What specifically is a DEL lights?

He means to say LED lights. (DEL is French term)

Bravo Ben, that's Badass! Great job!

Dan

Sorry Wheelman, Dan is right...that LED cable is only 54 watts for 30 feets long. The cable stay on more often, like that there s no peak of high heat. That help to prevent burn to the leaves. I was nt sure last fall if that will work, but after all, it work very well

😀

Ben

I thought LED gave off next to no heat... are you thinking that that strand gives off enough heat to keep the fronds from burning?

Beny, very good job with the wrapping and finally getting it simplified.With the damage my palms recieved this yr from not being protected that could work for them next winter. Without the lights or heat source. In my zone I think lights would only be needed for my pindos or CIDP.

Thanks for sharing,

Beny, very good job with the wrapping and finally getting it simplified.With the damage my palms recieved this yr from not being protected that could work for them next winter. Without the lights or heat source. In my zone I think lights would only be needed for my pindos or CIDP.

Thanks for sharing,

I'm intrigued by the CIDP, I may just try one up here! Chad do you have a picture we can see? Thx
Dan

I thought LED gave off next to no heat... are you thinking that that strand gives off enough heat to keep the fronds from burning?

I though the samething about the LED, but when the strand is on, it take 3-4 min to feel the heat. So, if our finger feel the heat, its because that heat is over 37c . It was a surprise for me too, to see it work for heating palms. Never the temp. Inside the wrapping went down Under the -2c even at -28c outside 😀 .
The thing is to keep a small air space 1-2 inches not more, cause more space you have, more heat you need.
I think the heat of the LED is near 40-45c instead of more then 50-60c for heatcable. Heatcable does the job too but is more expensive to buy. And with the LED, you see if the heat system work 😉 ...

Ben

905, I have a pic somewhere on a older thread of it dead. It bolted before winter ever got really bad which leads me to believe it was more a fungal disease. Either way this winter showed me the limits of my palms. Once we went into single digits I used Christmas lights inside my pindo covers but they still pulled. So I either need boxes or wrapping next time we drop below 12F.

How do you protect the roots with this method? can we have a picture? I thought that even a 2x2 is a little too small for the roots. I remember wxman was concerned few years ago that the palms are not doing that good when the root system goes outside the box.

Tavi

I never had problem with the 2x2 box, even if the roots goes outside the larger of the box. Maybe because we have 1-2 feets of snow every year over it. Im doing the same protection with the wrapping as for the box. 9-12 feets heatcable Easyheat with their own thermostat around the base on the ground, spread 1 feet from the trunck. Then tarp over it, spreading at least 2 feets from the trunck and let the snow cover doing the rest of the job. In the past i checked few time during the winter and never the soil was frozen at the feet on the palm.
So, for me here it work well. 2-3 years ago i added 6-12 inches of mulch over the tarp at the base, and now even without that i have the same result 😉 ...

Ben

Here s a video after unwrapping some palms...box method is still better but wrapping could work easily in zone 5-6.

http://youtu.be/7gMnZjGXtYU

Ben

After realizing the Mexican Fan Palm after 2 1/2 years in the ground was going to be a issue with building a ever taller cage for winter protection I was going to dig it up and move it 2 feet further away from where it's at. What a nightmare to dig up the root ball...so much so I gave up about 1/2 way to china and figured this will be first effort at Benys mummy wrap method. At least when I planted this palm I did it at an angle so it will grow away from the house.

Doesn't look the best now because of a sudden cold spell we had last fall to 9F and I left top off winter protection. It's coming back nicely though.

I always have to remind myself that in Los Angeles grow Mexican fan palms, not California fan palms, and that Washingtonia robusta is not as robust as Washingtonia filifera
:dontknow:

Based on the thorns yes, it looks like yours is a Mexican fan palm.

How deep was actually 1/2 way to china?

Tavi

Lol. I had it dug out about a foot and a half and just started to get to thicker roots so I know the real battle was about to begin when I threw in the towel.