Central Florida's Winter Freeze

[Natureguy]

Hello all,

I have been working on doing a little experiment this winter that will hopefully protect my royal palms from frost damage and I thought I should propose it to the forum to see if anyone has tried this or has any suggestions to my plan. I have been told and have read that people in areas like mine that are proned to periodic freezes to use lighting (e.g., Christmas lights or low-watt bulbs) to prevent frost from forming on the leaves of sensitive plants. I have several D. lutescens that I can simply cover with a sheet, but my royal palms are taller and will continue to get bigger (hopefully ) ) and my fear is that eventually I can't do anything to protect them. I will not use heaters. That scares me and I wouldn't be able to sleep thinking my yard and house may be on fire. hehehe

What I am thinking of doing is to use high powered lamps like halogen lights on the ground and direct them towards the canopy of the palms. The idea here is not to be close enough to burn the leaves obviously, but just enough to change the ambient temperature just enough to prevent frost from forming. The idea comes from seeing all the incredible palms at the Doubletree Resort Orlando on International Drive next to Sea World that were planted more than 10 years ago. I recognize that microclimates exist everywhere and that cement from surrounding roads, parking lots and buildings probably thermally shield the more sensitive palms (e.g., coconut palms), but I am not convinced it is just a microclimate or cement and buildings radiating heat back at night. During our January 2009 freezes the coconut and royal palms at the Doubletree Resort were not damaged the slightest! It is my belief that all the lighting (e.g., each tree has large spot lights directed towards the canopy and street lights, etc.) that surrounds the area may aid in protecting the plants from frost.

There is it.........What do ya'll think?

I welcome all comments and/or suggestions.

[BS Man about Palms]

Ask Ray about wrapping the palms...

[AggiePalms]

I'm in the new zone 9, but it still feels like zone 8B, no matter what the government says. Last night was the first freeze of the season; down to a disastrous 24F (ouch) with nearly a half inch of ice on the birdbath. No hardening off, with a couple of minor freezes earlier in the season. Not normal at all, and there are three more nights of mid-twnties in the forecast. Help!

All the aroids, Musa, etc., are down to the ground for the winter. They should be back with no protection. However, all my tropical palms either go inside or get wrapped. My solution for my Caryota (been in the ground nearly 7 years) is definitely to wrap. Since it has a single trunk, like your Roystonea, wrapping is easy to do...even though it has reached my limit of reaching it from my ladder (13 feet of trunk). I don't use normal wrap plus lights, although several people on here have said they are very good. Instead I wrap with pink thick fiberglass insulation, like R-13 or R-19 or so. It has kept the fishtail alive and somewhat happy in previous winters. I still do lose leaves (outside the insulation)...there will be some loss from last night..., but it always before has come back in the spring. This year, I have shoved some big wads of insulation down onto the growing tip, hoping it stays even warmer.

Good luck, I think your plan will work.

[epicure3]

There are a million ways to protect your palms and plants IF you're willing to spend the cash. I did the same in '07 when I had my one and only freeze. I got some industrial sized heaters and blasted the place for a couple of nights. It seemed to work pretty well but I think I was a little nuts.

[spockvr6]

Natureguy-

I have about 2kW worth of landscape lights in my yard, most of which blast right up trees as youve described. I am not sure these would provide enough radiant heat (i.e. radiational heat transfer to leaf surfaces, not necessarily a rise in temperature of the air between them) to make a notable or even measurable difference. And of course, I have no real way to accurately measure leaf surface temperature anyway. But, heck, maybe Ill leave them on all night tonight just for yucks!

[_Keith]

The models just keep looking worse and worse. We are now 29,29,41,25,23,28. Watchout Florida.

[mjff]

Keith, those lows look like our normal winter lows out here. Try 25, 25, 32, 25, 15, 22, and 28 for this week. The only one that might cause a problem for my palms will be that 15, but most of mine have survived 14 before, so as long as they aren't off by too much on that low mine should be fine.

[PalmatierMeg]

Last winter I tented my Licuala grandis with the fabric cover for our T-bird draped over two step ladders. Then I put a shop light on the ground beneath. Licuala pulled through 4-5 low 30s nights with only tip burn. So far I haven't resorted to that. The palm is almost too tall to tent anymore.

[Rafael]

My archontophoenix cunninghamiana, wich i show on the link below, quite tall, faced three back to back nights with -1,8ºC, -2,6ºC and -3,8ºC. and some frost these 3 days. After five days, all leaves almost totaly burned. However it will certainly recover.

Because of its size its quite dificult to protect it. Besides that, those leaves have no flexibility to join together and protect.

I have ground halogen, but only on seven syagrus romanzofiana, wich are great for 2 years, facing some freeze and some light frost.

I am also thinking on puting one halogen light below archie, after this winter, to help it facing bad winter days.

[Mark Heath]

Show us a picture of your Royal palms. I ask this because the bigger they are, the harder to protect.

I have a Cuban Royal and a Florida Royal and both have 10-12ft of grey wood. They are too large to protect and

last year they were burnt badly w/ heavy frost, but they have come back nicely this year.

Looks like i'll get hit again!

If they're just developing a trunk, then wrap them w/ frostcloth and blankets and use the big bulbed christmas lights underneath. I did this for years untill they were to large to cover and by that time they were able to fend for themselves.

When you do get some time and visit here i can show you what i am talking about. But i fear you might be seeing

a less than stellar specimen Royal.