damage. This means taking the proper measures to provide adequate protection during freezes, even for things like colocacias and other tender stuff that damages at around 33F. We run reflector propane heaters mounted in favorable locations but I am always curious to hear what other folks are using.

[sonoranfans]

reflector propane heaters can work well, but work much better if they heat a heat sink like large rocks or hardscape. A stone or block fire pit can be pretty effective if under partial canopy and if there is wind block. The rock is a nice heat sink and if you limit wind and trap it down with canopy you can limit heat dissipation I use the strategy of ensuring windbreak and canopy with a fire pit and also I use canopy to trap heat up close from large area glass on the house(sliders+bay window). I think these can work for 1/2 zone.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Given the impending freeze I revised my emergency defcon 1 plan. You are right, rocks are great to absorb infrared and re-radiate it out, and if there is canopy, the heat is also somewhat reflected back down. I just got propane refills and picked up a couple more patio heaters since they're on sale right now. They are the most effective. Convective freezes are super rare here, there's usually no wind when it freezes, if the wind itself is below freezing, then I wouldn't even know where to start.

I do have this one unfiltered propane heater/blower that I have for my citrus; it heats up my entire 40 trees as long as I have the frost floating row cover in place. It's super loud, though, so not a good choice unless it's a real emergency.

The lows have been revised back up to 38F here, but I am not taking any chances. I am going to protect a few tender things with silver bubble wrap and put the heaters in place just in case I need them.

[Kathryn]

I don't freeze protect any more but I did years ago. I agree with the rock heating concert. I have several rock (pea gravel) walkways. I burried pipe freeze protection cables a few inches below the surface. I didn't keep detailed records, but it seemed to provide some additional warmth to the crcads, bromeliads and smaller palms in the area.

[NorthFlpalmguy]

I have 3mm freeze cloth for seedlings and I run my irrigation on the container stock when it dips in the mid 20s. All my palms I have will normally make it through alright but I feel it's better to be safe than sorry. About 5-6 years ago I lost a few hundred european fans and phoenix reclinatas to several days of hard freeze in the low 20s.

[smithgn]

Anyone know if its okay to take a regular electric heater fan and place it facing my palm underneath a frost cloth that I have covering my CIDP? Luckily there's two settings on my heater, one for warm and one for hot. I wouldn't risk placing it on the hot setting. Plus, The frost cloth placed over my palm breathes so I wouldn't have to worry about too much heat suffocating my palm. Anyone heard of doing such a thing?