winter protection, zone 6 – Page 5 – Greenhouse & Outside Protection – PalmsNorth.com

oppalm · 2008-11-21T09:27:30Z

Thought I would post a picture here of what I am doing to protect some of my inground palms. Following is a picture of 3 small palms covered in a mulch of leaves and covered by a plastic trash bag (no lights, no heat provided) . I did this last year and these three palms survived in ground after being planted in May of 2007. The palms are 2 sabal minors and a trach fortunei. These three were 2 year old seedlings when planted in May 2007. Not very big, I took a chance in 2007 planted them and was surprised all three made it over winter, zone 6. we had maybe 4 or 5 nights near 0F (-17C). Now to this year, I sprayed each palm with Garden Safe Fungicide 3, which is a fungicide, miticide and insecticide all in one. I believe this to be a fungicidal miracle (I mean all 3 in one convenient spray). Let the spray dry several hours. Then I just mound shredded leaves on top. The pile is probaly 18" deep, threw a black plastic trash bag over the top and weight the ends down with wood. The location gets winter sun from about 9am until about 2pm. The fence behind protects from the north wind, although it is slatted. I decided this year to bury a minimum/maximum thermometer inside the pile just to monitor the inside temps. Last night we had our coldest night of the season with temps at 20F (-6C) and the low inside the mass of leaves was 42F (5C). I was very surprised it was that warm under there. I will update as winter progresses.

oppalm

(@oppalm)

Posts: 694

Honorable Member

Topic starter

thanks for the atta boy. i had two other Fortuneis that were covered with a 12' circle of leaf mulch, with a teepee over the top that was open on the sides. They look OK but not nearly as good as these. I'll dig up the pics of these and post.

Kent in Kansas
where it's cold in winter (always)
and hot in summer (usually)
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Posted : 15/04/2009 8:53 pm

Okanagan desert-palms

(@okanagan-desert-palms)

Posts: 1603

Noble Member

Nice to see Kent. Maybe if I would have tried your method of mulching and completely covering my smaller 3 gal. Needle palms I wouldn`t be digging two of them up this spring.

John

Okanagan Palms and Tropicals
6b-7a

Posted : 16/04/2009 1:54 am