Quote:
Originally Posted by desert sun
I planted a few windmills and california fans in the spring, I want to know if I should tie the fronds up and wrap in burlap and keep them this way all through winter, is this a good idea? or should I only do on nights below freezing, what would you do in my situation.They are all 5 gallon palms. Thanks for any info.
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Here is my thought -
I would tie all of the frond up tightly together (in a "spear" like direction pointing "up" towards the sky) and leave 'em like that all winter. I learned that trick from numerous stays in El Paso where palm trees are far more commonly planted than in ABQ due to a slightly warmer climate. Even in El Paso's palm-conducive climate, they still do this commonly in the wintertime.
The thing is, the fronds are not going to continue growing in the wintertime anyway. In fact, with 5-gallon sizes only, most will probably die off, and that is fine. What you are looking for is to protect that very precious middle spear area where the new frond growth comes from...that is the area that keeps a palm living or can kill a palm if it freezes...you want to protect this area.
Looking at ABQ's current weather, with daytimes still getting into the 80s and high 70s (and night lows in the high 40s and low 50s), I probably wouldn't do the frond tie-up yet (although not being there...regrettably...currently, I cannot say for sure, you'd have to determine what the weather has been like at your house). I would probably wait for the frond tie-up until days were more in the 60s range and nights were falling below 42 or 41 degrees.
As for the burlap around the trunk, IF you do not mind doing that every night, that would be ideal. That would allow the trunk to soak up needed sunshine year-round and breathe. However, that can get real old - doing that late October though early April - most nights. So, if you get to a point where it is consistently below 42 degrees (palms you should not wait until 32 degrees), you can just tightly and warmly wrap that trunk, and then tightly wrap around the burlap some waterproof type plastics to keep all moisture out.
Hopefully this all works out for you...if they survive a winter or two, they'll grow like gangbusters and you'll not have to "winter protect" as much in the future.