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Forgot to cover needle palm!!!

islandbreeze
11 years ago

I guess we'll see how hardy those blue pot needle palms actually are. I put mine to the ultimate test 2 nights ago...I had it covered with a trash can over it, nothing else, but recently we had some pretty warm days, so I took the covering off.

The night before last, we got down to zero, coldest night so far, and I forgot to cover it back up before the cold came. I think the high for the day was 9??? We'll see if it makes it. It looked dark green before I covered it up yesterday. Hopefully the color returns to normal. This is first winter in the ground for this palm.

Comments (14)

  • Jeff_Zone_5b
    11 years ago

    -17C is kinda cold. Interested to see how it survived. I just through a garbage pail over mine for our -18C nights. We have a little cold snap we are going through.

  • chadec
    11 years ago

    Hopefully one night will not hurt it. I never protected my seven gallon needle. And it took a beating during 2009 and 2010. Hasn't flinch since.

  • jfacendola
    11 years ago

    A few years ago, I put in 3 of the 3 gallon blue pot needles, and a 3 gallon needle that was hidden for a few years in the back of a small overgrown local plant place. Being in zone 8 I didn't worry at all about protecting them, even when we had one night in the low teens. All of the blue pot needles lost their spears and had some foliar damage, but the one which had been growing in local conditions for a few years suffered no damage. Two of the blue pot specials were damaged enough that the main "trunk" died and now I only have a ring of the smaller offsets from the base growing. Since then I have at least tried to cover any new palms I plant that haven't had at least one local winter in the ground whenever it is forecast to be 20 or below, regardless of thier hardiness rating. This afernoon I have to take care of a several new blue pot needles, and figure out how to cover 2 5ft wide pindos that I planted this fall in anticipation of tonights low...

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I have a 3 foot wide pindo that's been covered all winter. Pretty simple protection...just tie up the leaves, wrap the whole thing in Christmas lights, wrap in burlap to keep the heat in, then slip a garbage bag over it to keep it dry. If you're only expecting a brief cold spell with no precip, you can go without the garbage bag. But burlap and christmas lights is pretty simple to do.

    I'm protecting a windmill with this approach, did the same thing with it the last 2 winters in zone 6b, no winter damage.

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Here are some shots of the needle, the color is more dark green in person than the pic shows. What does everybody think? Too early to see damage?

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Another

  • jimhardy
    11 years ago

    Doesn't look to bad...probably need to warm up some before you know if the spear will pull...

  • LagoMar
    11 years ago

    Palms usually take a couple of weeks after thawing out to show the damage.

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Just a followup posting...I uncovered this palm yesterday since we're currently seeing some temps in the mid 50s and things are actually looking good. The healthy bright green color returned to the leaves and I see a little bit of tip burn in the form of black tips, but nothing serious and overall looks healthy. I'll post a pic later.

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    This is what it looks like now, after enduring zero degrees completely unprotected followed by a night at 6 degrees with a trash can over it. The daytime high was no warmer than 12 degrees.

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Another shot.

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    You can see the damage sustained, very minimal for a first year blue pot palm on the north side of the house.

  • LagoMar
    11 years ago

    Looking at. Your site I am betting you get a good 5 degrees from the bricks and proximity to the house. Even at 5 degrees though I'd say your needle pulled through brilliantly!

  • jimhardy
    11 years ago

    You will just have to wait(until it really warms up) to be sure-the good news is
    that the leaves are healthy so,even if it does pull,it should recover "quickly".

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