Velutina

I suspect a $2 string of Christmas lights and a frost blanket would work better...

That is what i'm using to protect my bananas and they are still green with no cold damage. It has been down to 26F and below freezing 7-8 times so far.

Based, on the reports of freeze-pruf users, my bananas would have been defoliated by now...

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Adam

enigma99a

Yes it is a complete joke, and I am angry I lost (not quite sure yet) many plants just because they were sprayed with something that was supposed to work but doesn't. I should have wrapped them like I always do

This below is WITH freezepruf after 29 degrees. What a joke.. Even a blanket would have kept them 100% green

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Average January Low: 40°F, Average August High: 95°F
Typical Low Each Winter: 28-30°F, Typical High Each Summer: 108-110°F, Annual Precipitation: 22 inches

winsorw

Thank you for all the information and for testing the product.

Velutina

I think the only reason this product is so expensive is because the developer knows this will be the last year he will sell it. $$$$$

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Adam

jeffreyp

Could be, or maybe some plants lend better to the mixture. Either way thanks for taking the effort to share your results.

enigma99a

I actually think it works on cat palms. They didn't get any damage at all

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Average January Low: 40°F, Average August High: 95°F
Typical Low Each Winter: 28-30°F, Typical High Each Summer: 108-110°F, Annual Precipitation: 22 inches

jeffreyp

I am thinking banana plants have a waxy coating on their leaves it might inhibit absorption making it ineffective. A better test would be with a larger selection of plants instead of only banana plants. I am not necessarily defending the product but it's just a thought...

Bananaman88

I did not purchase this product but I do think one has to consider the fact that a banana leaf, versus say, a palm leaf, is much more tender. Bananas are mostly water, afterall, and just don't do well with freezing temps. The product may or may not work but I really never thought it would work well with bananas. Sorry for your losses.

JuniPerez

The product provides different levels of protection depending on the plant it's sprayed on, which is why it says "up to 9.4°" of protection. It's good for extending the growing season, which is what it did for me... but I highly doubt it's good for complete overwintering. In my Musa basjoo/sikkimensis case, it did provide protection down to about 27-28°F (which is about 5° of extra protection), extending their growing season for quite a few weeks into fall. For less hardy ones, I'd trust the product to protect from frost, not freezes. If you normally protect your plants via some sort of insulation, and find that you SOMETIMES end up losing them anyways, I'd try the FreezePruf IN ADDITION to covering and see if it lessens the loss, but I wouldn't replace the insulation with only spraying.

Bananaman88

Exactly, different plants are going to respond differently. I also think that in places like where I live where some plants never go fully dormant it is tougher on them when it gets cold. Also, we can have dramatic temerature shifts here...70 degrees one day, down to freezing the next. That type of change is very tough on plants as they have no way of coping in such a short amount of time. Up north, plants slowly shut down for the winter. Rarely are they actively growing and then, BAM, freezing temps the next day like can happen here in the south.

Duration of the freeze is also important. Often, here in Houston, we'll only receive frost for a couple of hours. This last round of cold weather we had here my plants were exposed to about 10 hours or so of freezing temps which really does a lot more damage than just a couple of hours of freezing temps. All of these things affect the way plants tolerate the cold and whether or not they receive damage.

yoritomo

Hello i am new on this forum, i am from Belgium, in my area we experienced -21C (-5.8F) this last winter.

I would like to know about your general results with this FreezePruf, i am really surprised about it.

Anyway don't forget to apply it to the pseudo trunk and back of the leafs as well, or no wonder it would not works.

Keep me informed please.

Ruddy

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http://home.scarlet.be/palmiers_belges personnal website about exotics in Belgium USDA 6,7,8

yoritomo

enigma99a

So sad to see your pictures, i would like to ask you some questions about your experience if you don't mind.

Did you spray it on dry leaf and over the complete plant even on backside of leaves ? Was the plants in containers or growing in the earth of the garden ?

Which minimal temperature did you got on that time ?

as they said i think so , banana plants are a difficult choice for such experience in many ways, it is a plants almost completely composed of water with no wooden parts, and if it is in container the roots are particularily high vulnerability.

Don't forget to cover the roots of the plant as well as possible, and the cold protection blanket still be necessary on such experience

Anyone tryed this experience with fragile cold hardy palms as Washingtonia, Syagrus or Livistona ? Or simply seedling of cold hardy palms ?

Thanks for your answers

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http://home.scarlet.be/palmiers_belges personnal website about exotics in Belgium USDA 6,7,8

enigma99a

Yoritomo, for that night it had got down to about 29 to 30F. Pretty cold night but I thought maybe I would get a degree or two of extra protection. I did apply the product according to directions and it was over 50 degrees as recommended. Roots are fine it doesn't get that cold.

As for the spray on hardy palms such as washingtonia, I have no idea since such palms thrive here without any protection. I did try it though on a majesty palm, areca, cat and king palms. It didn't seem to help. Nothing replaces freeze blankets

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Average January Low: 40°F, Average August High: 95°F
Typical Low Each Winter: 28-30°F, Typical High Each Summer: 108-110°F, Annual Precipitation: 22 inches

yoritomo

Yes, so sad, i was hoping a bit about that liquid, but i had not to many illusions.


Here the climate is unluckily very cold on some winters and then i proceed as follow for my palms:



When i get a dry climate's palm i first prepare a hole about one cubic meter, the i mix the content with volcano rocks and river sand, i make a little hillock.

I plant my palm, then for the winter i surround the palm with a sewed bag made by frost blanket closed by tighting string.

i cover the foot of the plant with dry grass. above it i roll a silicon christmas light string for outdoor use type as Duralight about 5m long (16W/meter).

I prepare a foldable roof made by a pair of concrete's iron gate, soldered together by a pair of recycled door's hinges to make it easy to tidy on spring they are covered by polycarbonat 2 layers pannels. On each corners are soldered a nut to screw the corner's posts inside for easy installation and removal.

i install my 4 posts around the plant each one of them is surmounted by a soldered screw and its nut. then i screw the roof above them.

i surround the installation by a reed carpet to insure a good air flow inside to prevent moisture and condensation. Once the material is ready , need about 15 to 20 minutes for installation each winters per plant , then i think it is a good deal for just a few money don't forget to close all opened sides by a plastic pasted with a good quality outdoor use tape (such DuckTape)

Using it i could preserv on -5°F(-21°C) Jubaea Chilensis (perfect), Butia Capitata (alive but in poor state) , Chamaerops humilis (50% defoliate).

For Basjoo bananas i just cut the leaves surround the trung by dry grass, surround by a reed carpet and cover by a plastic hat on top, no need any heating systems, that would even be dammagable.

good luck everyone

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http://home.scarlet.be/palmiers_belges personnal website about exotics in Belgium USDA 6,7,8

jwmahloch

Looks great. I like the bamboo fencing around the plant. Are those polycarb panels? What did you use to support the roof? In a few years my palms will be too tall for my umbrella greenhouses and I will need to do something else.

Last winter I built leaf cages and it was a pain in the butt and my windmill palms suffered leave damage that had to be cut off in the spring. This winter I am using umbrella greenhouses, I bought 4 of them from charliesgreenhouse.com and I have my windmill palms covered with them. 2 of them I have pipe heating cables wraped on the ground around the truck and 45 watt halogen lights inside the umbrella (my wife calls them igloos), I also have them covered with blankets at night. It normally stays about 20 degrees warmer than outside. One night it got down to 9F outside and it stayed above 32F inside the 2 heated igloos. The other 2 I just have stuffed with dry leaves and no leaf damage at all yet. So I probably dont need the heat cables. I am just testing 2 different methods to see what works. My goal is to preserve the leaves though the winter so the plants look better in the spring.

I will take some pictures and post them later.

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Jeremy

yoritomo

Yes right, double layer polycarbonat pannels , you can see a bit by transparency it is a pair of concrete iron gates, it is holding together soldered by a pair of recycled hinges, and the nuts (can be any strong rigs or tube) soldered on the corners are each one holding a screw with nut soledered on top of the posts

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http://home.scarlet.be/palmiers_belges personnal website about exotics in Belgium USDA 6,7,8

yoritomo

i just put a post to introduce myself on the appropriate area of this forum, so you can see some pictures about my garden.

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http://home.scarlet.be/palmiers_belges personnal website about exotics in Belgium USDA 6,7,8

mullenium

Ive recently applied freezepruf to my 4ft mango tree as well as 2 orange trees (one being only 2 ft tall) and some bougainvilleas which were already starting to dry up from the cold.

so far the mango looks good, although I do have 2 strings of the old bulb style xmas lights wrapped around it from the ground up, the orange look the same, and the bougainvilleas look worse..i think it was already too late for them though, they are probably going dormant for the winter.

jwmahloch

I wish I could grow a mango and orange tree but it gets too cold here in St Louis. I have had sucess overwintering 4 windmill palms (Tach Fortunei) outside. Last winter I lost the leaves but the leaves grew back in the spring. This year I have them covered with umbrella greenhouses and they all look great so far, no leaf damage at all and its gotten down to 9F this winter so far. I have been spraying each palm with freeze pruf every 4 weeks since fall. It really seems to help on the windmill palms (more than on banana plants).

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Jeremy

mullenium

one thing I did notice now on my mango is that some of the top leaves have copper looking blotches, I wonder if thats from the freezepruf or something else?

I know mango's tend to be really picky and dont like any fert in their soil at all and as a result of the heavy spraying I did alot was dripping down to the soil line... hmmm