Copernicia Alba in St Augustine, FL

[Almisa]

Pic #1 - first installed in August 2022

Pic#2 - early November

so far so good. 

[PalmatierMeg]

C alba can take down to 25F or so. Below that, they likely suffer damage or death. These are not fast growing palms so regrowth from cold damage takes time if you expect it to look good before the following winter. What lows do you consistently get? Are you prepared to protect your Copernicia? A good rule of thumb for zone pushing in FL

 

Zone            Minimum Temps

10a              30 - 35F

9b                25 - 30F

9a                20 - 25F

 

Temps above are not cast in stone and certainly can and probably will go lower at some point. I’m supposedly zone 10a but I’ve seen a record winter low of 28.5F. I lost 30+ species of palms to cold that year.

[Fusca]

@Almisa you should be fine with your Copernicia alba.  I highly recommend them for zone 9a and above.  The South American Copernicia palms (alba and prunifera) are more cold hardy than given credit for.  I had a blue alba survive 9° and 13° on consecutive nights in February 2021 in San Antonio protected with a string of lights.  It suffered zero damage unprotected at 26° along with a juvenile green prunifera.  I believe @tank had one survive 14° in Gainesville several years ago.  The Cuban Copernicia palms are more tender and difficult to transplant.  If you get an unusual cold below 20° this winter it might need some protection since it's newly planted but should be fine going forward.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Fusca

[Almisa]

12 hours ago, Fusca said:

@Almisa you should be fine with your Copernicia alba.  I highly recommend them for zone 9a and above.  The South American Copernicia palms (alba and prunifera) are more cold hardy than given credit for.  I had a blue alba survive 9° and 13° on consecutive nights in February 2021 in San Antonio protected with a string of lights.  It suffered zero damage unprotected at 26° along with a juvenile green prunifera.  I believe @tank had one survive 14° in Gainesville several years ago.  The Cuban Copernicia palms are more tender and difficult to transplant.  If you get an unusual cold below 20° this winter it might need some protection since it's newly planted but should be fine going forward.

Thanks for the encouragement and we will watch those temps-looks as though there just may be dips to pay attention to in this area. Last winter I lost foilage on bismarkia, dypsis Dicari and p. robellini with protection but they all came back. This Copernicia is in a vulnerable location on my corner lot so we will watch it carefully if we see mid to low 20’s coming. The only protection I think will help may be the Christmas lights up as far as possible. Yes?? The last two fall storms did noticeable damage to a number of fronds despite their thick, leathery composition. Anyway-I did quite a bit of research on Copernicia once I resolved myself (and my pocketbook) to not being able to grow subtropicals in northern Fla ! Again thx for the advice.

[kinzyjr]

8 hours ago, Almisa said:

Thanks for the encouragement and we will watch those temps-looks as though there just may be dips to pay attention to in this area. Last winter I lost foilage on bismarkia, dypsis Dicari and p. robellini with protection but they all came back. This Copernicia is in a vulnerable location on my corner lot so we will watch it carefully if we see mid to low 20’s coming. The only protection I think will help may be the Christmas lights up as far as possible. Yes?? The last two fall storms did noticeable damage to a number of fronds despite their thick, leathery composition. Anyway-I did quite a bit of research on Copernicia once I resolved myself (and my pocketbook) to not being able to grow subtropicals in northern Fla ! Again thx for the advice.

We grow Copernicia alba as a median plant out in the wide open here.  If you're anywhere near the water up there in St. Augustine, you should have decent luck unless we get a near record cold event.  We have two large ones down at Lake Hollingsworth that were over 20 feet already in 2007, so they've seen at least mid-20s with no damage.

[Almisa]

Well - HERE WE GO! Predicted lows for Christmas and Christmas Eve here is 25 and 26 degrees respectively. I am between I95 and Rt 1 south - about 5 miles from the coast. Good watering tomorrow and crossed fingers will be as much as I can do. Wish me luck! 

[SeanK]

Please let us know how the Copernicias fared this past weekend.

[Gallop]

A brief dip in temps in low 20s alba will be ok, although damage may occur. I’m on the gulf coast 9a and I’ve tried alba on several occasions, planted out from 25gal pots. They never made it more than a few growing seasons. They die when temps stay below freezing for extended durations. To call it a 9a palm is definitely pushing the envelope.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Gallop

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

13 hours ago, Gallop said:

To call it a 9a palm is definitely pushing the envelope.

@Fusca has a good survival story of his Alba in San Antonio during Palmageddon. I believe total defoliation but came back after a trunk cut. 

T J 

[Fusca]

4 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

@Fusca has a good survival story of his Alba in San Antonio during Palmageddon. I believe total defoliation but came back after a trunk cut. 

T J 

Actually the only damage it took in February 2021 was to fronds that "escaped" from the cover and those were completely fried at 9°. I covered as much of the fronds as I could when I wrapped it.  The trunk cut happened in January 2018 (20°) while it was still a newly planted strap leaf seedling.  It has certainly seen some serious cold! 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

6 hours ago, Fusca said:

Actually the only damage it took in February 2021 was to fronds that "escaped" from the cover and those were completely fried at 9°

This is why I'm expecting my Albas once in the ground to be bulletproof palms for 9a 😃

T J 

[Almisa]

On 12/25/2022 at 7:10 PM, SeanK said:

Please let us know how the Copernicias fared this past weekend.

So far so good. We got down to 26/27 degrees at night for 3 days in a row, which is unusual in this area. . I see some frond damage - but you know - won’t really be able to tell the extent for a few weeks or so/ possibly longer.  And there’s still January and February to come! It will be 75 degrees here in a few days…thank goodness!

COPERNECIA.pdf

[Fusca]

18 hours ago, Almisa said:

So far so good. We got down to 26/27 degrees at night for 3 days in a row, which is unusual in this area. . I see some frond damage - but you know - won’t really be able to tell the extent for a few weeks or so/ possibly longer.  And there’s still January and February to come! It will be 75 degrees here in a few days…thank goodness!

COPERNECIA.pdf 488.14 kB · 5 downloads

Once you get to 75-80° you should know then if there's additional cosmetic damage and the palm will grow out of it.  I threw a blanket over my alba and I only saw 27.3° for the low - it's the same one that I posted photos of earlier.  I transplanted it from San Antonio and it suffered severe transplant shock but is growing fine now.  I wouldn't have bothered covering it except that it was not in the ground for very long.  We've been in the low 80's the past two days and I see some slight damage to the older leaves but no problem.  A good sized strap-leaf seedling I planted in the fall was completely untouched without any protection (thanks @richtrav!)

[SeanK]

How did the roebellinis make out?

[tank]

Had a string of 4 days here in Gainesville below freezing with two days of lows @23F around Christmas.  Neither the smallish C. alba or C. prunifera that I planted at the new house or the prunifera and 3 albas that I have at my old house showed any significant damage at this point.  All of these plants have experienced colder temps in the past and survived.

[Meangreen94z]

On 12/25/2022 at 9:14 PM, Gallop said:

A brief dip in temps in low 20s alba will be ok, although damage may occur. I’m on the gulf coast 9a and I’ve tried alba on several occasions, planted out from 25gal pots. They never made it more than a few growing seasons. They die when temps stay below freezing for extended durations. To call it a 9a palm is definitely pushing the envelope.

They definitely are a 9a palm. I can confirm firsthand of them coming back from mid teens with nothing more than being wrapped . Maybe you were buying mislabeled Copernicia prunifera, which is pretty hardy itself 

[Gallop]

I tried both alba and prunifera. Alba on several occasions, 15/ 20gal starter plants never made it more than a few years. My winters kill them. Maybe it’s a combination on cold /rain and possibly longer periods below freezing?  Mine tried to come back but got hit with back to back cold winters and that did them in. 

[Almisa]

Update on this Copernicia alba:  A lot of pruning after the winter damage - hopefully she will return to fuller greener glory over the summer since we are still within year 1 since installation.  Using Palm Perfect and Chelated Nutritional. 

[SeanK]

There are two, right?

Looking good. It's interesting how this species sheds leaf bases.