I keep reading that sabal minor (var species?) grows best in hot (and humid) summers and that it is best able to deal with cold winter if it has had a hot summer to store energy for the winter.  So my thought was, could we use artificial heat sources, like xmas lights in the fall (or possibly even the summer?) to make the growing season hotter and longer to get more growth and/or winter preparation out of our sabals?  Could i turn my MD growing season into something more like a Virginia growing season? In the winter i usually have a string of 200 little xmas lights on the ground around the base (never touching) of my Trachys and turn them on at 5F or lower to try to add a couple of degrees at night.  Could the same idea work to raise the ambient temperature a few degrees (or more) during the fall (or even summer) around my sabals, if it would do some good?  Especially for the younger sabals?

Do we know more specifically what "part of hot" is valuable to the sabal?  Is it that, say, 90 degree air temperature during the day is much more beneficial than say 80 or 85 degrees.  Is it that warmer air temperatures at night (as opposed to during the day) that is important? Is it not the air temperature but rather the ground temperature that matters?  I have not found anything on line that tells me what specifically matters heat wise for better growth.

Any thoughts or cites on what makes sabals grow better would be appreciated, now that my sabal stable has grown to include minor, Caper Hatteras, Brazoria, louisiana and Birmingham.  Also if you think this idea its nuts, let me know why.  I would not want to harm my sabals.

Thanks 

I don't think it would have any noticeable effect on the growth.   Sabal minor types should grow well for you anyway.  

I believe the heat allows for Sabals to mature quicker and get established, I’m not sure if they store energy for winter or not (as far as I know). I don’t think it would be a good idea to use a heat source during the spring, fall, and winter in order to get more growth out of Sabals. Instead, what I would recommend doing is building a mini greenhouse (make sure it is super sturdy and won’t blow around in the wind) around what ever palms you want to start growing earlier. This spring has been so unusually cool that I have a few of these mini greenhouses around some of my plants. They work really well if they are in a sunny spot. The air temperature outside of them might be 65 to 75 (about what our day temps have been this Spring) while inside I’ve gotten them to get as hot as 109 degrees F, while they are more typically in the 90s. This is what I have found using my own thermometers. If your palms are in a sunny location, I would highly recommend doing this. I even have some around some plants in my garden (tomatos, etc.) and the plants inside of the mini greenhouses have taken off, while the ones outside are still healthy, but much smaller and growing slower. This is the first Spring I’ve done this, I had a bunch of old stakes and clear plastic tarps to work with. 

Edited May 12, 20206 yr by PalmTreeDude

10 hours ago, newtopalmsMD said:

I keep reading that sabal minor (var species?) grows best in hot (and humid) summers and that it is best able to deal with cold winter if it has had a hot summer to store energy for the winter.  So my thought was, could we use artificial heat sources, like xmas lights in the fall (or possibly even the summer?) to make the growing season hotter and longer to get more growth and/or winter preparation out of our sabals?  Could i turn my MD growing season into something more like a Virginia growing season? In the winter i usually have a string of 200 little xmas lights on the ground around the base (never touching) of my Trachys and turn them on at 5F or lower to try to add a couple of degrees at night.  Could the same idea work to raise the ambient temperature a few degrees (or more) during the fall (or even summer) around my sabals, if it would do some good?  Especially for the younger sabals?

Do we know more specifically what "part of hot" is valuable to the sabal?  Is it that, say, 90 degree air temperature during the day is much more beneficial than say 80 or 85 degrees.  Is it that warmer air temperatures at night (as opposed to during the day) that is important? Is it not the air temperature but rather the ground temperature that matters?  I have not found anything on line that tells me what specifically matters heat wise for better growth.

Any thoughts or cites on what makes sabals grow better would be appreciated, now that my sabal stable has grown to include minor, Caper Hatteras, Brazoria, louisiana and Birmingham.  Also if you think this idea its nuts, let me know why.  I would not want to harm my sabals.

Thanks 

I can tell you that from what I have witnessed is that the Sabals that I grow in pots love heat. They really start to put on growth when the nights are warm. When the night time lows are in the 70's and the day times highs are in the 90's they move much faster then when the nights cool way back down.  Now I don't have any Sabal minors to comment on directly, but I would think they like pretty similar growing conditions. 

 

I can certainly appreciate the want to get the S.minors to grow a bit faster but to me putting lights on them year round seems like it would really ruin the appeal of having them in the first place, their beauty.  Now perhaps spot lighting them at night as it often done with larger palms might help and still look pretty cool. You often see this done with larger palms to illuminate the crown from below. 

Edited May 12, 20206 yr by RJ

Well our summers are identical to it's native ranges....hot and humid. Unless you live west of hancock I am confident your summers are more than hot and humid enough.

 

Thanks all 

Palm Tree Dude,  So you like the idea of making things hotter in the spring for your palms.  You just don't like using electric lights as much as green houses?  Are you planning to do this in the fall as well? (or would this delay plants doing whatever they do chemically to prep for winter?) Which palms are getting the greenhouse treatment?

RJ, I would not hang lights on the palm itself.  I would put them on the ground around the crown.  I've seen suggestions that one could put rocks around a plant as rocks would absorb heat during the day and then radiate it at night.  The lights would kinda work as electric rocks.

 

2 hours ago, newtopalmsMD said:

Thanks all 

Palm Tree Dude,  So you like the idea of making things hotter in the spring for your palms.  You just don't like using electric lights as much as green houses?  Are you planning to do this in the fall as well? (or would this delay plants doing whatever they do chemically to prep for winter?) Which palms are getting the greenhouse treatment?

RJ, I would not hang lights on the palm itself.  I would put them on the ground around the crown.  I've seen suggestions that one could put rocks around a plant as rocks would absorb heat during the day and then radiate it at night.  The lights would kinda work as electric rocks.

 

Xmas lights are not going to heat the palm much unless they are wrapped inside a structure or you wrap burlap or frost cloth over them to trap the heat.  Lights long term on ground will get wet and eventually turn off or trip GFCI.  In short this is a bad idea.  You could heat a greenhouse type structure if you wanted but that just seems redundant since these palms should grow well for you.