Protected my 8 trachys. It went on Sunday. I have two by the house and each got a doubly poly box with 1 1/2 inch foam insulation on the outside. Inside each box is a 750 watt space heater set at 40F.
The four trachys by the sidewalk got a doubly poly box with no foam insulation and each of them was wrapped with 100 mini Christmas lights. Each circuit runs on a 35 on/45 off thermocube.
The two little trachys by the sidewalk got a 5 gallon bucket over top stuffed with leaves.
As you can see I'm protecting my most prized ones by the house heavily and running experiments on the others to see how the protection fares this winter. I need to know this data for when the ones by the house get too big for a foam box.. I'll need a Plan B.
I have temperature sensors in each of the enclosures except the 5 gallon bucket with leaves.
Temperature information...
Outside temp: 21F
Doubly poly box with foam: 33.4F (heat is not on yet, so 13.4F rise with NO supplemental heat).
Doubly poly box without foam: 42.9F (mini lights are on because it would fall to ambient temp without insulation quickly).
So as you can see my mini-light box is giving me almost a 22F rise without any insulation, and I expect that differential to increase as the temperature gets colder. With minimum temperatures rarely falling below -5F here, I want to say they'll be fine. Sunlight pushes the box 40F to 50F above outside temps (they were 68F today while it was only 28F at noon).
The ones that I'm unsure if they'll make it are the unheated ones in the bucket, but we'll see!
Pics tomorrow.
Palm protection is on
Moderators: lucky1, Alchris, Kansas, Wes North Van, Laaz
Nice Tim.. I'm doing the same here. Some of the palms have the dpace heater some have c-9 light with thermo cube and other are only protected with a bucket and leaves. It will be neat for you and I to compare in the spring to see how things did!!
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TerdalFarm
- Palm Grove
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Tim,
thank you so much for the details. Those of us new really need to know exactly how things work, so we appreciate your effort
Naturally, I'm going to want to see photos when you get the chance. And continued temp. data.
I have not protected Trachycarpus (5 in ground) yet as it is still so darn warm--to 70 oF tomorrow!--but a little of your cold will get down here by the end of the week. --Erik
thank you so much for the details. Those of us new really need to know exactly how things work, so we appreciate your effort
Naturally, I'm going to want to see photos when you get the chance. And continued temp. data.
I have not protected Trachycarpus (5 in ground) yet as it is still so darn warm--to 70 oF tomorrow!--but a little of your cold will get down here by the end of the week. --Erik