10 foot Trachy, outdoors in zone 4

[arctictropical]

Help! My trachy is growing too fast. It has grown more than a foot each year, and I'm having difficulty keeping up with a large enough box to protect it. I think it loves our climate here in northern Utah.

[Cowtown Palm Society]

Hi Artic!

I've seen your palms on iGarden Village. Amazing stuff, an inspiration to all palm lovers with true winters. Your dilemma leads to an important question though, not often contemplated around here: what happens if you're actually successful (in protecting these plants through the worst of a North American winter)? What does one do with a palm that begins to exceed the height of one's roof, for example? I don't know the answer, but I'd just be thrilled to get it to the stage that you have! I think the solution for zones 5 and less may be to limit growth (maybe underground planters, or something-these could be artificially heated too, if someone wanted to get fancy). Anyhow, good luck protecting those lovely plants and congratulations on your success to date!

[hardyjim]

I guess you will just need to build a bigger box
Growing palms outside of their zones is a win-win as far as I'm concerned,if they make it great if they don't you have some free time on your hands ,to try another or anything else you want!or in this case you can start over if you want with another wonderfull"cold Hardy"palm.When I first started showing and telling with my palms the first thing I heard was,"it won't work" the second was"what are you going to do when they get big!

[Paul Ont]

Here is what I've seen people do when their palms get too large: Scaffolding! It is easily expanded to cover the entire plant, relatively cheap, and easy to build!
Here is another option I've seen: http://ourworld.cs.com/hbrahea333/phoenix2.html

I really like these posts about palms in areas with true winters. Amazing! Keep us updated on how you overwinter the palm (s?) as they grow larger!
Cheers,
Paul

[arctictropical]

Yeh, my wife told me "don't you dare build a bigger box", so I'm going to put the current box up on railroad ties. Next year, I'll think of something else.

[hardyjim]

Maybe next year you can put the railroad ties on railroad ties