Foxtail Palm Lives through 8b winter

Sorry, didn't mean tto get a bunch of people excited by the subject, however this is exciting for me lol. This is my foxtail palm that wintered over very well (minimal browning of the tips visible on the older fronds). With some protection this palm was able to tolerate temperatures as low as 21 degrees here in zone 8b (Denham Springs, LA which is just outside of Baton Rouge). Since February this palm has put out three (one is hidden in the back in the picture) very healthy looking fronds and has probably grown 12" in height. I am posting two photos, one of the overall tree and one close up of the new fronds.

Photo 2

Awesome....seems to be happier than mine in california......

I'll tell you what, the Scotts Excel 15-5-15 fertilizer is amazing, the coloration in the tree has dramatically changed since I started using it earlier this year.

That is what you call "local conditions." Nice, very protected, and I am glad to see that you recoginze that a quality fertilizer is an important part of the survival of "out of zone" plants.

Wow, that's better than mine did in zone 9! One of my little ones hasn't put out any new fronds since the winter.

here is a picture of my foxtail and I also live in 8-b. In winter I wrap the old girl up in air duct insulation and then put christmas tree lights on the outside. On the coldest days I turn on the christmas tree lights to add a bit of heat.

Bear

Very nice, Jester. What rule of thumb do you use when deciding when to wrap your palm? Do you keep it wrapped up consecutively through the winter?

I wrap her up about a week before the first expected freeze or the last week in November what ever comes first. She stays that way until I deside there is no more freezes coming. This year it was April 3-4 before I took everything off.

Bear

Oh my! Wel that sure does keep her safe. I'm wondering if there's another way to do it for me... hummm...

what happens to the foliage on warmer, sunny days? It never burns from being wrapped like that? I would love to just wrap some of my palms once and walk away for the winter! I am just scared on some really sunny 70 degree days that the foliage would burn, so I wrap them for the night and unwrap the next day or so, depending on the weather the next day.

I do not wrap the leaves at the top. I just wrap the trunk. This allow the plant to still get its nutriants.

Bear

that makes more sense! But what about the foliage-whats the coldest nights that you have in the winter. I'm thinking that 8b must get a few nights in the low 20's or lower? Do you cover the leaves then, or do they get freeze burn?

I cover them in the colder days. Sometimes they burnt on the edges.

Bear

Same palm 1 1/2 months later

Good job!

This definitely gives me hope. I may try a foxtail outside

Gives you hope, you wont have any problem with foxtails in Gainsville, you'll lose a few fronds, but as long as you keep it watered well, and mulch it also, that is as long as it's not too young, Ed

I saw a big one bite it last year, but it was very exposed.

Looks like I owe you an apology Gothqueen, I never dreamed we would have another winter like the one in 1989, I wasn't growing palms then, so I really don't remember, but it looks like after tonight, I may be short a few dozen nearly seven year old Foxtails, Ed

Ed,
I feel your pain. I have some bamboo palms (Chamaedorea seifrizii) that have been in my yard for years, never had any damage...this morning one is completely defoliated. And we have another night of the same cold tonight. It was below 28F here for about 12 hours. It didn;t come up above 32F this morning til about 9:30am

They should replace the word warming, in " Global Warming ", with the word Radical, it may not get this cold next winter, but I think every few years, or so, we're gonna be in for a freeze, I just hope I'm wrong again, Ed

You will be surprised. If they are good sized, they will come back. Make sure to put fungicide down the growing point.

That's what I was reading on palmtalk, about spraying the new groth, I will do that in AM, Ed

What does spraying the spear with fungicide do? Well, besides prevent fungus?! LOL I did mine after Palmbob told me too, but what about the freezing temps brings about fungus?

Edric - We may be short a few palms too. We put a large gazeebo over the bottle palm 2 nights ago... wrapped the crownshaft and spear area with Christmas lights... but yesterday when we came home, the anchored gazeebo had blown over and turned inside out. Oh well. It must survive on its own now.

Just that the damaged area leaves an open invitation for fungi, once the temp. gets back above freezing, Ed

Gotcha... don't know why I didn't think of that.

Finally, I found an article about bud rot, and how to treat it. This is a great, informative article about bud rot, including bud rot that is caused by cold damage, which is what I think that we are all interested in. Here is the article http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PP144.

For cold damaged spear pull, they are saying that it is most likely bacterial in nature, and that fungicides will not work. They say that although people have used copper based products-it is unproven whether they work, but that if you try it, that it should be a copper based pesticide, as the other copper based products can be harmful to the palm.
Daconil is useless here. For the phytophthora bud rot-Subdue, Aliette, and Truban are the fungicides to use, and for the thielaviopsis budrot (which seems to be the most uncommon of the three types of budrot), you would use Clearys or T-storm etc that have the active ingredient of thiophanate-methyl.

Hope this helps-it sure explained it better to me.

Randy, I will be right over to pick up your foxtail. Have it all dug up for me now, OK? It is just beautiful. Jeri and I are going to Forrest Hill next month. Do you think they have any there? Thanks for adding to my addictions LOL

Debbie

that link doesn't work for me.

not sure why it didn't copy. There is a " /PP144 " after the edu, that doesn't copy. But I went to the above link that I provided and hit the advanced search bar at the top and then typed in " Bud rots of palm" and it went right to it-its the first article. It is by Monica L. Elliott.
See if that works.

From my experience from the California 07 Freeze, It takes so long for a foxtail to recover here that it's barely worth keeping a completely defoliated one. I kept mine and it should be back to normal before next year. I'm still waiting for the day I can find a deal on a Foxy Lady which probably can handle itself better.