Jump to content
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT LOGGING IN ×
  • WELCOME GUEST

    It looks as if you are viewing PalmTalk as an unregistered Guest.

    Please consider registering so as to take better advantage of our vast knowledge base and friendly community.  By registering you will gain access to many features - among them are our powerful Search feature, the ability to Private Message other Users, and be able to post and/or answer questions from all over the world. It is completely free, no “catches,” and you will have complete control over how you wish to use this site.

    PalmTalk is sponsored by the International Palm Society. - an organization dedicated to learning everything about and enjoying palm trees (and their companion plants) while conserving endangered palm species and habitat worldwide. Please take the time to know us all better and register.

    guest Renda04.jpg

Pacific Northwest Arctic Outbreak - Protection methods


Chester B

Recommended Posts

What's everyone's plans for protecting?  I keep looking at the weather and one hour it looks ok, then boom it looks really bad.

I guess my big Trachys are on their own.  Small palms I'm planning on making frames and then cover in frost fabric with mini lights inside.  Butias to get mini lights around the growing point and frost fabric as best I can around the crown.  Citrus need to be protected as well.

It looks like we'll be getting a lot rain, then wet snow, then the cold hits. - Terrible combo.  This is easily the worst predicted stretch of weather I've seen here by a long shot.  I normally don't even have one day stay below freezing and my winter ultimate low is usually around 25F. Plus putting up the protection will most likely occur while its raining.

Edited by Chester B
  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm taking the easy way out and putting blankets on a few palms, aloes (plus an instant popup to keep dry), one cordyline and one yucca, one tree fern. Every thing else should be find.  Abutilons, ch. radicals, agaves, are on there own.  Bromelaids come inside the house.  Thats the plan anyways.  Very simple and fast.  Its been a long time since I needed to protect anything.  What's crazy is how long this is going to last, 7- 8 days in my neck of the woods? 

Good luck to All!!!

Edited by Paradise Found
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It’s kinds of convenient it’s striking just after Xmas. I’m gonna move my C9 lights from decorative to protective on the 25th. I’m going to heat and wrap my B. odorata, mule palm, and my Mandarin. Everything else is on its own. My ultimate low is forecasted at -9C as of right now, but I’m less than 50m to the water to the north and south so I imagine I’ll be a bit warmer.

 

I’m pretty confident that most of my plants (other than the aforementioned 3 plants) will be fine with the forecasted cold. The only plant I’m worried about is my 20ft tall acacia that’s too big to protect. Looks like it’s just about to bloom for the first time too, argh! 

  • Like 2

Zone 8b, Csb (Warm-summer Mediterranean climate). 1,940 annual sunshine hours 
Annual lows-> 19/20: -5.0C, 20/21: -5.5C, 21/22: -8.3C, 22/23: -9.4C, 23/24: 1.1C (so far!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am using rope lights and fleece blankets on my butias, jubaeas, and braheas.  I put some umbrellas on top of them for rain/snow cover. (sorry Trachies...) 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well thanks to Chester B for notifying me of the weather, I'd been so busy preparing for holiday travel I hadn't even looked at the weather. 

Threw a frost cloth over the Arengas and C microspadix.  The Syagrus lives under overhead cover and has a 250 watt lamp pointed at it, on a thermocube.  Stays about 10f warmer than ambient.  Butiagrus is back in the same corner so will get a little heat but hopefully I'm back in time to do some more protecting before we see teens. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh also i tried something that someone on here recommended.  I used some foam pipe insulation on some of the C microspadix.  Since it's basically a 1/2" pipe with leaves poking out the top. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Chester B said:

This is easily the worst predicted stretch of weather I've seen here by a long shot. 

About 15 years ago we had two weeks in the teens and 20'sF.  It killed three species of my bamboo because the ground was frozen about two feet deep.  My 4' deep koi pond was frozen solid.  This is exactly what I was worried about when I started getting interested in palms.  That once every 25 year severe cold snap that reminds us why there are no big jubaea in my neighborhood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Fallen Munk said:

About 15 years ago we had two weeks in the teens and 20'sF.  It killed three species of my bamboo because the ground was frozen about two feet deep.  My 4' deep koi pond was frozen solid.  This is exactly what I was worried about when I started getting interested in palms.  That once every 25 year severe cold snap that reminds us why there are no big jubaea in my neighborhood.

I'm assuming this was the infamous winter of 2008?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't forget to feed the hummingbirds during this cold spell, mine have been dive bombing me every time I go near the feeders.  Keep them from freezing by bring inside every night.  

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So the Northeast is getting record cold this winter and had record warmth this past summer. That’s pretty damn hot and cold for one years worth of weather. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Paradise Found said:

Don't forget to feed the hummingbirds during this cold spell, mine have been dive bombing me every time I go near the feeders.  Keep them from freezing by bring inside every night.  

My Grevellia is still blooming and the hummers are loving it. Hopefully it doesn’t get cooked by the cold. My big Acacia is just about to bloom too ugh! I imagine most hummers will go into torpor during the cold, but the will be hungry once it warms up! 

Zone 8b, Csb (Warm-summer Mediterranean climate). 1,940 annual sunshine hours 
Annual lows-> 19/20: -5.0C, 20/21: -5.5C, 21/22: -8.3C, 22/23: -9.4C, 23/24: 1.1C (so far!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, ShadyDan said:

My Grevellia is still blooming and the hummers are loving it. Hopefully it doesn’t get cooked by the cold. My big Acacia is just about to bloom too ugh! I imagine most hummers will go into torpor during the cold, but the will be hungry once it warms up! 

Yes, Grevellia are still blooming and hummer will still eat during the cold days.

which acacia do you have?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Paradise Found said:

Yes, Grevellia are still blooming and hummer will still eat during the cold days.

which acacia do you have?

A. dealbata. Took -5C last winter with no issues, folks in the UK say it can take down to -6C - 8C… we will see I suppose. 

Zone 8b, Csb (Warm-summer Mediterranean climate). 1,940 annual sunshine hours 
Annual lows-> 19/20: -5.0C, 20/21: -5.5C, 21/22: -8.3C, 22/23: -9.4C, 23/24: 1.1C (so far!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, ShadyDan said:

A. dealbata. Took -5C last winter with no issues, folks in the UK say it can take down to -6C - 8C… we will see I suppose. 

A friend of mine has one for years and years,  and It got so big he decided to take it out to create more sunlight.  His was taller than a two story house.  

Mine old one was prassivism and it would bloomed in March with lovely sweet smell.  15F killed it to the ground.  The trunk was as big as 15" wide. 

Edited by Paradise Found
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jtee said:

So the Northeast is getting record cold this winter and had record warmth this past summer. That’s pretty damn hot and cold for one years worth of weather. 

Northeast has record cold? Not sure where but at my camp in Maine the lake hasn’t even completely frozen yet.  Jan 1 is opening day for ice fishing and the lake usually becomes a shanty town of fishing huts Jan 1. This includes plowing an ice road from one end of the lake to another. Not sure that will be possible this year on opening day. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, ShadyDan said:

It’s kinds of convenient it’s striking just after Xmas. I’m gonna move my C9 lights from decorative to protective on the 25th. I’m going to heat and wrap my B. odorata, mule palm, and my Mandarin. Everything else is on its own. My ultimate low is forecasted at -9C as of right now, but I’m less than 50m to the water to the north and south so I imagine I’ll be a bit warmer

Be careful with the C9's, they get really hot.  I burnt a few palms I wrapped last winter.  The lights melted right through the moving blankets and plastic.  Allen warned me too.

Also, one thing I decided after Palmageddon last Feb is if it ever got that cold again, like good chance of killing everything cold, I'd go ahead and trim the trees leaving only the spear before I protect.  If it's that cold they'll defoliate anyway and you will be able to much better protect a pole than you will a tree with a full crown.   Just my $.02

Good luck all!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Keys6505 said:

Also, one thing I decided after Palmageddon last Feb is if it ever got that cold again, like good chance of killing everything cold, I'd go ahead and trim the trees leaving only the spear before I protect.  If it's that cold they'll defoliate anyway and you will be able to much better protect a pole than you will a tree with a full crown.   Just my $.02

Good luck all!

When it get this cold in the teens I cut the tree fern leaves off,  there only evergreen to 25F.  So much easier to protect this way.  All your advise is good. 

Edited by Paradise Found
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Fallen Munk said:

If I remember correctly....

Yes, mid/late Dec 2008 into early Jan 2009. 

Edited by Las Palmas Norte
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Keys6505 said:

Be careful with the C9's, they get really hot.  I burnt a few palms I wrapped last winter.  The lights melted right through the moving blankets and plastic.  Allen warned me too.

Also, one thing I decided after Palmageddon last Feb is if it ever got that cold again, like good chance of killing everything cold, I'd go ahead and trim the trees leaving only the spear before I protect.  If it's that cold they'll defoliate anyway and you will be able to much better protect a pole than you will a tree with a full crown.   Just my $.02

Good luck all!

Yea that’s then plan. I’ve been heating my greenhouse for years with c9s. I’ll be putting the lights around the base and through the fronds and propping the blankets up with something. Fingers crossed!

Zone 8b, Csb (Warm-summer Mediterranean climate). 1,940 annual sunshine hours 
Annual lows-> 19/20: -5.0C, 20/21: -5.5C, 21/22: -8.3C, 22/23: -9.4C, 23/24: 1.1C (so far!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, RJ said:

Northeast has record cold? Not sure where but at my camp in Maine the lake hasn’t even completely frozen yet.  Jan 1 is opening day for ice fishing and the lake usually becomes a shanty town of fishing huts Jan 1. This includes plowing an ice road from one end of the lake to another. Not sure that will be possible this year on opening day. 

I meant northwest

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve been busy still lots to do but here’s the start. Actually looks nice at night.  
 

 

  • Like 1
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Chester B said:

I’ve been busy still lots to do but here’s the start. Actually looks nice at night.  
 

 

looks great!

  • Like 1

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@tntropics - 60+ In-ground 7A palms - (Sabal) minor(7 large + 27 seedling size, 3 dwarf),  brazoria(1) , birmingham(4), etonia (1) louisiana(5), palmetto (1), riverside (1),  (Trachycarpus) fortunei(7), wagnerianus(1),  Rhapidophyllum hystrix(7),  15' Mule-Butia x Syagrus(1),  Blue Butia capitata(1) +Tons of tropical plants.  Recent Yearly Lows -1F, 12F, 11F, 18F, 16F, 3F, 3F, 6F, 3F, 1F, 16F, 17F, 6F, 8F

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Allen said:

looks great!

Thanks. Hopefully it performs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, here is my lame protection, LOL!  Not pretty at all, but it seem to work most bad winters. One Butia out front is on it own, it has overhead protection form Trachy's. The six photo is the massive tree fern. 

cycad

IMG-2443.JPG

Aloes, dyckia, Horwothia. 

IMG-2440.JPG

 

Pink cordyline 5' tall. IMG-2441.JPG

Butia 

IMG-2435.JPG

 Mule palmIMG-2429.JPG

Tree fern 9' tall.

IMG-2437.JPG

big cordyline

IMG-2433.JPG

 

mule palm Jbf2. IMG-2430.JPG

Edited by Paradise Found
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Working progress... ! everything is tied up, except chamaerops. i ust need to put blankets on. I will hopefully finish mine tomorrow afternoon. 

PXL_20211224_221721615.PORTRAIT.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep were all try in too get some type of protection....im not going to start till tomorrow afternoon...all send some pics...but I'm not as concerned as the models have things back in off a bit..still safer than sorry PNW...

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hutch said:

Yep were all try in too get some type of protection....im not going to start till tomorrow afternoon...all send some pics...but I'm not as concerned as the models have things back in off a bit..still safer than sorry PNW...

It’s looking pretty good now. Just a few cool nights. Two days right around freezing for me. That’s it. Hope it holds. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another load into the greenhouse. Thankfully this is my first winter as a palm collector and only thing in the ground is T.fortunei at the moment. All my hybrids are too small for this type of test. Maybe this is the once in a decade cold winter and I’ll have a good ten of growing before we see this again. Best of luck to everyone keeping they’re beauties safe! 

381DF39B-F345-4338-8ADE-3F822C7509A1.jpeg

Edited by NWpalms@206
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well this experiment has mix results so far.  This spot receives more rain than I thought.  Planter is totally water logged.  Not sure if I can get a good reading on whether this is a microclimate or not with all the rain inside.  My experiment is drowning, LOL! :blink2:  Now to see if it a dry spot when it snows, how much will fall in this spot? We'll see!

IMG-2450.JPG

 

Edited by Paradise Found
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Chester B said:

It’s looking pretty good now. Just a few cool nights. Two days right around freezing for me. That’s it. Hope it holds. 

Yep, should be fine with the updated forecast.  I just moved all of my potted CIDP to the shed and put a few garbage cans over my smaller planted palms.  Dodged a bullet with this one.  We should get some snow this weekend but that's a good thing.  It will insulate against the colder temperatures come mid week.

Edited by Fallen Munk
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Fallen Munk said:

Yep, should be fine with the updated forecast.  I just moved all of my potted CIDP to the shed and put a few garbage cans over my smaller planted palms.  Dodged a bullet with this one.  We should get some snow tonight but that's a good thing.  It will insulate against the colder temperatures come mid week.

I think it was good practice to protect incase we do see record low temps in the future. 

Edited by Paradise Found
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just gonna let things go as the forecast doesn't look to bad...im a bit pissed my Loquat tree is in full bloom ..but oh well

16404735012716838169660237954823.jpg

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have never tied up my palm fronds for the winter protection for more than one day. Is it ok to leave them tied for the whole winter? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Trustandi said:

I have never tied up my palm fronds for the winter protection for more than one day. Is it ok to leave them tied for the whole winter? 

People in colder places do for months on end. Should be ok. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Chester B said:

People in colder places do for months on end. Should be ok. 

You should be able to untie in the middle of February. There Shouldn't be any freezes, that will hard it by then. 

Edited by Paradise Found
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is my review of the pop up greenhouse. 

It was very good for protecting from cold winds, you could feel it was warmer inside with out heat. 

Easy to put up only took 5 minutes. Comes with stakes for extra strength for the sides. 

Bad thing is the zipper got frozen on one night.

Bad thing is the top is a hoop shape and that will not stand up to rain or snow. It would invert and become a funnel of water or snow. 

Will I use it again yes, but will have to put a stake inside to keep the top upright. 

I think a wooden one (home made) would be better for heavy snow for sure. 

last pic is the melting snow on top pushing it down. I had heat inside and that melted the snow. 

IMG-2617.JPG

IMG-2620.JPG

  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...