How i am trying to protect tender and small palms

[Rafael]

These days i brought inside all the tender or small palms i have, some into the garage, others into the kitchen (warmer and with much light).

Besides that, i have built a kind of a protection over the tender palms i have in the ground, as you all can check.

I will put a heater inside that structure, when the upper 20's arrive.

Anyone could tell me what kind of christmas lights are appropriate to protect my big cunninghamiana (led or not)?

Thanks in advance.

[edric]

Looks like your in about the same shape as us here in FL, good luck, Ed

[dalmatiansoap]

Great collection Rafael. Im glad that most of our kitchens looks the same with decent green note

If U need christmas lights for decoration than go with Leds but if U need them for what I think U do than use the old fashion ones. Led lights arent heat source.

[Rafael]

Yap, i hope when March arrives i wont be drawing out brown stuff...

[edric]

It all looks fantastic now! I'll bet you do just fine, Ed

[Alicehunter2000]

Raphael, I've had success with this type of light around the growing point....and wrapped with a sheet.

[Rafael]

Thanks David!

That´s not easy to wrap with a sheet if the palm is a big cunninghamiana

However, i have already put christmas lights around the new spear zone, lets see...

[Erik]

Rafael,

can you share a photograph of how you placed/arranged the lights? I think that different people apply them differently, and that may explain widely differing success. --Erik

[AggiePalms]

Yes, I would be very interested in how you are using Christmas lights. I am trying lights for the first time on my Caryota...unfortunately I cannot reach the growth tip, it is too tall. We have already had mid-20's twice in the last week or so. Hopefully not just brown in March!

[Rafael]

I am just a beginner trying this kind of method, no example to be followed.

I have an archontophoenix cunninghamiana, 4 mts tall. This palm, as also the howea forsteriana, does well 5 km appart from the coast, but not here (two degrees lower than the inlander place, and with much humidity and salt). Anyway i still dont understand why this palm had 100% freeze and frost burn, when it took only -3,8ºC (26F), twice. After that, the recovery was not complete, and now it is facing a new winter with less resistance.

So, i decided to try christmas lights near the growing point, covering, as much as possible, with towels. I know it is a rudimentary method, but it worths a try.

Edited December 17, 2010 by rafael

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Rafael, best of luck with your palms....really hope that your efforts are successful!

[Alicehunter2000]

Be careful with the lights you use...big ones can burn badly.

This is how I wrap the sheets.

[Jim in Los Altos]

I am just a beginner trying this kind of method, no example to be followed.

I have an archontophoenix cunninghamiana, 4 mts tall. This palm, as also the howea forsteriana, does well 5 km appart from the coast, but not here (two degrees lower than the inlander place, and with much humidity and salt). Anyway i still dont understand why this palm had 100% freeze and frost burn, when it took only -3,8ºC (26F), twice. After that, the recovery was not complete, and now it is facing a new winter with less resistance.

So, i decided to try christmas lights near the growing point, covering, as much as possible, with towels. I know it is a rudimentary method, but it worths a try.

Rafael, We call the lights you're using on your Archontophoenix rope lights. The bad news is that some of us on this forum have tried those and had them burn our palms. I used them several years ago and literally cooked the Roystonea trunks they were wrapped around. The palms collapsed and were steamy hot inside their trunks. The sad thing was that temperatures never went below 32F that winter. I haven't used any lights on any of my palms since but, If I were going to, I'd use the standard miniature lights like Dave shows.

[Walt]

Rafael: I employee myriad protection techniques to protect my palms and tropicals. I've found the best technique you can do is an enclosure with supplemental heat like you did in the one photo. Of course, this method can only practically be done with small, low growing tropicals or palms, etc.

Just last week I protected a small clusia shrub and Ti plant by way of a crude enclosure (PVC tarp supported by tall steel stakes). Inside the enclosure I used an old teflon coated electric skillet my wife threw out years ago (I have three of them). The skillet put out more than enough heat to keep the inside of the enclosure from freezing.

With regard to palm too tall to bundle and protect the fronds, I only concern myself in protecting the trunk and growth bud. I do this by either using string lights or flexible thermostatically controlled heating cables, covered over in layers of flannel sheets or old quilted mattress covers (or equivalent). Y

Yes, the fronds may get frosted and killed, but the trunk and growth bud are not killed. In fact, the trunk and growth bud aren't even cold stressed. At the worst it's like cutting all the fronds off the palm (hurricane cut). I've used this method now for a couple of winters and it works great. There's enough starch in the trunk's root system and trunk to start regrowing new fronds in the spring. Once one frond grows out photosynthesis starts to produce new food for further growth.

The one caveat I would give is that before wrapping string lights or heating cables around a crowned shaft palm is to first wrap the crown shaft with a terry cloth towel or some insulative material that won't let too much heat contact the tender crownshaft tissue, otherwise it could possibly scorch. Trunks are okay for lights and heating cables to directly contact.

The two photos below show how I protected one of my Archontophoenix alexandrae palms using heating cables and flannel sheets. I only used one sheet but got 3-4 wraps around the trunk, assuring good insulation.

The above photo shows a Archontophoenix alexandrae palm. Note first that I installed a terry cloth towel over the crown shaft. Then I spirally wound a 40 feet length of flexible heating cable around the trunk and growth bud area. I used spring-type clothes pins to secure the towels. I also start from the petioles spiraling down the crownshaft and then the trunk (down to the base) with the heating cables. See next photo.

The above photo shows the installation of the flannel sheet (10 days and many freezes later) on the trunk of my A. alexandrae palm. Note that the Dypsis leptocheilos palm to the left also has the same protection, and also that the fronds were fried. But no matter as the palm will regrow new fronds in the spring and summer.

My heating cables are rated for 7 watts per lineal feet. With good insulation it doesn't take much heat to prevent a palm's trunk from freezing up. The key is more efficient insulation than it is lots of supplemental heat. At least this is the case for my type of climate where I only need to protect the trunk for a few hours. I say a few hours because the most dangerous lowest temperatures don't happen until near dawn. I wouldn't even concern myself in activating the heating cables until temperatures got with a few degrees of 32F/0C.

[Walt]

I am just a beginner trying this kind of method, no example to be followed.

I have an archontophoenix cunninghamiana, 4 mts tall. This palm, as also the howea forsteriana, does well 5 km appart from the coast, but not here (two degrees lower than the inlander place, and with much humidity and salt). Anyway i still dont understand why this palm had 100% freeze and frost burn, when it took only -3,8ºC (26F), twice. After that, the recovery was not complete, and now it is facing a new winter with less resistance.

So, i decided to try christmas lights near the growing point, covering, as much as possible, with towels. I know it is a rudimentary method, but it worths a try.

Rafael, We call the lights you're using on your Archontophoenix rope lights. The bad news is that some of us on this forum have tried those and had them burn our palms. I used them several years ago and literally cooked the Roystonea trunks they were wrapped around. The palms collapsed and were steamy hot inside their trunks. The sad thing was that temperatures never went below 32F that winter. I haven't used any lights on any of my palms since but, If I were going to, I'd use the standard miniature lights like Dave shows.

Jim: Yes, one can literally cook a palm using too much heat. My heating cables don't run hot, but can get very warm. That's why I recommend using far more insulation than hot running string lights, rope lights, or heating cables.

If I use poor (relatively speaking) insulation,then I use more lights or closer spaced spirally wrapped heating cables. The better the insulation used, the wider I space my heating cable spirals. One has to be aware of what materials they are using and apply accordingly and sensibly.

Again, for short duration freezes one doesn't need intense supplemental heat, but rather better insulation. But insulation is only good if in fact you have a heat source. Insulation used by itself really isn't insulating anything. All it will do is buy maybe an hour or two before a palm's trunk would assume ambient air temperature.

There's an art and science to palm protection. I've been working at it for years now, trial and error, but I'm finally getting it down pat and realizing good results.

[Walt]

For tender palms (like my zone 10b/11 Adonidia) that I can can totally cover, I employee my bundling, wrapping and heating method. Since the adonida is next to the house, I lean a 10 feet step ladder against the roof edge to work off of.

First I climb the ladder and bundle the fronds and cinch them with light rope. This reduces the spread of the crown (for eaier wrapping) and also serves as insulation in and of itself, as the outer fronds help insulate the inner fronds.

Second, I take a PVC pipe (or wood pole, etc.) slightly longer than the top of the crown and tie it to the palm. The pole is going to serve as a support to carry the static weight of the coverings/wrappings I'm going to install to insulate the palm, othewise the weight of the wrapping might break the petiols/rachis of the fronds.

Third, I install a terry cloth towel around the tender crown shaft.

Fourth, starting from the top of the palm, I spirally wrap a heating cable around the crown and trunk.

Fifth, I then install a heavy quilted mattress cover to encapsulate the entire frond crown (second photo below). Then I wrap the trunk with large terry cloth bath towels or flannel sheets, etc. Then I plug in my heating cables to an extension cord and let the automatic thermostat take over. The cables activate at 37 degrees F (2.5C)

Above photo shows installation of 1" PVC support pipe, bundling of fronds and installation of terry cloth towel to crownshaft and installation of heating cables.

The above photo shows the installation of quilted mattress cover over frond crown and also wrappings around the palm's trunk to hold in heat from the heating cables.

The above photo (note date stamp compared to other photos) shows my adonida palm (protection removed) after enduring four nights(over a period of 10 days or so) down into the mid to lower 20s F. Had I not protected this palm I all but know it would be dead! The ixora shrubs around the adonidia were heavily covered with several layers of flannel sheets, but some defoliation (leaf drop) is now occuring. After all those nights of freezes the temperature today hit 82 degrees F for a high.

[dalmatiansoap]

Wonderfull presentet method Walt. Whan do U unwrap them? After last frost or whan new growth shows?

[Walt]

Wonderfull presentet method Walt. Whan do U unwrap them? After last frost or whan new growth shows?

As far as unwrapping my palms, I generally do it the day following the freezes or frost. In my climate, normally, we get 1-2 nights of cold, frosty weather, then we may go several weeks, a month, etc., before we get another bout of cold weather that could hurt my palms.

So, I'm somewhat fortunate that I don't have to protect my palms over the entire course of winter, like folks in a colder climate zone do.

The exceptions to the above is when we are forecasted to get multiple cold fronts maybe 3-5 days apart. Then I may unwrap and remove the coverings on the palms but I will leave the fronds bundled and the heating cables in place so they can get sunshine. Then the night before the next freeze/frost I will reinstall the wrappings.

I've done this so many years now that I can reinstall my protection relatively quickly.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Walt, thank you for all of the information that you provide....any dang fool can grow palms where conditions are optimal (no offense intended, folks!! )...

...but looking at your posts has helped me in 2 growing zones, and i have had a great education ...

Thanks a lot!

Rusty

[Rafael]

Thanks for all the inputs, specially from Walt, what a lesson!

The lights i provided to protect my bangalow are definitely not heating too much, in fact i am afraid it wont be enough protection, considering the cold and frost events.

Let's see what happens next, but i am sure i know now more than before all your precious advices.

[BS Man about Palms]

Rafael, please be careful with those lights, they should be OVER the towel, not under....

I'm also VERY sure each one of the people here that "cooked" their palm, didn't think the lights were that hot!

[Walt]

Walt, thank you for all of the information that you provide....any dang fool can grow palms where conditions are optimal (no offense intended, folks!! )...

...but looking at your posts has helped me in 2 growing zones, and i have had a great education ...

Thanks a lot!

Rusty

Rusty: You're welcome, but I would presume you don't need all that much protection in zone 10b. Here in 9b (deep inland) I have adequate winter time heat during the day, but temps drop like a rock at night during radiational cooling nights. If I want zone 10+ stuff, then I must protect on those 2-3 nights each winter. It's a small price to pay, IMO, to be able to enjoy zone 10+ stuff the other 362 days a year!

[Walt]

Thanks for all the inputs, specially from Walt, what a lesson!

The lights i provided to protect my bangalow are definitely not heating too much, in fact i am afraid it wont be enough protection, considering the cold and frost events.

Let's see what happens next, but i am sure i know now more than before all your precious advices.

Rafael: Like I did, you will just have to experiment with cold/frost protection techniques. Like others have, I, too, have burned some palms, even cooked one. Don't get carried away on too much heat. Again, as I said in my earlier posting, strive for low (non intense) heat but high insulation value.

I've found that even light bulbs and heating cables that just run warm, if they stay in contact with some palms (species) of leaves and crown shafts, they will eventually scorch them in the area of contact. That's why it is important to use some non conducting material between the lights/cables and tender tissue of the palm.

Last winter I scorched the petioles and leaves on my bottle palm. It was the first year I used cables on it so I didn't know or not if the heat from the cables would scorch it. I found out in short order the following morning after the freeze. For these past freezes I wrapped a flannel sheet around my bottle palm before installing the heating cables and nothing got scorched.

The adonidia you see in my photos that I protected? Well, there used to be two (I planted them as a double). I killed one using heating cables because the entire crown shaft got scorched. The crown shaft looked like a candy cane! That's when I learned my first lesson on the misapplication of heating cables.

Last January I burned the lower petioles with my heating cables on my small coconut palm because I didnt' wrap the areas of contact with towels or old rags, etc. Well, this year I did it again and burned the petioles! I will definitely be more careful next winter, if in fact my coconut palm survives. I say that because of all the freezing nights it's been exposed to and winter hasn't even officially started.

Good luck with your protection.

[Alicehunter2000]

Excellent advice from Walt. Especially for crownshafted palms.

If you are a lazy sod like me and the palm is non-crownshafted such as the Bizmarkia pictured, I can truthfully say that it only takes me 5 minutes to prepare my system. I just wad the teeny-tiny little lights around the bud area and wrap best I can. It is very suprising that such a small bulb that produces no apparent heat when hanging in the open can generate the heat it does when wrapped. I live in a colder zone than Walt and have to leave my lights and wraps on for a couple of months. I only turn the lights on when it gets near freezing and below and like today when it is cold, wet and non-freezing to keep the bud area dried out with the warmth.

You know, someone needs to get some temperature readings from inside their wraps so that we can really know what temps we are talking about. Mine feels to the touch around 90 f.....but don't know for sure.

Again, be careful with the rope lights.

[Rafael]

As far as i could understand, Walt protects the crownshaft, then the lights or cables, and over it another towel or so.

David, did you put the lights directly on the bizzie?

I wonder if my lights (those i have shown above) could work, not overwarming, if i choose Walts's method: first crownshaft protection, after the lights, and then another covering towel.

Walt, do you protect anyhow the new spear? Or just from the top of the crownschaft, going to the trunk? And is it so important to protect the trunk?

[Walt]

As far as i could understand, Walt protects the crownshaft, then the lights or cables, and over it another towel or so.

David, did you put the lights directly on the bizzie?

I wonder if my lights (those i have shown above) could work, not overwarming, if i choose Walts's method: first crownshaft protection, after the lights, and then another covering towel.

Walt, do you protect anyhow the new spear? Or just from the top of the crownschaft, going to the trunk? And is it so important to protect the trunk?

Rafael: I only protect the new spear in applications where I wrap the entire palm crown (like I did in my Adonidia photo). Otherwise, the new spear doesn't get protected (when the palm is just too tall, etc., to wrap fully), and I just protect the trunk and growth bud as shown in my photo of Archontophoenix alexandrae and Dypsis leptocheilos.

With respect to David applying lights directly to his bizzie, some palms seem to be able to take direct contact with lights, heating cables, etc., better than others (I would think Bismarkia would be one). One just has to experiment for themselves. I found (at least so far) that the petioles on my Dypsis leptocheilos don't scorch like they do on my adonidia, coconut palm and others.

Two winters ago when I could still totally wrap my coconut palm I stuck a digital thermometer sensor (transmitter) inside the wrappings, but away from the heating cable, where it may be unduly influenced. When my ambient air temperature dropped into the high 20s F it never dropped below 55F inside the wraps, as I was monitoring the temperature from my base station inside the house (and I slept well, feeling so assured my coconut palm wasn't being cold damaged). One can also place a mercury hi-lo thermometer inside the wraps and then see what the lowest temperature it dropped to during the cold night.

Just remember, you are not trying to keep the palm toasty warm, just keeping it from freezing. So again, it won't take much heat, just some low to moderate heat and good insulation. Now, I'm mainly talking about protecting a palm in a climate that is relatively mild during the day and only drops below freezing for a few or more hours maybe a few times during the winter. For some here that have to protect cold hardy palms all winter long, day and night, the protection techniques would surely be different than mine.

Tenting enclosure photos below:

Photo above shows a crude tent-like enclosure I constructed to protect a small clusia shrub and Ti plant. Note the electric skillet on ground next to tent. I used this skillet to provide heat inside the tent.

Photo above shows (note date stamp) shows my clusia and Ti plant in pristine condition after being protected from four different nights of freezing temperatures. The green steel stakes you see are what supported the old car cover I used for the enclosure tent. Also, note the small adonidia palm to the right. I had this palm bundled up, wrapped in mini string lights, then wrapped with old quilted mattress covers. The results speak for themselves.

[BS Man about Palms]

As I always metion to folks (since I deal with temps at work- fixing heat and A/C) your hand is at 98F if it feels warm, its warmer. But I can confirm with my thermocouple too.

[Rafael]

Rainy and 50's/60's F days are back again.

I have exchanged my christmas lights for anothers, regular ones.

When the colder days arrive again i will show a pic of how i have foillowed Walt's method.

Meanwhile most of the potted palms are outdoors again, getting some rain and pure air!

[Alicehunter2000]

Walt has a superior, albeit more time consuming method. BS man...good point....need to get one of those thermometer thingies.

[Rafael]

That's the best method, i think, considering a crownschaft palm.

[SubTropicRay]

Rafael, how warm does your garage stay without added heat? I was surprised how cool/cold mine got. I assumed that an un-insulated garage would keep temperaturs at least 15-20 degrees merely because it is an enclosed structure. In reality, the difference is only about 8-10 degrees.

[Rafael]

When outside temps freeze down to 26F (the worst i have read), inside my non heated garage we have 45F.

[Rafael]

I wish i made it correctly!

[Walt]

I wish i made it correctly!

That's the correct technique, but those mini lights don't offer much heat, althought better than nothing. I would wrap another string around them.

I used those mini lights on my smallest adonidia palm, plus lots of coverings. Last night I dropped into the low 20s F and it's supposed to drop into the 20s again tonight. Tomorrow the warm up starts and I will uncover everything. I will post photos to show if my mini lights and wraps was enough protection.

[Walt]

There's an old cliche that reads: The proof is in the pudding. That is the case of my palm protection method against cold and frost.

Yesterday my open-yard low temperature was 20.9 degrees F (-6 C). This morning it was 23.9 degrees F (-4.5 C). Had I not protected my adonidia palm it would have been totally defoliated at the least or killed at the worst.

Once again, as in numerous winters past, my protection kept it from damage. This morning I took the below three photos. The first photo shows the palm still wrapped up with heating cable under the wraps.

The second photo shows the palm immediately after removing the wraps and heating cable. The third photo shows the adonidia and bottle palm. The results speak for themselves (the bottle palm was raggedy with potassium deficiency even before the protection).

Yes, it's a PITA protecting palms this way, but the results are worth it. I estimate it takes about 20 minutes to completely protect each palm and about 5 minutes to remove the protection (not counting dragging out the ladder and materials, etc.)

Normally, I only need to do the above once, maybe twice, each winter. But this winter is an exception and I've already wrapped my palms several times.

[Alicehunter2000]

I am starting to think that being on a coastal area further north may not see the extreme lows that further south and inland seems to get. My lows have been in the upper 20's this winter. In fact, philodendrons on the southeast side of the house have not been burned. Strange for me you had temps that low, that far south...so I can only attribute it to being inland as opposed to coastal.

I am starting to wonder if I might have burned one of my queen palms with my icicle lights. As you know I was placing the lights on the palm and then wrapping. I guess time will tell this summer when they start to grow. May have to change my method to more like Walt's with the more tender palms. The Bizmarkia's may not be affected....will know more in a few months.

[Rafael]

I am also surprised with Walt's low temps. But the good news is that you can really protect those tender palms...

As David, i also live in coastal area. However, as i told on the first post, we have minimum of 26F/-3,8C, and my cunninghamiana and howea forsteriana cant support such freeze and frost event, and get almost immediately burned. I dont know, but i think that's not only the temps, but also other microclimate issues, like moisture, salt,...

[Rafael]

Four/five days with higher temps and rain forecast.

So, i decided to put everybody outdoors.

I am tired, but glad...