Zone 5 and 6 palm growers

[Coldpalms]

2 hours ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

I agree whole heartedly. I barely cling on here in zone 8. You zone 5 or 6 growers have nerves of steel.

It’s currently-18 degrees with 10” of snow and 25mph winds. But my palms are chillin at a cool zone 9 winter night at 46 degrees in my new palm “condo” I had made. 

[Coldpalms]

1 minute ago, Coldpalms said:

It’s currently-18 degrees with 10” of snow and 25mph winds. But my palms are chillin at a cool zone 9 winter night at 46 degrees in my new palm “condo” I had made. 

I just heard that we will set the national record for most consecutive days, in history, under a windchill warning, per the national weather service. I’ll keep y’all posted on the outcome of my “coldpalms” with some pics when the weather allows me to open them up to take a peak. 

[Jimhardy]

Its about the same here.....-18F I think right now.....we got 13" from the first storm

and 17" from the second,(30" on the ground-) this much snow is making us one of the coldest locations

except well north of here. Not getting above 0(F) today.

[subsonicdrone]

check out green dragan in ottawa canada

similar to you're set up

 

Edited January 14, 2024 by subsonicdrone

[Jimhardy]

Classy.

[Coldpalms]

41 minutes ago, subsonicdrone said:

check out green dragan in ottawa canada

similar to you're set up

 

I thought about green house panels on the sides as well, but I have a green house and they take a lot to heat because those panels have no R value so opted to just put it at the top so they got light, but I stood a chance not burning the lights out half way through winter. Those are nice because you can actually see the palm all winter. 

[N8ALLRIGHT]

-10 overnight, it's up -3 here now. Not as bad as coldpalms or jimhardy. Still plenty cold for this kid. Going to make another run at -10 tonight. Brrr

[N8ALLRIGHT]

7 hours ago, Jimhardy said:

Its about the same here.....-18F I think right now.....we got 13" from the first storm

and 17" from the second,(30" on the ground-) this much snow is making us one of the coldest locations

except well north of here. Not getting above 0(F) today.

Hopefully the brazoria at the old place survives. I'm interested in the outcome 

[Jimhardy]

It has to be buried in snow right now...I thought about going by

to see if it was well covered.....I guess I still can.

Already -17F here @ 9:07pm. So much snow.

[happypalms]

That’s cold I have been to teulon Manitoba and was totally amazed by the gardening techniques in such cold climates with the what would grow and even marginally look tropical in appearance as a gardener myself full credit goes to the winter snow bunny’s for gardening in such extreme temperatures you guys can garden 🪴 

[ChicagoPalma]

On 1/13/2024 at 10:11 PM, Coldpalms said:

It’s currently-18 degrees with 10” of snow and 25mph winds. But my palms are chillin at a cool zone 9 winter night at 46 degrees in my new palm “condo” I had made. 

Zone 4b winter for chicago! Reached -18F last night.

[Coldpalms]

1 minute ago, ChicagoPalma said:

Zone 4b winter for chicago! Reached -18F last night.

Isn’t it beautiful!? 😏 -30 windchill tonight. It’s been about 4 years since we’ve seen temps this low. Last time it was this cold, we had planned rolling blackouts so we could send Texas electricity when they experienced a deep freeze and had minimal electrical power, because all the wind generators had frozen up and their grid was over burdened when the wind generators went down. 

[Las Palmas Norte]

1 hour ago, ChicagoPalma said:

Zone 4b winter for chicago! Reached -18F last night.

WOW! Same temperature that my upright deep freezer is set at.

[ChicagoPalma]

1 hour ago, Coldpalms said:

Isn’t it beautiful!? 😏 -30 windchill tonight. It’s been about 4 years since we’ve seen temps this low. Last time it was this cold, we had planned rolling blackouts so we could send Texas electricity when they experienced a deep freeze and had minimal electrical power, because all the wind generators had frozen up and their grid was over burdened when the wind generators went down. 

Yeah no kidding, windchill warning from last saturday to all the way tuesday evening. School got cancelled for the second consecutive time. Friday e-learning and now tuesday e-learning. Its supposed to be -40F windchill tuesday, sunday we had like -30F windchill.

[ChicagoPalma]

1 hour ago, Coldpalms said:

Isn’t it beautiful!? 😏 -30 windchill tonight. It’s been about 4 years since we’ve seen temps this low. Last time it was this cold, we had planned rolling blackouts so we could send Texas electricity when they experienced a deep freeze and had minimal electrical power, because all the wind generators had frozen up and their grid was over burdened when the wind generators went down. 

Why the hell do they rely on wind power? I thought they relied on oil and natural gas. Also, how did you survive up there without power during winter, since in 2021 we had 60s in the middle of february in chicago.

[Coldpalms]

26 minutes ago, ChicagoPalma said:

Why the hell do they rely on wind power? I thought they relied on oil and natural gas. Also, how did you survive up there without power during winter, since in 2021 we had 60s in the middle of february in chicago.

I have generator back up on my house, but luckily we didn’t get the notice of a planned outage for my area, likely because a power company board member and about a dozen linemen live on the same grid section as me. But we got a notice yesterday due to high demand, here alone, that we may have planned outages and needed to conserve electricity to avoid one. With notice I can switch the power beforehand without so much as a glitch in a lightbulb. There’s no way I’d try to grow palms here if I didn’t have total control of my power supply. 

[Coldpalms]

On 1/13/2024 at 10:11 PM, Coldpalms said:

It’s currently-18 degrees with 10” of snow and 25mph winds. But my palms are chillin at a cool zone 9 winter night at 46 degrees in my new palm “condo” I had made. 

Today it’s 70 degrees and I uncovered one of my Washingtonias to see how it wintered up till now. Gotta say, it looks ok. 

[Leelanau Palms]

Keep the pics coming @Coldpalms

[ChicagoPalma]

Yeah I'm thinking of growing some less cold hardier palms with the box method, butia is our prime target but if they don't have some big ones I'm going to experiment with a queen palm. In a facebook group I'm in someone in northern zone 6a/5b ohio is growing a queen palm successfully with the box method. Some people near me are planting sylvester and pygmy, and one rich person is growing bismarckia and trying out a king palm here a 10 ft king palm, which I'm expecting horrible results for that. If nothing else might happens the way I want it to happen I can always get a good old washingtonia robusta, but they grow faster than the queens up north so not the best idea.

[Coldpalms]

18 minutes ago, ChicagoPalma said:

Yeah I'm thinking of growing some less cold hardier palms with the box method, butia is our prime target but if they don't have some big ones I'm going to experiment with a queen palm. In a facebook group I'm in someone in northern zone 6a/5b ohio is growing a queen palm successfully with the box method. Some people near me are planting sylvester and pygmy, and one rich person is growing bismarckia and trying out a king palm here a 10 ft king palm, which I'm expecting horrible results for that. If nothing else might happens the way I want it to happen I can always get a good old washingtonia robusta, but they grow faster than the queens up north so not the best idea.

My Washingtonias grow about 2-4 inches in trunk height a year. I have the first one I planted 7 years ago that has put about 18” on the trunk in that time. The box method may increase that to some extent, but the inside temps over the winter and the surrounding ground temps still limit growth over a 6 month period and they really don’t start producing a lot of fronds until the surrounding soil gets to 50+ degrees. I want to try a sabal palm this year if I can get one here. I may have to drive down to Louisiana and grab a couple. I am going to plant my Mediterranean fans this year. I got them two years ago and have acclimated to here via felt pots in the ground but bring them inside over the winter. They’re just hard to cover because how they grow outwards. I want to try my windmills outside but they’re hard to get and expensive. I have a couple with 4’ trunks I bring in. I’ve tried them once and they died. I think it gets too dry for them. 

[Allen]

20 minutes ago, ChicagoPalma said:

Yeah I'm thinking of growing some less cold hardier palms with the box method, butia is our prime target but if they don't have some big ones I'm going to experiment with a queen palm. In a facebook group I'm in someone in northern zone 6a/5b ohio is growing a queen palm successfully with the box method. Some people near me are planting sylvester and pygmy, and one rich person is growing bismarckia and trying out a king palm here a 10 ft king palm, which I'm expecting horrible results for that. If nothing else might happens the way I want it to happen I can always get a good old washingtonia robusta, but they grow faster than the queens up north so not the best idea.

Queens are super tall for their impact so hard to protect

[ChicagoPalma]

1 hour ago, Allen said:

Queens are super tall for their impact so hard to protect

The local nursery has those thick but small ones, so like the trunk will be smaller but canopy will be large, and at that size they will grow quicker and i can cut the fronds in half for winter sort of like you do with your mule and the canopy will be grown out by the end of the year.

[Booth]

On 3/3/2024 at 11:04 AM, Coldpalms said:

My Washingtonias grow about 2-4 inches in trunk height a year. I have the first one I planted 7 years ago that has put about 18” on the trunk in that time. The box method may increase that to some extent, but the inside temps over the winter and the surrounding ground temps still limit growth over a 6 month period and they really don’t start producing a lot of fronds until the surrounding soil gets to 50+ degrees. I want to try a sabal palm this year if I can get one here. I may have to drive down to Louisiana and grab a couple. I am going to plant my Mediterranean fans this year. I got them two years ago and have acclimated to here via felt pots in the ground but bring them inside over the winter. They’re just hard to cover because how they grow outwards. I want to try my windmills outside but they’re hard to get and expensive. I have a couple with 4’ trunks I bring in. I’ve tried them once and they died. I think it gets too dry for them. 

I live in Gretna, NE as well and was curious and stumbled on this forum. I can’t believe you’re able to grow these here. Especially after the horrific winter we had.  I’ve seen one other palm in this city and was so curious how it can be done. 

[Coldpalms]

It’s relatively easy. That tree is one I planted last year for a customer. It appears to be rebounding good from the transplant. They had two, unfortunately the other one got unplugged in December and didn’t make it. I have several palms of that size around town I provided and care for and several at my own house. 

[KPoff]

On 1/10/2024 at 5:05 AM, Jimhardy said:

We have had very dry summers with the exception of one when the Rostrata was smaller.

The cactus bed had sand and pea gravel a foot down...

Pic I found of the old place in winter

 

 

Another pic of the Yucca...the Pachypodium (in pots) did get lifted.

 

 

Is that a Madagascar palm? I can’t get one to grow in a pot in west Texas outside, at least in the sun it’s just too much for it and I can’t plant it in the ground because there’s a few days in the winter it gets too cold.