Protecting Palms for abnormal overnight temps

[sacts]

Question, when wrapping palm with miniature Christmas lights, after bundling all the fronds up, do I wrap the entire tree from the bottom of the trunk to the very top of the bundled fronds with lights, or do I just wrap from the bottom of the trunk up to the bottom of the spear starts with lights?  I also plan on wrapping the entire tree in frost cloth over the lights.  Just wondering what protects the fronds if I don't wrap the bundle of fronds with lights as well.  Will be wrapping one royal palm and one foxtail palm (both about 15 feet).  In Orlando area and temps may dip to the high 20s this weekend.  Thanks.

[Allen]

9 hours ago, sacts said:

Question, when wrapping palm with miniature Christmas lights, after bundling all the fronds up, do I wrap the entire tree from the bottom of the trunk to the very top of the bundled fronds with lights, or do I just wrap from the bottom of the trunk up to the bottom of the spear starts with lights?  I also plan on wrapping the entire tree in frost cloth over the lights.  Just wondering what protects the fronds if I don't wrap the bundle of fronds with lights as well.  Will be wrapping one royal palm and one foxtail palm (both about 15 feet).  In Orlando area and temps may dip to the high 20s this weekend.  Thanks.

Here is what I do on a 12' Butia.  You will need a temp sensor in there if you want to be sure what temps you are getting.  With no snow/ice you probably don't need the pole.  For best protection wrap around the fronds on top as well then cover everything mummy wrapped with frost cloth

Large Palm 8-15 feet palm protection method

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xXYReAkuZLmpBR1afOfRRK-8iBWnPhoK/view?usp=sharing

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

 

[sacts]

@AllenThanks for the tips.  You have lots of super useful videos.  Have you had better luck with Christmas lights or heat cord?  Also, if I use a thermo cube, is it best to but that somewhere in the middle of the tree (I'm assuming the base of the trunk would be too low to get an accurate temperature.  Hoping this helps my two cold sensitive palms survive.  Orlando is now in zone 10a however it is going to now get down to 25 potentially this weekend.  Very worried.   I have several Areca's that I think will get burned bad.  I don't have enough frost cloth to cover the larger areca's.  Anyways hoping this will do the trick to keep the temp just high enough for the foxtail and royal palm.  I also have three somewhat mature B. Alredii palms.  Hoping those will do fine in the mid 20s with no help from me.  

[Allen]

5 minutes ago, sacts said:

@AllenThanks for the tips.  You have lots of super useful videos.  Have you had better luck with Christmas lights or heat cord?  Also, if I use a thermo cube, is it best to but that somewhere in the middle of the tree (I'm assuming the base of the trunk would be too low to get an accurate temperature.  Hoping this helps my two cold sensitive palms survive.  Orlando is now in zone 10a however it is going to now get down to 25 potentially this weekend.  Very worried.   I have several Areca's that I think will get burned bad.  I don't have enough frost cloth to cover the larger areca's.  Anyways hoping this will do the trick to keep the temp just high enough for the foxtail and royal palm.  I also have three somewhat mature B. Alredii palms.  Hoping those will do fine in the mid 20s with no help from me.  

I wouldn't use a thermocube in your situation if we are talking a couple days, just plug up at night when temps are low and unplug in morning.  If loosely frost cloth covered and not touching fronds or bunched around spear you can use C7/C9 carefully!  If mummy wrapping use mini incandescent lights or heat cable and touching fronds won't matter.  I don't use heat cable.  You need a cheap temperature sensor in there to see what temps you are getting, either close to spear or at fronds depending on what area you are most concerned with.  I don't know what temps those fronds damage.  Usual advice is get to 35-45F range but I don't know temps for those 2 palms

Example cheap temp sensor or they have these similar at Walmart usually

https://amazon.com/dp/B0BYF6CTRK

[sacts]

@Allen So, not sure what happened.  I used two strands each on three palms (2 strands per tree, so 200 incandescent mini lights per tree) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H1V61QK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1.  I also purchased the thermometers you recommended which seem to be accurate when testing in my house.  I bundled the fronds, then wrapped from the ground to past the heart of the palm with the lights, then finally wrapped the palms from the ground up in frost cloth.  I did a mummy wrap.  Anyways, the temperature inside each tree didn't seem to really be any different than the outside temperature.  Doesn't seem like the Christmas lights did much to produce heat under the frost wrap.  Is this because I did the mummy wrap?  Hoping my trees made it.  I'll be removing the wrap tomorrow.   Attached pic of the foxtail I wrapped. 

Frost blanket:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081S4VK8J?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

[Bazza]

2 hours ago, sacts said:

@Allen So, not sure what happened.  I used two strands each on three palms (2 strands per tree, so 200 incandescent mini lights per tree) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H1V61QK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1.  I also purchased the thermometers you recommended which seem to be accurate when testing in my house.  I bundled the fronds, then wrapped from the ground to past the heart of the palm with the lights, then finally wrapped the palms from the ground up in frost cloth.  I did a mummy wrap.  Anyways, the temperature inside each tree didn't seem to really be any different than the outside temperature.  Doesn't seem like the Christmas lights did much to produce heat under the frost wrap.  Is this because I did the mummy wrap?  Hoping my trees made it.  I'll be removing the wrap tomorrow.   Attached pic of the foxtail I wrapped. 

Frost blanket:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081S4VK8J?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

Not sure if those style lights do what you'd want vs. the larger C9 (or even C7) bulbs.

Hopefully someone else can offer the thoughts too.

I was fortunate enough to have some old sets of the C9 size I used to use on my house every Christmas, although I went to LED years ago, I held onto the old C9's. I had to replace a bunch of bulbs (which I had extras on hand) and had some fuses blow (PITA) but managed to get 4 sets up on 4 of my crown shaft palms. Didn't have time to wrap them though so not sure how much these helped. They do put out some appreciable heat though!

 

[Allen]

2 hours ago, sacts said:

@Allen So, not sure what happened.  I used two strands each on three palms (2 strands per tree, so 200 incandescent mini lights per tree) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H1V61QK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1.  I also purchased the thermometers you recommended which seem to be accurate when testing in my house.  I bundled the fronds, then wrapped from the ground to past the heart of the palm with the lights, then finally wrapped the palms from the ground up in frost cloth.  I did a mummy wrap.  Anyways, the temperature inside each tree didn't seem to really be any different than the outside temperature.  Doesn't seem like the Christmas lights did much to produce heat under the frost wrap.  Is this because I did the mummy wrap?  Hoping my trees made it.  I'll be removing the wrap tomorrow.   Attached pic of the foxtail I wrapped. 

Frost blanket:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081S4VK8J?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

If they were incandescent they will produce heat and you should have made a big difference with that many

[sacts]

I'm wondering if maybe it had something to do with the way I wrapped the trees.  Every two or three feet I had string pretty tight around the trunk to keep the wrap from blowing around.  Maybe this stopped warmth for the lights from rising up higher into the enclosure. The lights I bought say they produce 40 watts per strand and I used two strands per tree so that's roughly 80 watts.   Another theory is maybe the placement of the thermostat sensors was too close to the wrap.  Who knows, just trying to figure out where I may have maybe gone wrong so I can correct next time I have to do this.  Thanks again for all the tips.