Barrie...

Since your ground does not freeze up (or barely), I think your protection method is worth a shot..As long as you can keep the moisture off the main clump and keep the temps as such that its not going to freeze or rot, it may just work...

A good flood light pointed toward the ground will help keep the root area warm..

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

That looks good. I'd add a layer of polystyrene in each corner to keep the warmth from escaping through the corner blocking.

Have you thought of putting a mound of mulch around the base of the box to keep frost out of the tops of the roots?

It may be overkill. But I am the king of Overkill. 😉

Allen

allen..how's your palm box holding up?

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

So far so good. It is only exposed to an East wind which we almost never got until I put the palms there. The wind chills do affect the shelter temperatures but not more than 2 or 3* so far. While we were up north the temperatures got down to -5.5*C. Since then they have stayed between -1.5 and -3.5*C.

These temps may kill the Yucca Elephantipes but should have limited effect on the palms and cycads. It has been over a week since the temps were above 0 in the shelter so I bought a heat lamp just in case. I haven't looked inside since it got cold but I am confident that nothing has died yet.

I am going to put up snow fence on the east side of the shelter between the gazebo and the house to break up the wind a bit. So far there is only about 2" of snow on the shelters roof compared with almost 6" on the ground. It is supposed to get up to -5*C on the weekend which should cause the snow to melt on the shelter's roof. I'll sweep it off before that and put the heat lamp inside with the cord outside of the shelter. That way if it gets below -30*C later this winter I can wade through the snow to plug it in and then unplug it later.

I still have my fingers crossed but I am quite pleased that It has handled temperatures below what I anticipated. 😀

Allen

Very nice Barrie! That looks very sturdy. Seems like everyones coming up with great solutions to the cold weather this year!!

Barrie if it gets too warm in there it will continue to grow. We have quite a few of those here. I have been seeing them lately with the leaves cut back & then wrapped in burlap. I might have to try one next spring (If I have any room left)...

Barrie, rather then using Xmas lights may I suggest using a heating cable that is used to prevent pipes from freezing. The cable has a built in thermostat that switches on as the temperature approaches 0C. Xmas lights or other incandescent's may fry your ensete in such a small enclosure.

Hey thanks Ryan. I did a trial run this afternoon with a string of about 25 of the outdoor lights. A half hour later it was 80f in there! I backed off about half of the bulbs so only half where lit and at that point it was 65f. I've since backed off more bulbs so only 7 of the original 25 are now lit. I'm hoping to hit about 50f (10c). With this set-up I can activate more or less bulbs as required. My low last night was 27f (-2.7c) and everything looked fine without any supplimental heat in the shelter.
This experiment is certainly a first for me 😆

Cheers, Barrie.

Barrie, rather then using Xmas lights may I suggest using a heating cable that is used to prevent pipes from freezing. The cable has a built in thermostat that switches on as the temperature approaches 0C. Xmas lights or other incandescent's may fry your ensete in such a small enclosure.

I am using the same thing on a robusta I left in the ground. I wrapped the palm in 3 layers of felt type, heavy black landscape fabric then coiled the tape from the ground up the trunk. I wrapped an additional 3 layers of fabric around the tape and the palm making sure I extended the wrap a foot and a half around the base to help insulate the soil. A few large zip ties holds the wrap snug around the palm. At the top of the wrap i left extra fabric that I use as a "hood" that I can close and open depending on the weather. I finished off the wrap with a coating of Boot Dry water repellent to help keep the moisture away without inhibiting the water from escaping from within the fabric, like a plastic wrap does.

The heat tape has a built in thermostat that comes on when the temp dips to 38*F. The termostat really takes the guess work out of supplemental heating. In addition it will not over heat like the c-9 bulbs will. The heavy black fabric also helps heat up the palm during the day by absorbing the available sunlight, but lets the excesses moisture out. So far I have tested the inside tempature of the wrap three times.

1. A day time tempature of 28*F with partly sunny skies, 10 to 20 mph winds , the inside of the wrap was 50*F
2. A night time temp of 18*F, calm winds. Inside temp was 40*F.
3. A day time temp of 40*F with heavy rain. Inside temp was 42*F and dry.

I believe this set up would also work for hardy bananas. It meets all the requirements for over wintering hardy bananas. It keeps the root zone and plant above freezing , but not to the point where the plant wants to continue growth. It keeps the trunk, root zone and bud tissue dry,but lets internal moisture out. It provides protection from the drying effects of winter wind and sunlight. I plan on using this setup on one of my Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii' next year.

Good luck Barrie!

Cali-wanna-b
Basically I hate spending money on things I think will work for me, by using material that I have on hand. This is the only plant I have that will require special attention like this, as I really hate to fuss over things and have my garden appear like a shanty town. So for me it's live or die largely but a few execptions are to be expected when gardening exotically here on the west coast.

I appears as though you have a very reliable set up for your Washingtonia robusta. Are you able to post a pic or two? Are the leaves covered as well? Have you overwintered this palm previously using this or any other technique?

With my cover I've had to drop down to 3 lit bulbs (from an original 25) which kept the temp at 53f while the outside ambient temperature was close to freezing overnight. During the daytime today it was 36f and the temp inside was 42f with no additional heat source. Like I said the structure is in place during cold weather only and moves off quickly as needed. Fortunately serious weather is not a problem too often here, so devices are not needed for winter-long duration.

Cheers, Barrie.

Basically I hate spending money on things I think will work for me, by using material that I have on hand. This is the only plant I have that will require special attention like this, as I really hate to fuss over things and have my garden appear like a shanty town. So for me it's live or die largely but a few execptions are to be expected when gardening exotically here on the west coast.

I appears as though you have a very reliable set up for your Washingtonia robusta. Are you able to post a pic or two? Are the leaves covered as well? Have you overwintered this palm previously using this or any other technique?

With my cover I've had to drop down to 3 lit bulbs (from an original 25) which kept the temp at 53f while the outside ambient temperature was close to freezing overnight. During the daytime today it was 36f and the temp inside was 42f with no additional heat source. Like I said the structure is in place during cold weather only and moves off quickly as needed. Fortunately serious weather is not a problem too often here, so devices are not needed for winter-long duration.

Cheers, Barrie.

Barrie,
I can appreciate your "recycling" approach. All the material I used were salvaged or left over from work.

This is my first year trying this setup on an actual over-wintered plant. I did a lot of testing with other methods before I decided to use it on a actual plant. All the fronds where hit by a 25*F freeze we had in November so I cut them all off except a newly emerging spear and applied a fungicide. The new spear is still slowly growing as I type. I uncover the top of the wrap when the forcast is for above 32*F and dry. I will post a few pics this weekend.

I agree this setup would be over kill in your area. My goal is to create an outside, in ground environment that is comparable to an indoor, dormant, over- wintered banana.

I've had to add another two feet of height to my Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii' enclosure today. The thing keeps on growing slowly even with temps in the 40f - 50f range. I cut it back once, but figured I can't keep doing that, so I added another 2 feet of height. Now it should have enough space until this coming spring.

Cheers, Barrie.

Your enclosure is obviously working just fine.

I hope that you don't have to add more to the enclosure before spring.

Allen

The thing keeps on growing slowly even with temps in the 40f - 50f range

I told you... 😉 I don't protect any of my bananas. They burn when we get a heavy frost, but three or four days later they are pushing out again.