Protecting Windmill Palms
 

Well, its September 1st, and in Ohio that means Buckeye Football :woohoonaner:, and winter is right around the corner :2141:. The bananas will be coming indoors, but I planted two Windmill Palms in May this year, so I need to protect them. Pics below. We get a few nights (1-3) here that get down to -2 to -5, and have a few days that may not make it past 15 degrees. I am looking at purchasing a mini greenhouse to eliminate wind and snow/ice damage, and hopefully keep it a lil warmer in there. Below is a link of the one I'm looking into. Do you guys think that for Zone 6, that coupled with about 4-6 inches of mulch will be sufficient in keeping these lil guys alive?

FlowerHouse PlantHouse Portable Greenhouse Kits

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

Will they be strong enough to support the snow on top of them?

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

I think that it might be easier and safer for the palms to get a large plastic garbage bin and turn it over on top of the palms to keep moisture out. I put x-mas lights around my palms and then a light frost cloth over that followed by the plastic garbage bin to keep wind out, precipitation out, and some warmth in. It works pretty well and the temps in there are usually 15 to 20 degrees warmer than the actual air temperature. And since the x-mas lights dont give off that much heat, the risk of a fire is really greatly reduced and the palms wont overheat during a warm day. And it takes less than 5 minutes to add the protection on and its even easier to take the protection off if you want the palms to get some fresh air on a warm day. And the garbage bins do have a tendancy to blow away n high winds so a nice heavy brick should set it in place.
A mini greenhouse sounds like a good idea if it can hold the snow load and if it can retain enough heat. Its really important to keep it on whenever rain or snow is forecasted from November until march because palms really dont like cold moisture on them. A soaking during a mid winter thaw wont hurt it though as long as it wont go below freezing for a day or so.
Good luck!

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

We actually don't get many nights where we get a lot of snow. Maybe 3 or 4 storms a year that dump 3-5 inches. It won't be a problem to brush it off each day. I like the idea of a trashcan too though. What I may do is purchase one and try a trashcan with another, and test to see how much difference there is. That way im not out $100 if the greenhouse idea doesn't work...

Thanks! They are some very nice plants. I was very suprised at how quickly they took off after planting them. Each has put out about 5 sets of leaves since June. Now just time to put on some height!

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

I'd be really worried about those greenhouses taking the wind. If they blow over you know it will be during a very harsh cold event and if you have X-mas lights in there it will be a real shock going from warm to cold wind.

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

Where did u get your palms at? I have been growing some from seed and they are taking forever to grow. If it was somewhere in Cbus I could probably grab one on my way to work or something. They do look nice. There is a guy 15 minutes from my house that has one that is over 7 or 8 foot!

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

I actually got it on EBAY. There are quite a few dealers that sell some pretty cheap. I got those for $8 a piece if I remember right in April of this year. Potted up in 3 gallon container.

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

I'm in zone 6 as well and last year it got down to maybe 4F for a few nights. My newly planted windmill and needle palms did fine exept for some burning at the tips of the leaves. They were tied up in cord and then wrapped in tar paper with the top open and some mulch tossed down the hole at the top ,heavily mulched at the bases and then a tarp over that. This year I'll do the same but maybe do something more to protect the uppermost leaves. Probably just some more tar paper to cap the top would be sufficient.

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

They are not hard to protect. Even if they loose all leaves they recover easyly if stem was quality protected.

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

They rot well though, make sure to keep them more dry than wet. Water and cold can make any palm rot pretty easily.

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

garbage can idea sounds great in addition to spraying the plant good with water like they do to the oranges in florida 32 degrees is a lot better than 0 degrees


good luck
drew

Re: Protecting Windmill Palms
 

You don't want to do that with palms. That is the quickest way to damage fronds. All you have to do is look at a Windmill palm after a freezing rain event. They will look terrible with pinhole damage and/or browning fronds. Without the water they can easily take temps in the teens with no frond damage and much lower with varying amounts of frond damage. I think even zero degrees dry is better than freezing rain. If the fronds are completely destroyed then what are you trying to save with the ice? Getting the spear to survive is the most important thing and the very last thing you want down in the crown is ice or freezing water.