PalmsNorth.com

Peaked inside the other day at my washingtonia (Filibusta?). Purchased as 1 gallon this spring planted in may. so this is its first winter in ground. My trachy looks great and is all boxed up. IN CT zone 6b

Looks good so far. I have 5 foot metal fencing 2ml plastic then bubble wrap. top is foam board with a fleece cloth and rock to keep down. Its in a pretty protected location. heating is 3 sets of c-9 xmas tree lights on a thermocube 35-45f and gallon milk jugs filled with water.

the spear is firm!

So far so good. Temps get warm in there and on bright sunny days I vent.
Any one else take a peak??

Man! and I thought I went overboard on mine.... everything is so tidy you make my slapped together wood boxes look rickety....

I got so lazy this year I didn't even spread the lights out, they're all connected in their plastic shipping frame and just hung on a old boot that sticks out far enough....

Looks pristine.
Nice work.

thanks! I hope it continues to work for the next few months.

Wheelman I think it looks nice! but if you ask my wife you may get a different answer! HA

How often do you open this to let some fresh air get inside?

Going through quite a warm/dry spell here in Nebraska. I took protection totally off smaller palms including frost cloth to let palms "breathe and stretch" while the taller huts I simply took their tops off. Unseasonably warm forecast here for next 10 days so will leave stuff off unless they say moisture expected. I did take the opportunity to check soil moisture content with probe and watered palms that were really dry.

marceli it depends on the weather. I had it closed for a week when we were down to -2F at night and highs were 15-20F. but if it s sunny i'll crack the top a little bit.

One day I forgot to and it was 82F in there.

Sashaeffer: I wish we were having that type of warmth. We have had two pretty cold winters in a row. Hope this Washingtonia makes it and then some serious growth this summer!

Anyone else check in their protection?

Just something to talk about in the winter?

I know my palms were "warmer" inside the protection but lows now are only in the 30's (normally highs for January) but I can't help but think some warm direct sunlight is good for them too.

I would think so. Lets hope it lasts for you! No more Polar Vortexes! HA

Anyone else check in their protection?

The "teepees" out front have so much snow on them, the plastic is frozen to the ground.
But Washies and Brahea and yuccca and little Euro palm should be OK.

Temp sensors aren't working.

No snow here at all! Looks like a few snow storms in the next week! That'll help insulate the ground a little bit.

lucky1 wrote: Temp sensors aren't working.

hmmm, scary thought...

I haven't been able to peek directly, as mine are way out at the cottage, a long drive from here. But what I do have is a couple of web cameras monitoring the place for security. If I "take a peek" on the Drop Cam website at night, I can see my boxes glowing off in the distance, so I know the CFL's are still working to keep things warm and toasty in the styrofoam boxes.

Not that anyone wants to take my advice, but I never open my boxes thru the winter. Being michigan we can get times of thawing for weeks at a time and I'm sure it gets quite warm in them, but I never open them up. What I do though is I build the boxes not very tight so that air can pass through. So far this has worked well for me over 3 years, and last year was one of the coldest on record for days frozen straight that I remember and the trees that had the lights work all the way through looked great in the spring. I had the largest of my boxes lose one set of c9 lights and the other strand was in over it's head to warm such a large area and I ended up losing my foliage, but the tree is alive and well.

None of my enclosures are air tight either because I know heat can build up in them along with condensation. All but one of my protections barrels or cages can easily be removed or put back. Only my tallest Windmill stays buttoned up because it would be too much work to even take it down.

Pulled the barrel off my needle yesterday to check on it.

My Princeps was 99F the other day-good idea to burp out some moisture/heat if you are not keeping them above freezing-