Great job! They will be just fine.

They should be, there s some pics...will post more videos this week !

Ben

Love the heat tape!

Great work as always Beny.
Nice looking palms, very healthy.

The winter that I used pink insulation inside my plastic "tent" I had a lot of mold/fungus on the fronds, but it blew off in the wind.
Haven't used any since because I added more C-9s.
I now cover the entire "tent" of 6ml vapor barrier with old solar pool blankets.
The pool guy likes the idea of me reusing old solar pool blankets so he doesn't have to take them to the dump.

What a beautiful back yard that must be in summer.

Barb

Beny, I'm counting on you. The old method with a hut is getting out of control once they grow over 8'. Please document somewhere the method you're using. You're doing a great job.

Thank you for posting,

Tavi

Barb,
I use the pink insulation over the Ayrfoil and Under the tarp. Like this, never that insulation touch the foliage. Its only to prevent the leaves to touch a too much cold enclosure, but thats an experiment this winter. I wrapped only 4 palms with that.

Tavi,
There s the way to do with the wrapping technique,

Tie the fronds together
install a 12 foots EasyHeat cable ( with their own thermostat ) on the ground around at the feet of the palm. Put the thermostat near the ground.

install a 18 foots EasyHeat cable ( 2 foots of cable by every feet of palm, ex.: for a 8 foots tall palm, you need a 18 foots tape ), put the thermostat 1 feet over the crown. You may need to add an extension to plug that tape if the palm is over 10 feets high.

Wrap the palm with Ayrfoil insulation ( use to protect Hot reservoir in the house ), tape them together. Put the aluminium side facing the palm.

Then wrap an arbotex over the Ayrfoil.

Then wrap tarp over.

Dont forget to make an hole , about 1 inch, at the middle of the trunck an another at the top of the protection. Thats help for ventilation and thats prevent fungus problems.
But for the Butia, dont make an hole on the side only at the top. That palm are not prone to fungus problems, and it s more sensitive to hard cold.

Hope it will help you guy's....this method works pretty well here even with that worst winter we all had last year 😥 ...

Ben

I am testing one of my oldest palms this winter with my 55 gallon plastic drum method. I covered the foliage with frost cloth, one layer, I'm thinking once I positioned the drums over the palm that some of the cloth will be touching the fabric, I'm wondering if I'll have issues with damage to the foliage? There's clearly less protection with the plastic over my 3/4-1 inch wood boxes I've done in the past. Any thoughts? Once mine get larger I will be forced to go to the mummy route.

One additional question I have is, with the heat tape, is it pretty much on all the time until the outside temps get above 45F? I don't see how that tape would generate enough heat to trigger the thermocube off..... and cycle on and off to some degree.

Wheelman,
The thing is to avoid if possible any leaves to touch very cold enclosure. But the windmill start having dommage at around 0F. I think is better to put the frost cloth outside the enclosure to prevent the cloth keeping the moisture from the palm. To avoid fungus problems. If you put some layers cloth over the drum, i think it s better.
For the heatcable, the one i use as is own thermostat starting whenthe temp. goes Under +3c or 38F. I verified the heatcable Under one of my wrapping and i saw during the day even at -10c, it was off. The cable turn on only few hours per day. If your palm are in the sun, it will start less. Dont forget the effect of the sun even in january.
The wrapping get at least 7-9c more than the outside temperature only du to the sun 😀

Ben

avoid if possible any leaves to touch very cold enclosure.

Beny's bang-on with that advice.
Fronds cannot touch the cold surface at all.

Barb

Great tips!

Slight exception: I've had fungus problems with Butia. Not as bad as with Washy, but some.

avoid if possible any leaves to touch very cold enclosure.

Beny's bang-on with that advice.
Fronds cannot touch the cold surface at all.

Barb

So the frost cloth between the fronds and the drums won't do me a bit of good? If so.... darnit.... I have everything on and the upper portion covered with plastic and shrink wrapped to water tightness (at least on the top). The issue I noticed with the barrels is even with me pulling the fronds up, I can still see it's a bit of a tight fit in the drum. And since I can see there's little between the plant and the outside I thought the frost cloth barrier draped over the fronds would do me some good....

Wheel,
well, will do some good. You'll just get foliage damage where frond tips touch the outer surface. The palms themselves should be fine.
So, how cold is it there now? Snow?

Wheel,
well, will do some good. You'll just get foliage damage where frond tips touch the outer surface. The palms themselves should be fine.
So, how cold is it there now? Snow?

expecting 2-5 inches thursday, heading into freezing as we speak. I had to build my boxes this past friday and monday with a wicked cold.... I was physically exhausted doing these things this fall.... really makes me want to find an easier way. Although with that said, I can whip out a box in about 30-45 min. which isn't too bad. Long term with what I'm doing I don't like the idea of buying new strands of c-9's every year as I've found the bulbs are only good for one season, after that they start burning out. Getting down to a mummy wrap with a compact fluorescent makes more sense.

Going low into the 20s (oF) tonight here in Oklahoma; feel sorry for all the family up in Michigan.
Low 30s in Oregon where I have unprotected palms.

I'm a fan of pipe heating tape as not too expensive and low in electricity use.