Allen..
Looks like your yucca eleph. are holding up well..
Good stuff!
Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On
Palm Shelter
Moderators: lucky1, Alchris, Kansas, Wes North Van, Laaz
The shelter held up well in temps as low as -36*C with windchills between -40 and -50. The inside temp got down to -4.9*C
It seems like the worst is over. I will probably be able to check the palms in a couple of weeks as the forecast shows that we are supposed to get to freezing about that time.
Allen
It seems like the worst is over. I will probably be able to check the palms in a couple of weeks as the forecast shows that we are supposed to get to freezing about that time.
Allen
You don't have to be crazy to grow palms in Alberta..... But it helps
The worst is over and I opened the shelter for the first time to let some of the sun generated heat out.Most plants are fine. The Yucca e. that had some sickly leaves last fall has about half of them dead. The rest of the sickly leaves have recovered. Everything else looks a nice healthy green.
Except-- My Washingtonia filifera 3 yr seedlings. I didn't water them in time
and I may lose some of them.What I learned:
-Paint the south exterior a medium to dark color to get more heat from the sun.
-Line the inside of the west north and east walls with that aluminized cloth blanket to reflect the heat back in.
-Line the ceiling with the aluminized cloth blanket.
-Reduce the roof door from 2' x 10' to 2 doors 2' x 3' each with a 4' solid section in the centre.
-It is not necessary to let the plants dry out to reduce the risk of cold damage. Water them monthly.
I am proud of my creation.
Allen
You don't have to be crazy to grow palms in Alberta..... But it helps
-
Okanagan desert-palms
- Clumping Palm
- Posts: 1600
- Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 12:59 am
- Location: Kelowna British Columbia Canada
- Contact:
Heating cost for the winter.
I finally got enough information to try to calculate the cost of keeping the shelter warm over the winter.
Our electricity consumption increased by 192 kilowatt hours from the previous winter which cost about $30($13 +transmission & delivery).
I figured--Yeah right--
So I started figuring out the changes in our electricity usage. We used more lights this winter(my niece and 4 times as much germination area). We got rid of our old washer and dryer and bought one of those fancy front loading washer & dryer sets. With my niece & kids, the washer/dryer was used about 2 1/2 times as much and I don't know how much that affected the electricity usage.
I figured it out this way. Upgrading our dryer more than paid for heating the palm shelter.
Another rough calculation would be .4 kilowatts x 16 hrs/day x 150 days x 1/2 usage(for warm & sunny days) = 500 kilowatt hours. Cost to me 500 x $.064/ kilowatt hour x 2.5(to allow for transmission & distribution) = $80.
Darn, I should have heated the other shelter.
I am hoping to get the front off of the shelter today and will take some pics before I put the sun shade(bubble wrap) on.
Allen
Our electricity consumption increased by 192 kilowatt hours from the previous winter which cost about $30($13 +transmission & delivery).
I figured--Yeah right--
So I started figuring out the changes in our electricity usage. We used more lights this winter(my niece and 4 times as much germination area). We got rid of our old washer and dryer and bought one of those fancy front loading washer & dryer sets. With my niece & kids, the washer/dryer was used about 2 1/2 times as much and I don't know how much that affected the electricity usage.
I figured it out this way. Upgrading our dryer more than paid for heating the palm shelter.
Another rough calculation would be .4 kilowatts x 16 hrs/day x 150 days x 1/2 usage(for warm & sunny days) = 500 kilowatt hours. Cost to me 500 x $.064/ kilowatt hour x 2.5(to allow for transmission & distribution) = $80.
Darn, I should have heated the other shelter.
I am hoping to get the front off of the shelter today and will take some pics before I put the sun shade(bubble wrap) on.
Allen
You don't have to be crazy to grow palms in Alberta..... But it helps
Darn it. I got the pics but Postimage.com isn't working.
The Washingtonias have a small sign of life in the stalk. The Cycas Revoluta are fairly brown and appear to have sunburn. Most of them should survive. The Yucca elephantipes are sunburnt baddly and the Butia has several dried out/sunburnt fronds. The Chamaerops is a little pale and has one or two burnt fronds.
The weather going from 24*C and sunny to cloudy and -12*C and then back to 20*C and sunny in a week and a half has really affected everything in the shelter.
I am going to have to figure something that will gradually increase the sun while keeping the shelter temperatures between freezing and 15*C. I will also have to figure out how to allow for the reflection of the sun when the ground is covered in snow. When it was still -8*C and sunny, I sunburnt in 15 minutes.
Allen[/img]
The Washingtonias have a small sign of life in the stalk. The Cycas Revoluta are fairly brown and appear to have sunburn. Most of them should survive. The Yucca elephantipes are sunburnt baddly and the Butia has several dried out/sunburnt fronds. The Chamaerops is a little pale and has one or two burnt fronds.
The weather going from 24*C and sunny to cloudy and -12*C and then back to 20*C and sunny in a week and a half has really affected everything in the shelter.
I am going to have to figure something that will gradually increase the sun while keeping the shelter temperatures between freezing and 15*C. I will also have to figure out how to allow for the reflection of the sun when the ground is covered in snow. When it was still -8*C and sunny, I sunburnt in 15 minutes.
Allen[/img]
You don't have to be crazy to grow palms in Alberta..... But it helps
