Queen Palm Growth in Winter

[JLM]

My queen palm is young, and hasnt been in the ground long, since September. This thing hasnt produced any new fronds at all. I go outside one day and check on it, looking for brown spots, etc, and i find a large spear. Mind you this hasnt been here for long because i had checked it after a cold snap a couple of weeks earlier. But now i have 6 spears, the first one is beginning to open a lot, and the other 5 have just popped up within the past few weeks. I am mind blown, all of this in the middle of winter to. Btw, 2 fronds beginning to die, one of the has already started drooping. Im hoping these things open up within this next week because we have another big cold snap coming. My question out of all of this is, why now in the middle of winter? 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

A pic of the palm would definitely help us visualize what your seeing =) Outside of that queens are prolific growers even thru winter if they get sun and water. Maybe at first it was getting its roots down , now its throwing fronds. 

[JLM]

23 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

A pic of the palm would definitely help us visualize what your seeing =) Outside of that queens are prolific growers even thru winter if they get sun and water. Maybe at first it was getting its roots down , now its throwing fronds. 

The wind is blowing so it was hard to take pics, but i managed! Hope these help. In the second pic, the left frond is the one that has started drooping, although still very green. I dont plan on cutting until they are dead, if they die before winter ends then i will wait until spring. The last pic is my biggest spear, it has opened up a lot from yesterday!

[sandgroper]

This palm looks fine to me, the wind can knock them about a bit, at least it can here but your palm still looks green and quite healthy to me.  I don't know about your climate but in the depths of winter here the temp on occasion can dip to 1c at dawn, doesn't happen often but it can, the average winter daytime temps are around 19c and Queen palms flower and fruit consistently here. They're pretty tough.

[JLM]

3 hours ago, sandgroper said:

This palm looks fine to me, the wind can knock them about a bit, at least it can here but your palm still looks green and quite healthy to me.  I don't know about your climate but in the depths of winter here the temp on occasion can dip to 1c at dawn, doesn't happen often but it can, the average winter daytime temps are around 19c and Queen palms flower and fruit consistently here. They're pretty tough.

Here in the depths of winter, we can go below 0c, and sometimes, it is extremely rare, but we can get some snow and ice. It wouldnt be very much, but could be enough to hurt it. This happens every few years or so, maybe longer than a few years. Other than that, my roses think it is spring, my white rose bush has 12 blooms on it, and we are expecting a freeze within the next few weeks, could get down to -2c here on the 7th of January. I think it will be -3c but i could be wrong. Hopefully these spears open quickly!

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

At those temps you have nothing to worry about. Palm looks good and now that your seeing movement you should be good =) 

[Estlander]

3 hours ago, JLM said:

Here in the depths of winter, we can go below 0c, and sometimes, it is extremely rare, but we can get some snow and ice. It wouldnt be very much, but could be enough to hurt it. This happens every few years or so, maybe longer than a few years. Other than that, my roses think it is spring, my white rose bush has 12 blooms on it, and we are expecting a freeze within the next few weeks, could get down to -2c here on the 7th of January. I think it will be -3c but i could be wrong. Hopefully these spears open quickly!

I don’t see a low of -3 or -2C for your area on the 7th. The low for the night on the 7th is currently +4C for Pace. 
Although, I wouldn’t put too much credibility on it, but Accuweather extended forecast is not showing any freezing temperatures in January for Pace. 

 

Just for your information, Pace and all of the I-10 corridor had a low of 19F/-7C one night in January 2018. 
Once you start to get close to that temp. again, you need to provide your Queens some protection. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Estlander

[Merlyn]

That same night in January 2018 it dipped to 25F in most of the Orlando area, but only for 1 hour.  A lot of local nurseries were blowtorched because it was only supposed to get to around 30F.  My 9 queens in the ground and 1 seedling in a pot were all fine, as expected.  Queens are pretty tough, and mine are still opening new spears similar to yours.  The wind definitely opens them up early, but that's no problem unless the rachis (center stem of the spear) gets broken.  I had that happen with 30-40mph gusts on a new spear, and I just clipped the frond off at the break.

[JLM]

On 12/29/2019 at 10:19 PM, Estlander said:

I don’t see a low of -3 or -2C for your area on the 7th. The low for the night on the 7th is currently +4C for Pace. 
Although, I wouldn’t put too much credibility on it, but Accuweather extended forecast is not showing any freezing temperatures in January for Pace. 

 

Just for your information, Pace and all of the I-10 corridor had a low of 19F/-7C one night in January 2018. 
Once you start to get close to that temp. again, you need to provide your Queens some protection. 

Yes, i have been watching the forecast and it has trended higher and higher which is good. I dont usually trust Accuweather, thats just my opinion, i watch computer models and such, different solutions that you cant stick with because it will change by the next run. GFS was showing snow in Alabama at one point but has since changed. Also i do you think frost will hurt my spear, because i wasnt expecting frost this AM and we got it, the spear was completely exposed. It showed a little bit of brown on the very tips.