Date's Cold Hardiness

[insipidtoast]

How cold hardy are Dates (Phoenix dactylifera)?

[empireo22]

22f but im sure if it is a dry cold can handle much more. either way it is good for santa barbara for cold hardiness but not for the fruit not enough heat.

[Kailua_Krish]

22f but im sure if it is a dry cold can handle much more. either way it is good for santa barbara for cold hardiness but not for the fruit not enough heat.

I would say much more than 22, they can regularly experience 18 in North Central Florida and are fine with minor tip burning from frost. Im not sure what the absolute limit is though.

-Krishna

[insipidtoast]

22f but im sure if it is a dry cold can handle much more. either way it is good for santa barbara for cold hardiness but not for the fruit not enough heat.

I would say much more than 22, they can regularly experience 18 in North Central Florida and are fine with minor tip burning from frost. Im not sure what the absolute limit is though.

-Krishna

Doesn't the Florida rain mess up the fruit?

[edbrown_III]

a large plant in a west side neighborhood survived all the epic 1980's freezes it saw below 10F

Best regards

Ed

[Kailua_Krish]

22f but im sure if it is a dry cold can handle much more. either way it is good for santa barbara for cold hardiness but not for the fruit not enough heat.

I would say much more than 22, they can regularly experience 18 in North Central Florida and are fine with minor tip burning from frost. Im not sure what the absolute limit is though.

-Krishna

Doesn't the Florida rain mess up the fruit?

Yeah, but they are widely used as landscaping trees here.

-Krishna

[iamjv]

Lots of variables in the true answer.... length and moisture content of the freeze playing a big part in the outcome. Dry, radiational freezes can allow the palm to recover from much lower temps (around 10F) add moisture and/or length of freeze and that number climbs to upper teens.

[tank]

The dactylifera in Gainesville, FL have shown minimal damage through dry and wet freezes into the upper and mid teens. Heavy frost will torch a P. sylvestris while a nearby dactylifera goes relatively untouched. Strangely enough, you don't see many small dactylifera as they tend to get installed as large plants in commercial settings.

[edbrown_III]

the wild ass freezes of the 80's included sudden drops in temperature and high gale force winds as the artic air mass came to Florida -- not a whole lot of radiation going on. very brutal most of the mature dates species except P. robelini & reclinata

survived. I remember going out a 7 am and seeing 12F on the wall. A buddy of mine showed me a little black neighborhood where he grew up west side of jax and north so it was much colder I saw a 50 ft date palm this was a few years after the freezes but the tree had seen them. This species is pretty tough.

Best regards

Ed

[JLeVert]

There are large dates growing in Statesboro, GA which is 50 miles N/W of Savannah. I also have one growing in Augusta, GA. It was hurt a couple of winters ago (snow piled on top of it), but you would never know to look at it now. I read somewhere that dates in Palm Springs, CA had survived 6F. Is that true or have I lost my mind? Both options could be factual!

[merrillwx]

There are large dates growing in Statesboro, GA which is 50 miles N/W of Savannah. I also have one growing in Augusta, GA. It was hurt a couple of winters ago (snow piled on top of it), but you would never know to look at it now. I read somewhere that dates in Palm Springs, CA had survived 6F. Is that true or have I lost my mind? Both options could be factual!

[merrillwx]

My many trunked dactylifera is damaged almost every winter here in Forest Grove, FL., just south of Rt. 27, barely in Florida. It certainly looks like a typical dactylifera!!

Best Wishes,

merrill

[Eric in Orlando]

There are P. dactylifera and P. canariensis that have survived single digits (F) and even below 0F single digits in El Paso, TX.

[stygiana]

I think it depends on so many factors like the climate, which has a long range effect, the weather before the cold spell (a short range effect, but potentially capable of having major consequences), as well as what cultivar are we talking about (hundreds of different breeds of P. dactylifera have been selected over many centuries and over a huge area with many distinct climates). I imagine the soil and other factors play a big role too.

Under particularly priviledged conditions, like in the mountains of Northern Africa or Middle East, it must withstand very severe frots. But such conditions are so special: extremely dry air and day temperature quickly back to elevated numbers, with a long, very long and very hot summer.

Outside such desert-like conditions, one of the most interesting date palms in cold climates I know grows in Bordeaux (France). P. canariensis can be seen along the Atlantic coast, north up to the British isles, but P. canariensis needs relatively little heat to grow. P. dactylifera requires much more heat. Bordeaux is famous for its vineyard, so there is more heat compared to Bretanny or Britain. But still, it's not that hot. Besides, this old specimen survived -16ºC (3ºF) in 1985...

That's pretty cold, and you can be sure it was wet, and followed by weeks if not months of chilly or cool temperatures. Bordeaux has a much cooler growing season than anywhere in Florida!!!

Here's a link where you can this this date palm in Bordeaux.

http://gardenbreizh.org/photos/jmdb/photo-162611.html

Compare Bordeaux's climate charts with different regions in the USA, it may give you an idea.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Sebastian Bano

[ivanalexander1982]

Eric in Orlando is right. I live in El Paso, Texas and found this Phoenix growing in the middle of concrete buildings. This palm has been here in the past fifteen years and it survived the epic freeze we had in Feb 2011 of 2F. That freeze killed many other palms in the area, specially the washingtonia robustas, but the canariensis and dactyliferas have been growing fine somehow. Here is a picture of this date palm. This winter had a low of 17F, two weeks ago so yeah the leaves are a bit burned off but it will make it.

Edited February 15, 2013 by ivanalexander1982

[sonoranfans]

In 2007 I had the opportunity to see the effects of 18F-19F advective cold events 2 nights in a row in an area of phoenix AZ that had adult washie filiferas, phx dactyliferas, and washie robustas. the robustas had ~30% burn of leaflets(@25-30'tall). the filiferas and dactyliferas of similar height were untouched...

[iamjv]

Phx canariensis is certainly stronger when it comes to taking colder and wetter winter weather. I have a Phx C. that has seen and survived numberous single digit temps in the high grass lands of southern Arizona. The palm has been in the ground since 1973 and it and the rest of the Phx C's around town have all come back from temps as low as 3F. A few years back, Phx C's in Douglas AZ saw and survived temps as low as -1F.... they lost their entire crown as you might expect and subsequently had some trunk damage but are healthy none the less today!

[sarasota alex]

There is an 85-90 year old female Phoenix dactylifera growing inside of an a historic Orangery of Kharkov Botanical Garden in Ukraine. During one of the coldest winters in the mid-1990's a heating pipe burst and the entire Orangery was without heat for a couple of days. During that stretch they registered temperatures as low as -18C inside (approx. 0F). The date palm was one of only 3 plants out of thousands to survive. The other two were a few decades old Chamaerops and a live oak of some kind. What's interesting is that they had lost all of their Trachycarpus spp. among other palms.

I have many pictures of that Phoenix I'll locate them and will try to post some.

[iamjv]

Interesting info Alex.... yes do post your photos please !