For a windmill palm, I wouldn't be confident enough to grow it here without protection during it's first year. I'm actually scared that I'd mess up and cause more harm than leaving them unprotected. If my experiment fails, I will definitely protect the new palms I would get. I have family that lives in Texas between Dallas and Houston; 7 years ago, my aunt brought up a cedar tree, a prickly pear cactus (which I have many of), and some kind of yucca. I planted all 3 of these plants new year's day 2004 and all 3 have survived to this day. I know that's bad gardening, but I was just a teenager back then and didn't really know any better. The yucca has a deep greenish color with a hint of blue. It grew a 2 foot tall trunk and flowered this summer, but it was either chewed on or too heavy because it collapsed in September. Luckily, there are 2 offshoots that emerged this past summer. Sorry that was way off topic, but I thought you guys might enjoy a random gardenig tidbit.

-Jim

Jim, excellent analogy.
Since the brown segment on the "thumb" is closest to what is the "apical meristem" (the bud), that means that the green on the rest of the thumb simply hasn't browned yet but it will. If it were the other way around, the "nail" of the thumb, that's OK because the part closest to the bud (where the petiole pushes up) is still healthy.

I'm frankly surprised you've got that spear at that stage in January.
You watered until November????? 😯 😯
The trick generally is to water the blazes out of palms (the ones that like water like Sabal, Trachy, etc) until about August or early Sept., and then slowly start to dry them up by withholding it, earlier if your area gets a ton of rain in the Fall (like Vancouver on the Coast). In Vancouver, people build rainshelters over young Trachies (like a carport) just to keep the rain off them, though certainly the ground around them is saturated.

Since you planted them in June, "a palm special" fertilizer could have been applied then, again lightly every two or three weeks until early August (in my area), then no more.

I wouldn't even think about spring plans, that spear will likely pull.
But no panic.
You've got cold coming, you said. If you've got some fungicide, pour that onto the "thumb" frond during the day when the weather's milder.
I'd cover that "brown thumb spear" lightly with burlap wrapped around several times, then cover the whole palm in some kind of waterproof "hat", like a tarp. Pound a couple or three broomhandles into the ground so the tarp doesn't crush the fronds. Remove cover(s) completely as temps go above freezing, reapply at night or before rain.

I sure wish hardyjim would chime in here...he is the "spear pull king".
And where my advice differs from Jim's, go with Jim's instructions.

And while I was typing this, there's a new post so I'll close this.

And Erik...the spots are brown, so not nutrient deficiency.
If they were smallish orange spots, changing to necrotic, that'd be potash deficiency.
Even after a good potash application the leaves with the orange spots will never recover but that's ok, they'll be shed naturally later anyway.

Barb

Welcome to the cold hardiest palm,yucca,cactus,forum on the net.

John

I could not see the pictures,maybe someone could copy and paste?

Today, the pics failed "cannot connect to database" 😥

and this time I know it's not my mouse batteries.

Looks like the server that hosts the images is down. On another note, I got scared for my needle palm since it is still young and the temperature is supposed to get down to 6 degrees tonight, so I wrapped it's trunk with an old hand towel. Better than nothing, right? The needle palm is on the southeast side of my house, it's right next to the bottom of the chimney, and we've got a fire going tonight. I hope that adds at least a little something. I actually planted the hardier of my palms in the warmer location because I want it to be able to survive very any kind of winter, even if it's one of those once in a hundred year kind of debacles. I like the broomhandle and tarp idea to keep moisture out. It'll be fun getting those things into the frozen ground 🙂 By the way, what do you all use to put pictures up? I was just using this forum's default service...

A towel isn't enough.
It'll get soaked/frozen solid if it snows which keeps moisture in the palm's spear area.
THAT you want to prevent at all costs.

I suggested wrapping the spear area to keep it warmer, but then overwrapping that with something that'll keep moisture OUT completely.

getting those things into the frozen ground

Stability can be achieved by broomhandles, or short 2x4s, etc. by forming a teepee, which is tied at top with string, keeping the shape.
A tarp can then be thrown over the teepee, with sides held firm with stones/bricks.

Palms North has free photo hosting, you can use the PN Search bar .
My pics are all on a paid Flickr account, before PN image hosting became available.

Good luck with the cold...
Barb

Can you give us an update on how your palms did this winter? My needles perversely did much worse than my trachys. I even have a C. humilis that made it!

Yeah, I'm curious too, Jimmiller.
Hope they're fine.

Welcome aboard, saltydad.
Nice to have you with us! 😀
Looking forward to seeing your stuff.

Barb

welcome to the forum!

Either jimmiller is really busy or he forgot to select "notify by email of responses to posts" in his profile.

Good reminder...

Barb

Barb,
maybe you can PM him in case he gets email notifications of that.
Salty,
welcome!
My (covered but unheated) needles and Trachy did comparably well--on average. Lost one needle but one looks perfect, whereas all three Trachy look miserable but are alive and growing. I hope to get one more of each. --Erik

Erik, done.

Glad your Trachies are alive, Erik.
Can't understand why the needle croaked! 😯
Barb

Hey everyone,

I posted a topic about how my palms fared over the winter in the cold hardy palms section of this forum.

http://palmsnorth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3605

My needle palm is all but dead, but my dwarf palmetto lives on. I think the fact that the dwarf palmetto was so much larger than the needle palm helped it survive the winter. It did experience some leaf burn, but it still looks pretty good as of now (4/18). I haven't been out to Lowes/Home Depot lately to see if they have any windmill palms yet. I know there are much better places to get cold hardy palms from, but the local home improvement stores sell them for relatively cheap prices.

I hope everyone's palms are doing well,
Jim

Oops, of course you did!

Maybe the needle will recover, don't rip it out yet.
I've waited until June to see if something came up (it didn't on the NainiTal)... 😕

Looking forward to seeing any Trachies you get.
Barb