Below freezing, Mule spear pulled and ants…

[ZPalms]

My mule spear pulled yesterday and ants moved in today and I’m not sure how get them out the crown and out of this dry area and of course this wants to happen when it’s below freezing and frozen rain is coming so I’m unsure if I can do anything.

[Harry’s Palms]

In those conditions it’s hard to keep your plants safe . Even with lights and covering it will be colder than most living things can handle. Good luck . Harry

[Allen]

Sevin dust around the trunk

[aztropic]

16 hours ago, ZPalms said:

My mule spear pulled yesterday and ants moved in today and I’m not sure how get them out the crown and out of this dry area and of course this wants to happen when it’s below freezing and frozen rain is coming so I’m unsure if I can do anything.

Those miniature Christmas lights don't generate enough heat to save anything. You need to step up to the old fashioned C9 incandescent strings of 25, (available online) and provide a cover, tied at the trunk like a lollipop, to hold in some of the heat generated. Cotton/poly car covers or large frost cloths sewn together work good for larger canopies. An ounce of prevention is ALWAYS worth 10 pounds of cure. 🤷‍♂️

 

aztropic 

Mesa, Arizona 

[Allen]

1 hour ago, aztropic said:

Those miniature Christmas lights don't generate enough heat to save anything. You need to step up to the old fashioned C9 incandescent strings of 25, (available online) and provide a cover, tied at the trunk like a lollipop, to hold in some of the heat generated. Cotton/poly car covers or large frost cloths sewn together work good for larger canopies. An ounce of prevention is ALWAYS worth 10 pounds of cure. 🤷‍♂️

aztropic 

Mesa, Arizona 

The minis provide plenty of heat if wrapped in frost cloth.  Here is a chart of outdoor temp vs the butia temp and below a video showing the lights and wrapping.  I don't use C9 because every year about 10 people give me reports of them burning their palms or killing it if they bunch them around spear or mummy wrap too tight.  Mini's are much gentler on the palms.  I have protected 15 palms over the years with just mini's and frost cloth and a cover like a tarp or umbrella cover in temps down to -6F.  C9's are ok if they are used in a more open enclosure or not touching fronds/spear or bunched but I wrap my palms in a small diameter

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ojpwc-TSfQU

https://youtube.com/shorts/MFef56JXka4

 

[mnorell]

I doubt the ants are of any immediate concern to you. They are likely not there to eat your palm, and poisoning them won't help anything. The more important fact is that mules can't be expected to survive even an "average" winter in an 8a zone, and they are far too large to adequately protect after a few years. When I lived in Natchez, Mississippi, I lost most of mine (fairly large) to 18F or so in a long, hard freeze. The only one to survive was up against the house and barely survived a much quicker 13F jab (but required surgery/debriding/peroxide into the crown/meristem area). I'm sure that palm is now dead since I believe there have been colder jabs there in the last few years. And that's in a 9a zone (though maybe it has sunk down into 8b with some of these recent winters)... I hate to be a naysayer, but even a pure Butia can't survive the below-average winters in an 8a area in the east. A well grown grouping/grove of Sabal or Trachycarpus surrounded by root-hardy gingers, bananas, etc. can be a thing of real beauty and you won't need to distress yourself every winter. Extreme protection methods will likely get old very quickly. And that's when you finally move to Florida and kick yourself for not having done it sooner...

[Than]

If the crown is going to stay dry, then something as simple as ground cinnamon can keep ants away and also keep the area dry. Ants and fungi hate cinnamon.

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

Got to dry and treat that spear for rot immediately.  And treat for ants then wrap the plant and lights to hold heat. I started using canvas sold at Harbor Freight, (in the painting section) to wrap the plant, then wrap that in clear flexible plastic sheeting, to keep the canvas dry. They are both cheap there.  A free solution if your plant isn't too large is to locate a carpet store and see if they have discarded large cardboard tubes, that the carpet is rolled around to ship. Carpet stores usually have a open dumpster out back. If you can get the plant inside one of those tubes it will make a great insulated, water proof housing for a winter. The tubes are easily cut to length with a saw.

[ZPalms]

Well I think I messed up then because I didn’t wrap them… I can still do it now but… This and my butia are under greenhouse tents but I didn’t make it any tighter closer to them…

[Allen]

58 minutes ago, ZPalms said:

Well I think I messed up then because I didn’t wrap them… I can still do it now but… This and my butia are under greenhouse tents but I didn’t make it any tighter closer to them…

Temp sensor next time to see how much heat you need to get it to about 35F-45F

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

1 hour ago, ZPalms said:

Well I think I messed up then because I didn’t wrap them… I can still do it now but… This and my butia are under greenhouse tents but I didn’t make it any tighter closer to them…

Good news is it can probably be saved.

[ZPalms]

Just now, Jeff zone 8 N.C. said:

Good news is it can probably be saved.

I have some stuff coming that I can spray on them soon.

[Las Palmas Norte]

7 minutes ago, ZPalms said:

... some stuff ...

What's this "stuff" and what is it expected to do?

[ZPalms]

Just now, Las Palmas Norte said:

What's this "stuff" and what is it expected to do?

Was recommended to get something similar to get something similar to Agri Fos so I got this.