KYpalmer

Hey folks. I believe I'm a seasonal "bananas DOT orger" hahaha. I'm not on often at all, but when I am on, it's usually to refer back to the great resources and info that is throughout the forum.

My question is; what are you methods for winter palms or do you have any resources that you would like to share regarding overwintering palms? Last winter I had a baby pindo palm in the ground and I had a 9mil plastic dome type structure over it and I guess condensation dripped into the middle of the growth stem and it froze inside and caused all of the fonds to die. Come spring I went out and pulled out the middle dead fond and a week later it grew back even stronger. So with this I said, "ok cool.....my palm lived through (-4F) planted in the ground" ..... this motivated me to plant my bigger potted pindo and my pygmy. Now my question is so I don't make the same mistake as last year, what do you recommend? Here are pics from today of my 3 palms. The smallest palm is the one that trooped through the winter and I pulled the middle fond out in the spring. I'm in zone 7.

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The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

KYpalmer

I was thinking of wrapping with frost cloth / burlap then taking some PVC to make a teepee type structure for each one and then wrap the teepee structure with shrink wrap with a few 4-6 inch slits so that it can breath. And probably for the super small pindo I may super mulch it and throw a pot on top with breathe hole.

What do you think?

__________________
The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

2woodensticks

you could trim all but the top most frons,leave at least 4.and tie them up with plastic wrap..pile either dry straw or pine needles to the top and then wrap..less to get cold easy to do..

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got to love em..{neotropical rattlesnake..cascabell}

KYpalmer

I've never voluntarily cut fronds unless they were really brown. So is the cutting of fronds that are still green necessary? Thanks for the reply 2woodensticks. We may do the straw as we have a bit of land that needs cut.

__________________
The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

Hammocked Banana

I wouldnt cut of you dont need to. Tie them up loosely. You dont want the crown to be wet, or the ground very wet. You can make a box with 1x2s and cover it with poly, or even better Styrofoam insulation panels. Then you can mod the box if you so please with an east/south facing window or heating cable/lights inside the box on a thermostat/thermocube. Palms can survive surprising temps, but they will not survive if they are wet and cold.

Rkm4erisa

Last summer I planted a 5 gallon pindo palm in Maryland zone 7a. I had successfully raised an 8 foot windmill palm with no winter protection for over a dozen years. The pindo I covered with a tarp on the coldest nights - underneath I put a 60 watt bulb. Unfortunately, both palms died in the 3 arctic vortices, even though we never got below 4 degrees or so the cold lasted for days.