winter protection, zone 6

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:01 am

Jim - come on down, there is space under the leaf pile, this morning it was a balmy 42F (5C) under the tarp. If your a big guy you toes might stick out one end, just make sure you have two pair of socks on and you'll be fine. Our long range forecast calls for temps in the 50'sF (10's C) all next week. Gonna be nice. On Sunday, I am hauling a bunch of cold hardy stuff outside under our covered patio, see pic below.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:21 pm

"Jim - come on down, there is space under the leaf pile, this morning it was a balmy 42F (5C) under the tarp. If your a big guy you toes might stick out one end, just make sure you have two pair of socks on and you'll be fine"
To funny

.
That is a bold move moving stuff out now,I think this March will be a wild one! and April will be above avg.
We have not had a single month with above avg highs since Nov 2007!

Heres to an above avg April! Cheers

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:51 am

I have no pans to leave anything outside permanently, but as long as the temps stay in the 50's and the lows in the 30's , I'll leave them out. Nothing like some fresh air and a little humidity to snap life back into the palm trees.

hatfam · Post by **hatfam** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:12 am

Amen, we got in the 60's a couple of weeks ago so I hauled all the palms and bananas out side for 2 days. Wow what a difference. You just can't beat Mother Nature. I can't wait for spring

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:09 pm

Oppalm,did you have a little quiz one time with a simular patio pic with a fountain in the middle?
I wish I could move all my plants out,there is to many of them,my plan is to move them into the covered greenhouse around March 10 which looking back at some weather records is usually the time when the temps don't drop below 20 anymore,the only prob with that is it gets hot in there and if I open it up to much it becomes a sail,but I think it will be a good place to faze them into more light without burning them.

Welcome to the forum hatfam

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:07 pm

welcome hatfam. There is a new member introduction area on the main forum page. Introduce yourself there and tell us what you are growing and for how long. Nice to meet you.

hardyjim - I don't think that was me with the quiz. I certainly don't remember giving a quiz.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:52 pm

O.k. I just thought that you had a little see if you can find this that and the fountain thingy,the porch looks familiar,was there a fountain or something in the middle of it during the summer?

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:04 am

no fountain. Just a few chairs a table and a tiki bar under cover. Thats it.

hatfam · Post by **hatfam** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 3:14 pm

Thanks Guys. I went to the new members and posted.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:22 pm

Kent that patio pic makes me drool just thinking of warm weather and spending all day outdoors.
Thanks for posting it.

Ditto to hatfam

Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:24 pm

Me too Barb,the one thing I forgot to mention in the leaf cage thread was how fun it was to work in the yard again! in addition to pulling the cages I removed the biggest little g/house as it was ripping apart at the zippers,etc.
I used the styro covers from the needle over the Naini Tal and S.louisiana and pulled all the x-mas lights(heat) on that side and raked the mulch,it felt sooooooooooo good to work in the yard again!!!!!

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:52 am

Sure, rub it in

We can have a Nainital "race" this year!

Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:42 am

Rub it in!

I think you have won any Naini Tal race with the size of yours,it will be fun to see how many leaves they put out,remember this one had spear pull in Nov and is looking preety ragged but it is a tough little sucker,last year it lost all its leaves and still put out 5,along with my fortunei,waggie and princeps. This year will be so much fun!

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:53 am

I've coddled my Nainital, so it'll hiccup here and there.
Yours is so grateful to be alive, it'll beat mine hands down

Yes it will be fun to work outdoors again...if only this bloody glacier in my yard would melt.

Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 7:48 pm

It will be fun to follow the progress and see pics of everybodys palms this year,cant wait!

PALMETTOMAN · Post by **PALMETTOMAN** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:53 pm

yeah..can't wait to remove the protection..

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax,On

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:33 pm

You said it brother! Today we hit 71F (last year it was April 16 before we hit 70F)I pulled the rest of the x-mas lights I use for heat as it makes it easier to pull the mulch back,the soil temps 4" down should approach 50F before I need to push the mulch back in to place next week when it cools back down.
One of the needle palms looks a little more crispy after being exposed for a few days but I guess thats to be expected as this one was more in the wind,on the night we hit -16F the wind chill was in the -60F range and I think some of that cold penetrated the leaf cage,they probably needed to be a little wider but the other needle is fine.
I am very happy with the survival rate this winter as only one palm was lost and that was from cold last fall,not the winter,it sure does feel nice to work in the yard again,I actually had to open one end of the biggest g/house are the temp would have reached 90F in there!a little stressfull for even cactus that are still dormant.

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:57 pm

On April 12, 2009 , I uncovered my little palms trees as described in post #1 on this thread. My camera is not great and does not do the little palm warriors justice , but they came through winter in excellent shape. we had a handful of nights near zero (0F), but of course the little palms were covered in 18" of leaf mulch and a plastic trash bag. my guess is that the lowest temp at the bottom of the pile may have been around 25-27F.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:03 pm

Great job Kent!
They look great, and are ready to take off for you.

Nice that you didn't get brutal lows this winter.
Barb

Knnn · Post by **Knnn** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:28 pm

Kent,

That's great to see, thanks for the update!

Steve

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:53 pm

thanks for the atta boy. i had two other Fortuneis that were covered with a 12' circle of leaf mulch, with a teepee over the top that was open on the sides. They look OK but not nearly as good as these. I'll dig up the pics of these and post.

Okanagan desert-palms · Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:54 pm

Nice to see Kent. Maybe if I would have tried your method of mulching and completely covering my smaller 3 gal. Needle palms I wouldn`t be digging two of them up this spring.

John

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:35 am

well John, as they say in the business, "live and learn". I am really trying to grow my stuff with no heat provided and mulching (lots of it) has worked for me the last 2 years. mulching is easy.

Okanagan desert-palms · Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:02 pm

Kent I can see from your results how well mulching works for smaller palms. I just thought my 3 gal. needle palms were bullet proof.

John

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:39 am

Wow Kent,
I am a little late,haha,catching back on to this thread.
I did not even realize you had palms under your leaf pile,very cool!

PalmsNorth.com

winter protection, zone 6

spring palms

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