I have not had time to work more on the palm hut. We need staples as the fiberglass batting has fallen over (it was merely pressed into place). Will need to finish it this weekend. Warm weather--may hit 70 oF!--but the local meteorologists are talking about a white Thanksgiving, if you know what I mean. They say there is serious cold brewing in Canada headed our way in a week.
I bought a couple thermocubes today, right off the shelf for US$13 each. (Photo below.) They were at the local farm supply store. I know some of you have written about the difficulty of finding and ordering them online. Have you considered just going to a farm supply store? They are all full of winter protection supplies right now for livestock, but we can use the same stuff for our beloved palms.

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Erik,
With your nice weather next week, you could even spot-glue the fibreglass versus stapling.

Yup, that serious weather is about to hit us in the next 36 hours.
Duncan in Calgary already got nailed with snow and cold, saw ugly snow pictures on TV this morning.
Temp already dropped 5 degrees the last hour.

I ordered my T-3 thermocube from an American online sheep/farm supply place.
Hope it arrives before February 😆
Barb

thats alot of snow. nice job on the palm hut. working on mine this weekend. I'll take pictures and post my progess.

Kent,
I look forward to your photos and suggestions. We're both going to get our first real cold (what Duncan has now) by the end of next week. --Erik

Well, from norther latitudes in BC all the way to manitoba are going to se e-20C lows for about 6 days. Calgary will be seeing highs from -6C to about -10C for a week. They are also talking about more snow as well.

Most of central canada has seen snow, from edmonton to alberta to about wawa ontario ( above sault ste marie), from 10cm - 30cm of snow. They are talking about high pressure building in from the states and comming up here. The downside... the jet stream ( from what i seen) is going to go down as far as texas in saturday......

Here it is still actualy above normal ( the passiflora pics you seen prove it hasnt gone below -2 or so as a low)

Eric, im sure your protection will work fine. From what i heard the south east states are going to have a very similar winter to last... ( ive seen a few different prdictions, the predictions of a similar winter seem to be more abundant). Prepare for the worse, so you can have the best in the spring!!!

The only suggestion i have is leaves, a lot of leaves.....

I have not had time to work more on the palm hut. We need staples as the fiberglass batting has fallen over (it was merely pressed into place). Will need to finish it this weekend. Warm weather--may hit 70 oF!--but the local meteorologists are talking about a white Thanksgiving, if you know what I mean. They say there is serious cold brewing in Canada headed our way in a week.
I bought a couple thermocubes today, right off the shelf for US$13 each. (Photo below.) They were at the local farm supply store. I know some of you have written about the difficulty of finding and ordering them online. Have you considered just going to a farm supply store? They are all full of winter protection supplies right now for livestock, but we can use the same stuff for our beloved palms.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href=" http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LcW2TrBHNB_W7Q96RW80Rg?feat=embedwebsit e"><img src=" " height="383" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href=" http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/November2010?feat=embedwebsit e">November 2010</a></td></tr></table>

I went a Googling to do research on those and noticed that it was mostly farmers using them. Lot have them hooked up to strobe lights to alert the farmers as to when it gets too cold for livestock.

I ended up getting mine off of Amazon.com. Its going in the Flower house dome that I procurred especially for the Butia. The rest of my boys get leaf cages or just a nice dose of mulch.

Anyway, your hut is looking good. I think I will have to build something like that next year as the Butia outgrows the Flower house and its reallocated for my next mad scheme.

Jack,
that strobe light thing is great! It would be a nice visual reminder that the temps have dropped and we need to make sure the 100+ animals are protected. Maybe we could train 'em to come to the barn when the light comes on 😆
We'll try to finish the palm hut Sunday, when the air should be 70 oF here. Nice! The real cold is not supposed to come until Wednesday morning.
I also need to buy more of my plumbers heat tape for some of those Sabal.
I'm also scheming a new protection plan for zone 7 palms I'll describe after I've thought it through more. --Erik

Thermocube arrived yesterday-
finally got off my but and did something today..........
Covered the ferns and hooked up the X-mas lights to the T-3

Next are the Washys.

The winds are calm now and it is a balmy 48 oF (9 oC) so I have house windows open.
Yesterday was very windy and I feared the half-done palm hut would blow over. W stapled the fiberglass in place and I tied it to the 4" x 6" post (for Summer protection) and set chairs with water buckets along the edge. This thing might fly!
We're hoping that having a roof will help, but I'll have to keep checking on it.

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That pic looks like it's spring, Erik.
There you go, you did it.

Q: does that back wall "swing/hinge" down for a roof?
Guessing probably not, otherwise the nanas would be decapitated.
Or are you using a strong tarp, stretched tightly, for the angled roof?

Jim, good...you'll likely be glad in, oh, about 7 days 😕
My T-3 hasn't arrived, so I'll wing it with the remote thermometer and heater.
(picture in my mind: Canadian Border security still looking at the T-3, wondering what it is). 😐

Barb

It felt like Spring today, with highs of 48 oF or so. A week from now it will feel like winter. 😡
Up to now, we have pulled the sun-shade the wind ripped down over it for the coldest nights.
Sunday, we plan to construct a rigid sloped roof. I'll post details as we figure it out.
Still have to mulch, insert the heater, and hopefully a light. We have warm weather forecast for the next few days (might hit 70 oF!), so as long as the palm hut is "done" by Wednesday we are good to go.

Has anyone else checked their local farm store for thermocubes right on the shelf? To me, that seems easier than ordering online, but then again I am in a farm store regularly.

It's good you've got a week to get it done.

A light is a good idea 😕 which I wished for tonight.
Just after supper, it was -7C 19F.
The remote thermometer in the palm hut said -1C 30F.
Rushed out because I remembered the heater wasn't plugged in.
Couldn't see a @$#&^%# thing inside the hut, had to feel for the controls.
Tomorrow a trouble light is going in there!

Thermocube is en route...our one farm supply store here normally has zilch other then feed and irrigation equipment.

Barb

I have seen anywhere from 8F to 17F(-13c to -8c) forecast here for next Wednesday night,
needless to say,this weekend things are getting done 😯

We plan to finish the heated palm hut this weekend.
I have Wednesday off from work and plan to leave the zone 8 palms + Sabal seedlings outside until that day as we have a warm forecast until then before the "cold" weather Duncan has had gets down here.
December, and Dec - Feb, forecasts are still for warmer than average weather but that doesn't mean it won't be very cold on occasion. I don't want to do anything else dumb like I did with PDP and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis earlier this month. 😳
I think we have low 20s oF for Thanksgiving morning, so I want to be ready for that. 😯
--Erik

We did not get the roof up this weekend. W worked a lot. It turns out we have somewhat different ideas on how to build a roof which we'll have to work out in the next few days.

Fortunately, unusually warm weather is holding. We are near record high lows!

I installed a brooder heat lamp (250w bulb). The first photo shows it turned on, but you can see the thermocube (white) sitting on an upturned planting pot. Before we get really cold weather I'll put in a ceramic heater with a fan, but this should do for now + let us see the palms through the glass front.

The photo also shows a design fault in the structure. It has been very windy lately. The 2" x 4" on the east side broke today from the twisting forces the winds exerted. I begin to suspect I have the largest free-standing palm hut in tornado alley, or at least the flimsiest.

The second photo is merely to "set the scene" of how the garden looks now.

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