Here is the Trachy I bought from Home Depot (15 gallon pot) in May. This will be its first winter. I sprayed the trunk with neem oil, wrapped it in burlap, sprayed that, wrapped that with fiberglass insulation for ducts, and then wrapped that with burlap. The slim poles are to support a 19-gallon rope-handle "much bucket" upside down as rain protection; I remove it on sunny days. The white background is an old foam-core door to slow down winds from the north. The chicken is there digging up the mulch (a mixture of pine shavings, uneaten hay and horse manure). I re-apply that every few days on account of the chickens....

My questions is, does this seem adequate for first winter protection of a T. fortuneion the zone 6/7 border?
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Hi Terdal,
you have some nice specimens there, both inside and out!

Golden bamboo is very healthy...do you dig up/store your Cannas?
You say you expect about 9F -13C for your lows. Lots of snow?

That's a nice Trachy you got at HD...if it's been in the ground the entire summer, it'll have grown some roots into the surrounding soil. If it was planted only this fall, I'd be a bit worried.
It hasn't had a whole summer to make new roots.

Maybe make an entire stack of hay around it, not just loose hay.
Actual bales of hay in a rectangle or square around the base of the plant, keep stacking until you're at the top of the trachy, cover the entire thing with a piece of plywood, held down with something heavy to keep it in place during winds.

I'd do the same thing with the butia, even though you've got heat tape around it. Kind of what you're doing with your musa basjoo but solid unbroken bales are better than opened bales. Winds might shred the plastic at joints.

If you build your hay stacks entirely around each, plants are virtually guaranteed to make it if no rain/sleet gets in the top.

That dead Washy stem shows it was a plant of some size! Must've been gorgeous.

With the manure and the chicken scratching around in the soil, your plants are going to really take off next year.
As they mature, they'll gain more winter hardiness.
First year in the ground is always the riskiest.

Buy more hay. 😆
I would pick a hay enclosure any day! I wouldn't even build a wooden palm enclosure.
I'd build a pyramid out of solid bales, with a huge one=piece tarp thrown over the top to keep rain out.

Thanks for the pics!
Barb

Erik,
Nice job! I have only a few concerns. Nothing major very easy stuff, I meant to reply last night but I was tired and I wanted to help you as much as possible.

Butia
Beautiful palm by the way! I think you might need a better heat source to keep the leaves from toasting. They are hardy but will start burning around 12f most likely under there. Lets say it's 9f for your low and your cables will most likely make 6-10f hopefully your still close if temperatures drop for some reason. For safety sakes just through one string of none led c9 lights (25) that will do the trick. You'll just need to plug them in when temps are low enough and unplug them later. You also might want to tie some ropes around your plastic so it doesn't blow off. The only other problem is getting to hot inside there. I know you guys can get some intense sun and warm days over the winter, it's possible to warm up 50+ degrees over ambient temperature. So a 60f and sunny day it could be 110f inside, not what you want at all. Kind of a pain I know but I just want to let you know, I'm sure you already have a plan for this. Through a bunch of milk jugs or 5 gallon bottle full of water in there to help keep the temperatures more consistent.

Trachy
The trachys tough, your right on the line with protection verse no protection there. I like Barbs idea about the hay bails around it, that way you can cover the top if needed when threatening weather approaches.

How much stem did you leave on the basjoo under that hay pile?

Terrific Job! They should grow like mad next year when they come out of hiding 😀

Bill

Erik,
What's holding the roof up on the butia hut? I just read the post you wrote to Jim about you might get snow. I don't want it to cave in on you, you could throw a piece of plywood on top if your getting snow.

Bill

I think the heating cables need to go under the burlap.
Your large enclosure needs some serious work to get that plastic secure and I believe some cross supoprts to to keep it from flapping it's self lose.
I don't know how exposed of an area your in but I know Kansas is windy(at least as windy as Iowa!)so make sure you've got everything secure!
You should also have some remote thermometers so you can keep an eye on the heat/cold at least until you learn what your enclosures are giving you.
As Bill mentioned the heat can get intense in a G-house like structure,they almost always need to be vented on sunny days with near/above freezing temps.
I can tell you from experience that there is no worse part of growing cold hardy palms then having to go out at 2am and fight the elements
Good luck!

Barb, Bill, Jim,
thanks for the quick help.
For those just checking in, here is a link to the photo of the shelter my 10-year-old and I made for the 15-gallon potted Butia I bought at the local HD last May and planted in ground in between the stumps of two Washingtonia that died last March:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zZGw4jWyGuZp_rsBjcG19w?feat=directlink
The shelter was made using scrap lumber from around the farm and so is not very sturdy. It has 1" x 2" bracing on the walls and three 1" x 2" slats across the top to hold up the plastic sheeting.
That has worked for the light rains we have had so far as I erected it slightly sloped so the rain can run off. The imminent question is whether it can handle a snow. After checking it out this afternoon, my answer is, no. Snow would collapse the roof. We might get serious snow Tuesday night, although the local meteorologists are still pretty sure it will just be a lot of cold rain. That is typical around here. We get about 10" of snow each winter. It tends to fall all at once and then melt quickly. Last year all of our snow fell in one storm in late March, after a week of afternoon temps in the 80's oF that got everything growing like crazy.
This afternoon, I added a 4' x 4' sheet of OSB I found in a barn to the roof of the Butia shelter. I also put in rebar at two corners and used zip-ties to secure the uprights to those in hopes that keeps the entire structure from blowing away. I left the heating cable outside of the burlap. I have never used heating cable on plants before and was worried that it would get too hot for direct contact with plant tissue. Has anyone had that problem? So far, it does NOT feel hot to the touch when I feel it with my fingers. So, I may follow your advice and wrap it directly against the Butia trunk and put the burlap over the tape.
As for Christmas lights, I like the idea. My wife is opposed. Apparently she once had those lights ignite a Christmas tree (before I met her) and so she is afraid of them. Can anyone assure me that they are indeed completely safe on a tree outside--which is not even close to the house in the event it does ignite? Otherwise, I'll just have to accept that the leaves may well be lost this winter. I have had a small Butia in the ground the past two winters. I mulch it, wrap hay around the leaves, and put a 20-gallon bucket over it. It sufferes severe leaf damage but grows new leaves each summer. So, I figure that even if I lose the leaves of the new, larger Butia, I can get new fronds over the Summer. I'd just prefer not to....

Glad we could help out Erik.
I'd have to say the lights are safe or at least they have been for me. I'll have plenty of them going under my washie huts this year 3 strings worth. I used one string on my trachy last winter and I felt safe as can be, just the lights alone will add some serious heat to your palm hut. I was getting a 30 degree bump last year and the top wasn't even plastic. You won't need to run them all the time anyways just when temps are going to be below 18 or so to be safe.

How often does that happen over the winter there? They have a thermostatic outlet that comes on at 20f and off at 30 or 35 that might be helpful too.

Bill

I'll check on that switch. I am trying to make things as easy as possible. The reason is that I am escaping to Belize for a couple of weeks soon and leaving my wife behind in the cold. I don't really expect her to run out in the cold to turn things on for me when I am sweating in the jungle.....

Thanks for your help here.
Let me answer some of your questions:
Golden bamboo: it does look good. It is growing a little each year. I keep hoping it will take off and run as I gave it a lot of space. The only winter protection it gets is mulch. The chickens scratch that away and expose some roots each winter, which may be slowing it down a little.

Cannas: I leave them in the ground and mulch over them. I do not use plastic sheeting or anything to keep the roots dry. I lose some in cold winters. Last winter, the coldest it ever got was 10 oF (- 12 oC). Most winters we get to the low single digits (~ -16 oC) which lets the ground freeze some if it stays like that for a few days.
I treat the Musella lasiocarpa bananas and the Elephant Ears (Colocassia) the same way. They die to the ground but come back strong, especially the Elephant Ears.
Here is a photo of a Musella lasiocarpa as it looks now:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Q4bDb381F5yoGoAlu2I2-g?feat=directlink

Musa basjoo will overwinter without protection as well. This year, I am trying to save some stems in hopes of getting an earlier start and maybe even flowers, which I have never had. I am inspired (challenged?) by a non-gardener friend who got 25 large and tasty bananas this year. He does not know what variety he planted a few years ago in his backyard and he just lets it die to the ground. So, I figure if he can get flowers & fruit, I should be able to. For the M. basjoo clump I have had a couple of years, I cut all eight stems to ~18", sprayed with neem oil, wrapped loose hay around them and covered with a 20-gallon rope-handle bucket. For the two new ones, which I planted in May from 5-gallon pots, I cut the tallest two stems off at ~1 meter/3 feet, sprayed with neem oil, wrapped with burlap, sprayed that, and then piled loose hay enclosed in wire fencing and covered with plastic sheeting.

As for hay, I like the idea of making a "house" out of square bales around tender trees. However, that would be expensive around here. We are surrounded by hay farms. However, they all produce round bales, 6' (2 m) in diameter and weighing ~1000 lbs (500 kg). We have to use a big diesel tractor to place them in the pasture. We bought some of the small square bales (only about 90 lbs [40 kg] each) from an Amish man (they don't all have tractors) who lives an hours drive away by pickup. So, in short, I can use all the hay I want but I get it by picking up loose handfuls from the large round bales we have out in the pasture for the horses and goats.
Here is a photo of the banana enclosures for anyone who is following:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/K64LKXPb5p94vCPL_2f9Tg?feat=directlink

--Erik

Erik looks like your are on your way to becomming a cold hardy palm nut, welcome. Seems to me you are on the right path. My only advice would be to tie down the tarps and plastic very snug. The wind has a way of blowing palstic around at the worst possible time (i.e like when its snowing and 40MPH winds.) good luck.

Thanks!
I just got home from work. The big cold front has not hit here yet--we are still at 40 oF with winds just now shifting to come from the NW. So, I have time to tie down the Butia shelter in the next couple of hours. Overnight we are forecast to have gusts to 35 mph and temps of about 20 oF so I very much appreciate your timely advice!

Erik,
Stunned that your musa basjoo would make it without protection! 😯
So the one in the enclosure will come out of winter as one very happy banana.

Farms generally have a lot of open land, and exposure to northwest winter winds is what drops temperatures to critical values. But the cow manure and chicken droppings warm the ground. I like the insulated door propped up, but one comment. A single door blocks the wind at its face, then "turbulence" whips around both sides, making it often windier behind it. A horseshoe--or V shape--might be more effective.

Re Xmas lights, I'm leery of them too simply because dry leaves can ignite if leaves shift as they pack down.
I also loosely pack old blankets, old towels around my yucca rostrata x. Just couldn't figure out exactly where to put the bulbs where I could get at them, if a bulb or two needed adding to the string. My big $$$$ y.rostrata will likely be toast come spring.

I tried it last Fall just to see how many lights I'd need on...could never get it right. Three bulbs on a string weren't enough, six was too many. But that's just me. Happier with the 1200 w heater with a 14 gauge extension cord, set on low.
Happy that is until the bloody remote thermometer stopped working.

A heat tape is a great idea, but agree that it has to be against the trunk (under the burlap). And one on the ground if you can keep it from shorting out (they're intended to be wrapped around pipes).

Belize, huh? Hope you take lots of palm photos.
Bringing back some seeds too? 😉

Barb

Barb,
thanks for the reply!
About the Musa (and Musella, Colocassa, Canna), the secret here is that the ground does not freeze. The air gets very cold here, hence the USDA Zone 6/7 designation. However, we have long, sunny days at 35 oN latitude versus zone 6 up north, plus we get periodic warm winds from the south that break up the cold spells. For example, we'll have south winds this weekend keeping even nighttime temps above freezing.
The stems are another matter. The hay enclosures will work if we do not get long cold spells, but the one we are in right now might be enough to freeze the stems (we have been well below freezing for ~30 hours). I might use heat cable on a stem next winter if the hay alone does not work this winter. My friend who got fruit from his bananas lives in the city with a much better microclimate.
Speaking of microclimate, mine is horrible. As you guessed, the trees have been cleared for pasture all around. We are sited on the NW slope of a hill and my tropical garden is to the NW of the house. So, it gets blasted.
The insulated door is propped against a gazebo on one side. It does protect the V area between it and the gazebo wall. I know that becuse the chickens gather there to get out of the wind. But about the turbulence, you are right on. We had sustained strong winds Tuesday night and I watched. The door amplified the wind blast on the Trachy leaves. They show it. I'll have to figure something out before the next such blast. Thanks for pointing out the potential problem so I could look for it. The door does keep the barn mulch in place, however, and so it will at least keep soil temps up.
The soil on my farm is fabulous as it has been a free-range chicken farm for ~75 years. However, I am growing my tropicals around the pool. The construction (before I bought the place) dumped the deep excavated clay around the pool, so I have had to double-dig to mix in compost with the clay. My skill varied--and the effect is very noticeable. Where I was effective, plants grow very well. Where I left too much clay plants grow much more slowly. For any other novices out there, let me tell you: its all about the soil. Preparing it is a lot of hard work but the effect in a year or two is very dramatic. I can really tell where I was lazy or tired as plants grow slowly (even with fertilizer) compared to where I prepped the soil well.
I showed my wife what Bill MA is doing with Christmas lights to see if she would be supportive. It made her go to her Washy (in a pot in the dining room now) and tell it how much she loved it and wasn't it glad she made me bring it in? So, I'll take a pass this year and hope the heat tape works when I am in Belize.
I'm going to Belize for zoology work (study of Jaguars) but I will take photos of palms for you, and bring some seeds back. I think the Belize Botanic Garden ( http://www.belizebotanic.org/) even sells some from their collection.
--Erik

Have a great trip Eric
I agree about the soil too.
Getting these plants established is a BIG part of this and having nice soft well worked soil helps the roots get established.
Also the use of heat cables(like our very own dollar Bill) under the soil is huge,esp in colder climes.