Cold Spell Aftermath

[mjff]

It's been two weeks and we have been into the high 70's and low 80's several days, so hopefully most of the damage is evident now. To recap we hit a low of 12F at my house and were below 15F for at least 9 hours. This was the type of freeze we see maybe once a decade. We get that cold about 1/2 our winters, but not for the duration we saw this time. Normally, we might be below 15F for an hour after a warm afternoon with a quick recovery to much higher temperatures. Most of these palms survived a very brief 14F with no damage 2 years ago. I will break these up into 3 groups:

First, the undamaged:
Brahea armata;
Brahea decumbens (largest one);
Brahea moorei (covered with a box);
Butia capitata;
Butia capitata (silver form);
Butia archeri
Butia eriospatha;
Butia paraguayensis;
Butia species (no scientific name yet, clumping Butia with subterranean trunks);
Butia capitata x Jubaea;
Butia capitata x Parajubaea coccoides (fronds bronzed by snow previously, but no additional damage from cold covered only with a box);
Chamaedorea microspadix (under a bucket);
Chamaedorea radicalis (under a bucket);
Chamaerops humilis;
Chamaerops humilis var Cerifera;
Jubaea chilensis;
Nannorhops ritchiana (smallest one);
Sabal causiarum (36" box on my driveway);
Sabal guatamalensis;
Sabal mexicana;
Sabal minor;
Sabal palmetto;
Sabal riverside;
Sabal rosei;
Sabal texensis;
Sabal uresana;
Trachycarpus fortunei;
Trachycarpus nanus;
Trachycarpus takil;
Trachycarpus wagnerianus;
Trithrinax acanthicoma;
Trithrinax campestris;
Washingtonia filifera;

Second, spear pulls, but older fronds undamaged (these are mostly small palms 5 gallon or smaller, and most were covered by a bucket or box):
Brahea decumbens (small ones, unprotected);
Butia yatay;
Butia paraguayensis x Syagrus;
Butia yatay x Syagrus;
Jubutiagrus;
Phoenix theophrastii;
Rhapidophyllum hystrix (unprotected);
Serenoa repens (blue, green and silver)( not established yet, and unprotected);
Trachycarpus princeps;

Third, the completely or mostly fried (I'm confident most of these will recover):
Allagoptera arenaria (older fronds damaged previously by snow now dead, new fronds fine, covered with frost cloth);
Brahea aculeata (covered by a box);
Brahea clara (not established yet, some still in 30 gallon containers, older fronds bronzed, newer ones fine);
Brahea edulis (older fronds fried, newer ones still green);
Butia capitata x Syagrus (not established yet with no old fronds, tender new growth burnt);
Livistona chinensis (under a bucket);
Livistona decipiens (under a box);
Livistona mariae (under a bucket);
Nannorhops ritchiana (2 largest ones);
Phoenix canariensis;
Phoenix dactylifera;
Phoenix loureirii (older fronds burnt by snow and 20F, remaining fronds damaged by 12F);
Phoenix sylvestris (45 gallon containers on my driveway);
Sabal bermudana;
Sabal yapa (burnt by snow and 20F);
Syagrus romanzoffiana (burnt by snow and 20F);
Trachycarpus latisectus (5 gallon size);
Trachycarpus "Naga Hills" (5 gallon size);
Washingtonia filibusta;
Washingtonia robusta.

I will be updating the freeze damage data section with this info, but thought it would be nice to see it all in one spot. Anything that surprises anybody either way on the list above?

[iamjv]

Martin, good update! Some surprises....

I am working on my damage assessment listing as well, I will post it here as well as on my initial freeze thread when complete. Jv

[BlufftonSC]

Impressive list of palms... wow!

I'm surprised my S. causiarum got as burnt as it did.

[mjff]

I had not watered that S causiarum for several weeks prior to the freeze, and we hadn't had any rain/snow for several weeks either, so that may have helped it do a little better. It tends to dry out in that box faster than it would in the ground.

I guess I should add that I found covering the palms without adding a heat source did not seem to help the palms at all. There were several palms that I covered one and not the other, and both look equally good/bad, as the case may be, now.

[newtothis]

What are you going to do for your CIDP? Half of my 2 yr old seedlings had spears pull but some old leaves still green. I poured hydrogn peroxide but wonder if I should go get some copper fungicide

[epicure3]

Good news but what makes you so confidant that the fried palms will survive? Have they before?

[mjff]

What are you going to do for your CIDP? Half of my 2 yr old seedlings had spears pull but some old leaves still green. I poured hydrogn peroxide but wonder if I should go get some copper fungicide

I'm not going to do anything for it or the others. Come March I'll cut off the dead fronds and wait for them to grow new ones. If they don't recover, I'll try something else in that spot.

[mjff]

Good news but what makes you so confidant that the fried palms will survive? Have they before?

Virtually the entire list of palms that had spear pulls, did so last year as well, and they all recovered fine, so no reason for me to think they won't this year too.

Ditto for the palms with fried fronds. Many of them have been burnt previously and recovered just fine. A lot of those are pretty large, and we didn't stay that cold for long enough to freeze anything more than the fronds. In most cases the petioles are still green, and even the portion of the spear that hasn't emerged yet is still green, so I have no reason to believe the bud froze if the petioles and spear didn't.

[kahili]

Thanks for posting that list, mjff. I didn't realize that you got down to 12-that is cold! So all the palms that you did not list covered by a box or a bucket were not covered in any way? That is helpful info.

One interesting thing that I noticed reading your list is that the degree that a palm is covered is paramount-I guess maybe that is a understatement. I have both the L. chinensis and the P. sylvestris that have both gone through those cold temps for that period of time but I covered them with heavy frost cloth blankets and heavy duty weed block over the frost cloth and that kept them from suffering hardly any damage at all. It was multiple layers of both as the pieces that I used are around 30-40 feet long, so they go around the palm many times. I wish I could cut them as it would be easier to handle, but I need the length for their main purpose, which isn't too cover palms. I wonder if you had added blankets under the boxes/buckets if that would have cut down on the fried leaves? Just reread and realized that you didn't cover the sylvestris at all. Now I know that I will have to always cover it at those temps. Let us know how that one fares in the upcoming months.

[iamjv]

Well here is my damage report from San Antonio... Jv

UNDAMAGED:

Brahea armata;

Butia capitata (silver form);

Butia capitata x Jubaea (in ground and potted);

Butia capitata x Parajubaea coccoides;

Butia capitata x Syagrus;

Butia yatay (3 gal pot);

Chamaedorea microspadix (next to house);

Chamaerops humilis;

Chamaerops humilis var Cerifera;

Jubaea x Butia x Jubaea (3 gal pot);

Jubaea chilensis (5 gal pot);

Nannorhops ritchiana (seedling);

Rhapidophyllum hystrix;

Sabal bermudana (sold as bermudana but could be domingensis/guatamalensis);

Sabal causiarum (seedling);

Sabal causiarum x palmetto (seedlings);

Sabal mexicana;

Sabal minor;

Sabal minor var Tamaulipas;

Sabal palmetto;

Sabal riverside;

Sabal xtexensis;

Sabal uresana;

Serenoa repens;

Trachycarpus fortunei;

Trachycarpus takil;

Trachycarpus wagnerianus;

Trithrinax acanthicoma;

Trithrinax campestris;

MODERATELY BURNED (50-80%) :

Cycad revoluta;

Livistona decipiens/decora;

Phoenix dactylifera;

Phoenix dactylifera x canariensis;

Phoenix theophrastii;

Washingtonia filibusta;

SEVERLY BURNED (80-100%):

Livistona australis;

Livistona chinensis;

Livistona chinesis x saribus:

Livistona saribus;

Phoenix canariensis;

Phoenix sylvestris;

Phoenix roebelenii x canariensis;

Phoenix rupicola x canarienis

Phoenix rupicola x reclinata

Rhapis excelsa;

Sabal Unknown (S. minor characteristics less hardiness-maybe etonia);

Syagrus romanzoffiana;

Trachycarpus martianus;

Washingtonia robusta.

[mjff]

Thanks for posting that list, mjff. I didn't realize that you got down to 12-that is cold! So all the palms that you did not list covered by a box or a bucket were not covered in any way? That is helpful info.

One interesting thing that I noticed reading your list is that the degree that a palm is covered is paramount-I guess maybe that is a understatement. I have both the L. chinensis and the P. sylvestris that have both gone through those cold temps for that period of time but I covered them with heavy frost cloth blankets and heavy duty weed block over the frost cloth and that kept them from suffering hardly any damage at all. It was multiple layers of both as the pieces that I used are around 30-40 feet long, so they go around the palm many times. I wish I could cut them as it would be easier to handle, but I need the length for their main purpose, which isn't too cover palms. I wonder if you had added blankets under the boxes/buckets if that would have cut down on the fried leaves? Just reread and realized that you didn't cover the sylvestris at all. Now I know that I will have to always cover it at those temps. Let us know how that one fares in the upcoming months.

If the list doesn't say what it was covered with, it was unprotected, except the Queen. It was already defoliated, but I wrapped it's trunk with Christmas lights and a blanket.

The P. sylvestris were completely unprotected, and they have been damaged similarly when they were much smaller and recovered fine. Now they are about 6' OA height with pretty thick trunks, so I'm confident they will recover. The damage on them did not show until we got over 80F a couple of days ago. Before that I thought they would be undamaged, and then they both turned brown. The spot I am going to plant them is much more sheltered than the spot they are sitting on my driveway, so maybe they will fare better in the future. I'm really hoping the roots didn't freeze, but I have other palms that were in smaller containers that show no or minimal damage so if their roots didn't freeze I'm going to guess the larger containers didn't either. My 55 gallon water troughs for the goats only froze a couple of inches thick, so I think that is a good sign.

The L. chinensis is very small (5 gallon size) and had already been damaged by the snow. All that was left was the spear and most recent frond and it was damaged. I put a bucket over it, but the spear is brown now too, but hasn't pulled. The other frond still has a little green patch where it attaches to the petiole. That part had barely emerged. I'll replace it with a bigger one if it doesn't make it.

[WebT]

Well, I would post some pictures of my yard in East Bernard, but it looks pretty much like every other yard from here to Florida I think. Everything but my sabals, a clump of chamaerops, and a big butia are burned and look horrible, but I'm hoping most things will survive. The freeze that happened after the snow on December 4th we thought was bad, it got down to 26 that night but it didn't last long at all. Some things were scorched, but not much worse than in past winters. But the worst was yet to come, On January 9 it got down briefly to 19.5, though it didn't stay below 25 for very long at all. There were several nights that the temperature would get down below 28, but every day warmed above freezing.

I have 7 Queen Palms (that I call cocos plumosas) around my place, some of which tower over my two story house, and they're all pretty much brown. I don't remember them ever being like this since the days when I used to be able to wrap their trunks, but that was years ago. I imagine they'll come out, but it will take them a while to look nice again. Fortunately my neighbor has a huge cherry picker, I'm hoping we'll be able to work out a deal in a month or so. In the meantime their huge brown fronds are collapsing but not falling. Last summer when I had a man come trim them, each frond would reach to the eaves of my second story, so that tells you how long they are.

I have a lot of Chinese fan palms, mostly in clumps, they are damaged but not completely brown, but they will need trimming. Mostly, their trunks aren't too tall but their fronds reach about 15 feet or so. One exception is a different type of livistona, I'm not sure what it is but it's not chinesis, it has no spines on its fronds and it's a little more delicate and has always been less hardy. It's also very tall, one of my tallest palms, the trunk is at least 25 feet tall (I'm a terrible judge of height, but I use the house as a guide, and I guess the eaves to be 20 feet). It has been burned several times in the past but all of its fronds are white now, but it does still show some green in the middle of the crown, so I'm thinking it's fine. Again, it will be a while before it looks as good as it did last month though, and it will be a bugger to trim.

I have one huge washingtonian (taller than the tallest queen, a really towering palm) and several others about half as tall around the house, as well as a row of about 10 or so up my driveway that I planted from seeds from South Padre Island, they're about 10 feet or so. They are all brown except for the center part, they'll be fine but need to have all their fronds cut off, eventually, like everything else here.

What else? A few CIDPs that show some damage, I'll trim them but they wouldn't have to be, and one that is more damaged than the others but will be ok too. There's another date palm, I'm not sure what it is, it clumps and grows slower and is thinner, it looks damaged also, but strangely isn't brown, it just looks lighter and less green. It should be ok, though.

In the first freeze in December the big triangle palm, it's actually a pair of them, were defoliated. I cut their fronds and was able to cover them, they seem to be ok I think, hopefully anyway. I posted pictures of them last spring when I planted them in the ground. LIkewise, some dwarf date palms were damaged in the first freeze, I covered them too and they look green on the inside of their fronds. I've had them for about 6 years and they never have been even slightly damaged, but they have always been protected by some big water oaks that I had to take out this summer, so this was their first winter with no protection. Poor guys!

I covered several cardboard palms, and though they got burned they'll be fine. Some zamias weren't even covered and they're ok, and some type of dioon (I think) I covered and it's still green. A ponytail palm that was about 6 feet tall seems to not be doing well (well, its trunk is mushy, not well at all, I think), hopefully it will come back from its base, and the only palm that I'm pretty sure is dead is a royal palm that had about 7 feet of trunk, but that's ok, it never did very well here anyway. There's one at the East Bernard Sonic too that I think is no more.

Among other things, a bird of paradise had only a blanket over it but is still mostly green, though my giant bird of paradises, which were as tall as my house, didn't fair very well at all. And a big tree fern that was covered has no fronds on it but I think is putting out a new one. And the dwarf sheffleras that were growing everywhere, and were as tall as my house, have died down to the ground, or maybe have died altogether.

I'll get back to you in March when I have a better idea what is alive and what's not. For now, just know that 19.5 is tough on a tropical paradise....

[mjff]

I got to looking at the P. sylvestris, and was amazed to find that one is in much better shape than the other. This is surprising since they came from the same grower, are the same size, in the same containers, soil, etc. and are sitting almost touching on the driveway. One is completely brown, even the center fronds, while on the other only the oldest fronds are brown. The newer fronds and spear are still green. I inspected one closely the other day and assumed the other was in the same condition since at first glance it looked as bad, but now that I took a closer look it turns out that was a bad assumption. Neither of them looked damaged until a few days ago, so I wonder if this one is just taking longer to turn brown, or really was damaged less. I guess time will tell.

[iamjv]

Martin that doesn't surprise me after seeing some of my community pots of seedlings.... had two batches of a phoenix hybrid and a sabal hybrids growing in community pots. Both were exposed to the two hard freezes we had with no protection. Both of the community pots provided a good example of how seeds from the same batch can having varying degrees of hardiness... approximately 50% of the seedlings were damaged in each of the pots, while the other half were untouched or just minor damage. The damaged seedlings were throughout the pot and not on one side or another which would have led one to believe there was a protection factor of some sort providing those results.... obviously I'll weed out the weaker seedlings now and only keep the stronger ones. Cheers, Jv

[newtothis]

On the side of my house, I had a row of 10 Phoenix seedlings against the house and 5 feet away a row of another 10 against the fence. Most of the seedlings against the house had spears pull (including the CIDP red and canary/dacty you gave me which are getting big) and most against the fence did not. Not quite the same variability observation you have JV but still strange. We are supposed to get another freeze this week.

I did buy copper fungicide this weekend and apply since they all still have older fronds still green. I also applied to the roeb but it has no green at all left. The sabal mexicanas are still untouched!

[Alicehunter2000]

I am suprised by the Trithrinax campestris, I didn't realize they could take that much cold. Also that BxP hybrid looks extremely promising. Thanks for the list....really good data for those of us that rarely see teens...but still have the possibility once in a blue moon.

[mjff]

Both Trithrinax acanthicoma and campestris are very cold and frost hardy. The T. campestris are very small, I have to be careful not to step on them when I walk through that area because they are less than 6" OA, but the cold doesn't bother them at all. I have a few T. acanthicoma in 30 gallon containers on my driveway, and they weren't damaged at all either.

[palmsOrl]

I was out at UCF (near Orlando) this evening and was a bit surprised to see an 8-10 ft. queen palm nearly totally fried, since I haven't seen any others around town with significant damage. Alot of other stuff around campus looked fried as well, though it was a bit difficult to tell since it was dark.

-Michael

[epicure3]

I was out at UCF (near Orlando) this evening and was a bit surprised to see an 8-10 ft. queen palm nearly totally fried, since I haven't seen any others around town with significant damage. Alot of other stuff around campus looked fried as well, though it was a bit difficult to tell since it was dark.

-Michael

Maybe that Queen palm wasn't doing well before the cold/freeze. Sickly looking palms are always the first to get damaged.

[Jaydeebee]

It's been two weeks and we have been into the high 70's and low 80's several days, so hopefully most of the damage is evident now. To recap we hit a low of 12F at my house and were below 15F for at least 9 hours. This was the type of freeze we see maybe once a decade. We get that cold about 1/2 our winters, but not for the duration we saw this time. Normally, we might be below 15F for an hour after a warm afternoon with a quick recovery to much higher temperatures. Most of these palms survived a very brief 14F with no damage 2 years ago. I will break these up into 3 groups:

First, the undamaged:

Brahea armata;

Brahea decumbens (largest one);

Brahea moorei (covered with a box);

Butia capitata;

Butia capitata (silver form);

Butia archeri

Butia eriospatha;

Butia paraguayensis;

Butia species (no scientific name yet, clumping Butia with subterranean trunks);

Butia capitata x Jubaea;

Butia capitata x Parajubaea coccoides (fronds bronzed by snow previously, but no additional damage from cold covered only with a box);

Chamaedorea microspadix (under a bucket);

Chamaedorea radicalis (under a bucket);

Chamaerops humilis;

Chamaerops humilis var Cerifera;

Jubaea chilensis;

Nannorhops ritchiana (smallest one);

Sabal causiarum (36" box on my driveway);

Sabal guatamalensis;

Sabal mexicana;

Sabal minor;

Sabal palmetto;

Sabal riverside;

Sabal rosei;

Sabal texensis;

Sabal uresana;

Trachycarpus fortunei;

Trachycarpus nanus;

Trachycarpus takil;

Trachycarpus wagnerianus;

Trithrinax acanthicoma;

Trithrinax campestris;

Washingtonia filifera;

Second, spear pulls, but older fronds undamaged (these are mostly small palms 5 gallon or smaller, and most were covered by a bucket or box):

Brahea decumbens (small ones, unprotected);

Butia yatay;

Butia paraguayensis x Syagrus;

Butia yatay x Syagrus;

Jubutiagrus;

Phoenix theophrastii;

Rhapidophyllum hystrix (unprotected);

Serenoa repens (blue, green and silver)( not established yet, and unprotected);

Trachycarpus princeps;

Third, the completely or mostly fried (I'm confident most of these will recover):

Allagoptera arenaria (older fronds damaged previously by snow now dead, new fronds fine, covered with frost cloth);

Brahea aculeata (covered by a box);

Brahea clara (not established yet, some still in 30 gallon containers, older fronds bronzed, newer ones fine);

Brahea edulis (older fronds fried, newer ones still green);

Butia capitata x Syagrus (not established yet with no old fronds, tender new growth burnt);

Livistona chinensis (under a bucket);

Livistona decipiens (under a box);

Livistona mariae (under a bucket);

Nannorhops ritchiana (2 largest ones);

Phoenix canariensis;

Phoenix dactylifera;

Phoenix loureirii (older fronds burnt by snow and 20F, remaining fronds damaged by 12F);

Phoenix sylvestris (45 gallon containers on my driveway);

Sabal bermudana;

Sabal yapa (burnt by snow and 20F);

Syagrus romanzoffiana (burnt by snow and 20F);

Trachycarpus latisectus (5 gallon size);

Trachycarpus "Naga Hills" (5 gallon size);

Washingtonia filibusta;

Washingtonia robusta.

I will be updating the freeze damage data section with this info, but thought it would be nice to see it all in one spot. Anything that surprises anybody either way on the list above?

[Davidl]

All I can say is its ugly but getting better. Michael that queen palm must of been sick before the cold because they can take into the teens before severe damage usually occurs. Unless it got that cold there I would think it was weakened already.

[palmsOrl]

You are probably correct about the queen palm. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if it got into the lower 20s out there (still not enough to fry a queen palm). My palms are showing much more damage as warmer temperatures have woken them up. Both of my fairly large carpies are now 100 % defoliated, though the spears are still green. Both large royals are also basically 100 % defoliated and that's just the beginning. My Adonidia is my first post-freeze fungus casualty, as I discoved it today in the early stages of collapse from some systemic fungal infection. I promptly gave it a Phyton drench and I'm hoping for the best.

-Michael