Just some updates

[TerdalFarm]

Here are a few of my outdoor palms as they look now. We have had a very mild late autumn/early winter. If we get down to 16 oF tonight, that will be our coldest yet!

Photo 1 is my never-heated avatar Butia. It is trunk wrapped with burlap, mulched with hay and covered each night with a 32 gal. trash can. When it gets colder I'll add water jugs in there but so far it is happy.

Photo 2 is my older Waggy, which I have grown in a pot taken indoors for winter for four years. I planted it in April, so this is its first winter in the ground. It is mulched with hay and gets a foam pot over it each night. Looks just fine.

Photo 3 is my larger Trachy, planted April 2009 and which suffered so badly last winter. All those leaves are new from 2010--it was defoliated last winter. It is mulched with hay, and covered nightly with a 32 gal. trash can up on the logs that keep the mulch around the base in place.

Photo 4 shows my new (September) Sabal. The larger one is the Lousiana; the small one in the lower left is the NE Texas Sabal minor. A plastic-wrapped wall keeps the wind from blowing the hay mulch away. The Lou has electric heat tape around the base/spear. The pail of water is to buffer temp. fluctuations. At night I throw a sheet over it all.

Photo 5 shows the Chamearops, 4 years in ground. I am going all out this year with protection. It has the same pipe heat tape (short; 6 watts) around the trunk as last year. In addition, it gets a string of C9 lights on a thermocube. Plus hay for mulch, fiberglass insulation to block north winds, and a sheet tossed over it on cold nights like tonight. Probably overkill.

The needle palms have mulch and thats it. They look great. Other two Trachy with just mulch and some shelter look fine. The Sabal mexicana look pretty good. They have heat tape, mulch and some shelter. The big Sabal palmetto is dying, but that started in late Summer and so I don't blame the cold. The palm hut palms look great as they have not seen freezing yet.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/79 ... site"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TRfWx ... AG0421.jpg" height="640" width="383" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... ">December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

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[Paul Ont]

Thanks! Keep sending the updates!

[hardyjim]

You might want to throw a space heater in there in that last pic for some more heat


Just kidding


With the winter you are having you probably haven't needed much protection, eh?


Nice work

[TerdalFarm]

I feel like I'm protecting for last winter; this one has been unnaturally mild so far. Knock on wood.

[ROBRETI]

Hi Erik,
Very impressie, good luck!
Rob

[canadianplant]

Good job eric, glad everything looks so good! Im glad you guys int he south didnt get effected by some cold air last week. I know someone who was in teh bahamas, with a 7C high for 3 days.

Although this winter has been called an average winter here, So far its been warmer then average. Today its 4C and raining all day, I think im one of the warmest spots in the country! Only 1C off of vancouver!

And eric, protect for the worse, so the spring will be that much better......... Hows the Chameadorea doing ?

[lucky1]

Looks good Erik.

Once cold does arrive (if it does), several inches of mulch works well, versus a scattering of it.
Obviously you'll keep hay away from heat sources.
Barb

[TerdalFarm]

Thanks, guys.
Barb, the loose hay is a constant effort. I place it where I want it and the chickens scatter it. The upside is that is doesn't get soggy and rotten.
Jesse,
the Chamaedorea look great. There are three C. radicalis in the heated palm hut, which has a thermocube attached to a ceramic heater with fan and also a 250 w brooder bulb. The largest one has a frond that touches the glass front and that of course is cold damaged. I'll have to do better next year, but the plant itself is fine.

While we are on the subject of Chamaedorea, I am pretty excited about them. The potted ones hated my hot summer but are happy indoors now. In Belize, I saw them all over the place under the dark canopy of the rainforest.

As for cold hardy, I am amazed by results from Europe. I found this recent video by Kev Spence (active on EPS and GOTE). It features his garden in England with many palms. He got down to -11 oC with heavy snow--all melted by the time he shot this. The whole 6 minutes is good, but what excited me was his success with Chamaedorea. He threw frost cloth over C. radicalis; C. microspadix was left to the elements. Both came through, even when other supposedly cold hardy palms suffered badly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGZv3QUGrBE

So, given this, is anyone else going to try more Xate palms in the future? I'm sold!
--Erik


foo

[lucky1]

Thanks for posting that video Erik.
Hope he does a follow-up in six months.

Barb

[TimMAz6]

looking good so far...........I hope spring is around the corner!

[TerdalFarm]

Tim,
yesterday felt like Spring here. Morning low was about 60 oF; afternoon high about 72 oF. Strong south winds brought humid air off the Gulf of Mexico. We opened the windows in the house and line-dried laundry.

I opened the "palm hut" as it was getting hot in there. Photo 1 shows the roof propped up; photo 2 tries to shows the contents.
I was excited to see that palms in there (Chamaedorea radicalis (x3) in ground + potted miscellany of palms such as Brahea, Nannorrops, Trachycarpus, Trithrinax) are growing! Also, the Musa basjoo stems are still green.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vR ... site"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TRzbS ... AG0429.jpg" height="383" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... ">December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

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[canadianplant]

Wow eric, that poor guy. Im sure most of it will recover.... those tree ferns look pretty done though...... same with the schefflera..:S And that huge jubea...... that thing is pretty old i think..... But like you said the chamedorea all looks pretty good concidering.

I may have to try them. I have like 15 radicalis seeds waiting to pop ( arborescent), theyll be a slim chance here, but then again lots of the things im growing are.....

Everything looks goood in the hut eric. Its supposed to be 17C in NC today..... it was 6c here yesterday, then it flash froze.... Happy new year

[lucky1]

Looks good Erik.
Surprised that banana isn't putting out a leaf in your temps.

Tree ferns? Jubaea? where?
Barb

[canadianplant]

Barb take a look at the link eric put.... if it wasnt so crispy id be drooling like no tomorrow... LOL

[lucky1]

canadianplant: Oh, got it...you're talking about Kevin Spence's UK garden!

[canadianplant]

yup *** wipes drool off of chin...... Almsot hard to belive what they can get away with most of the time....

[tropicman]

Erik,
Last year I tried to over winter a pindo about same size as yours,had it cover with just plastic,it looked great all winter,stayed just as green as it was when I covered it,just like my washy robusta,except without any heat source,and when I removed the plastic come spring,I had spear pull and the palm slowly died all summer long .
I have several pindo seedlings,that I will try again when they get some size to them,but I think just keeping them covered and dry isn't enough,I think they need some heat.
I hope yours makes it,as your a few degrees warmer than me.
Don

[TerdalFarm]

Don,
you are right about Butia. Beautiful, but really a zone 8b type of palm. I will give it electric heat next winter and there after.

Brief history of this one:
I bought it from Cistus in Oregon as a 1 gallon plant in 2005. They say (and I believe them) that it came from an adult in South Carolina ("SC Shell station"; details below)

I planted it in April, 2006. It has never had electric heat, just hay for mulch/insulation; a water jug to thermal buffering, and a large bucket for cover. It is always defoliated, but regrows over the summer (my avatar is from August 2009).

However, it is now getting a trunk and so the growth bud is up above the ground, which makes it more vulnerable.

Yesterday I wrapped it in 6" fiberglass insulation all around and over the top, added a 2 liter water bottle and covered it with the 32 gallon trash can. I think it will be sufficient this winter as we are relatively mild so far and the ground is warm (e.g., 40 oF this morning despite air of about 17 oF). However, next winter and thereafter it will get electric heat. I think it has been foolish pride that has kept me from doing that, but that video I linked to above shows the consequence of that (non) protection strategy....

--Erik

Details from Cistus catalog:
Butia capitata [South Carolina Shell Station]pindo palm
With our travels far and wide around the world to find ever newer plants, exotic collection sites can hardly get better than this. On a road trip to interior South Carolina, having spotted eight lovely pindo palms that had withstood rigorous winters and all the harsh conditions a mini-strip mall can provide, we brought home seeds in several large Slurpee containers. The palms, a pretty silver-blue, were otherwise typical. They should grow to about 15 ft producing lovely arched pinnate leaves that curl upon extension. Bright sun, good drainage, and overhead protection at 12 to 15F, lower to mid USDA zone 8.
Arecaceae 4D $15

[tropicman]

Erik,
Sounds like with that much insulation over it,you should be just fine.
Mine was about your size or a little larger,my thinking if I just kept the crown dry,I would be fine,so I just covered it with plastic and threw a quilt over it,but the cold did it in anyway,funny thing it looked good all the way to July and then slowly started loosing leaves one a time until it totally defoliated.
I have a bunch of seedlings,I got from Virgina Beach,and they see snow quite often there and they use no protection,so I'm hoping these pindos will be a lot hardier than the one I got from Florida.