had the thought many many times but with that amount of space and your winters I would love to see the look on your wifes face when the electric bill came in 😆 there worse than a plug in space heater...Id say the idea is good but the cost is not going to be worth it.

She's already pissed because budget plan increased by $80 EACH month 🙁

I did the space heater thing last winter, along with two floor lamps with a 200W equivalent CFL daylight spectrum bulb in each one. While they didn't provide any heat, I wanted the palms to have that kind of light.

Guess I should look at the wattage of the heating blanket when they start selling them for the season and compare to settings on radiant heater.

My guess would be it would not be worth the extra heat.

In regard to providing extra light and heat in a garage,why bother?

The cooler it is the less growth from the plants..so,less light would be needed.

I guess my thinking is,instead of warming the garage or increasing the light
why not embrace what a garage is...a perfect cool place for the plants to rest
(practically hibernate)in low light and cool temps.

Not trying to sound like an ass 😀 but I have tried some different stuff
inside over winter but nothing beats being outside in summer,so now I just
try and get them out in as healthy a condition as possible without to much fuss-winter growth
doesn't count for much anyway and at least in the case of Bananas and some tropicals
the growth is weak anyway and susceptible to wind damage.

Yes Jim your right. The only palms I had issues with in the garage was the Pygmy Dates, and I think that was because I watered them too much....and, thinking I was helping them all ran a vaporizer a couple of times which all it did was create some fungus on the fronds.

All other palms sailed through being in garage, other than the fungus.

You see, I found a really, SUPER NICE single truck Pygmy Date palm about 8ft high for $50 and ONLY place it could go is in garage to over winter. It's such a beautiful palm, I would hate to see it defoliate from being too cold if we get a super cold winter.

But....it's just $50 so maybe why not?

I would say if you really want to warm up the garage make the investment and get a wood stove..few logs a day and keep it a nice 70 F all winter long and wood is def cheaper than that electric bill. another benifit is when she get pissed about another palm you can go outside and get away from her b/c you have to cut more wood!

I've always wanted to put a wood stove in the garage "just because" but since it's such a permanent thing, there really was't any place central that I could have installed it at, other than it being a free standing kind...and didn't want that.

I do have a wall mounted propane heater that I could use in a pinch. Although very safe, would't want to leave it on while sleeping or unattended, plus it gets it's fuel feed from the main tank that feeds the furnace when it gets too cold for the heat pump to work.

I'll just back way off on water during the winter, and never again use a mister like I did. The Pygmy Dates were really the only ones to really show damage, and that could have been over watering, and the mister.

Sometimes I think plants in general can adapt pretty well and suffer more from too much love from us!

Yea the garage is a good spot without any help.

Sometimes we kill out palms with kindness 🙂

I know I do-LOL

/or have rather.

Some palms just don't shut down as well but I think your
right,the extra moisture was not helping,humidity stays reasonable
in the cooler garage air-and as you know,that wet/damp combo doesn't
seem to be to any palms liking.

Well this discussion will make it easier to justify "buying one more...." so will probably go pick it up on Monday.

I got that blue latan if you need a bit more of an exotic flare 😆

lol, I did look them up when you said it was for sale, and saw they don't like cold at all. Any more palms I buy have to be able to be over wintered in the garage.

I was on a bit of a buying spree this year with Phil, a vendor in Ft. Meyers Fl, and a ebay vendor and I'm maxed out.

Pygmy Date Palm single, 3 ft of clear trunk on sale for $50...couldn't pass up. Now re-potted since it was so root bound and sitting in the spot where I had a windmill that was suffering from leaf spot fungus from our spring. It's now in the ground where it will be happier I'm sure.