Palm Cold Protection Test

[D. Morrowii]

Not sure if its of any interest but I wanted to run a quick test on a simple warming set up Im trying since I have never done any cold weather protection for plants before. Maybe the info will be helpful to someone or someone can share some additional related info. 

Parts-
I ordered a couple of inexpensive green frost covers from greenhouse megastore 6’ x 3’ and picked up a 25 light strand of C9 christmas lights. I already had an Ambient Weather WS-2000 monitoring system with a few different types of probes. 

Test Subject- 

(1) 3’ tall Bentinkia condopanna in a 3 gallon pot. This palm will go in the ground next spring.
 

Test- 

Pic 1 is the temp reading on a temp probe only sensor with the probe hanging inside of the frost cover with the palm in it. No lights or other heat source being used. 
 

Pic 2 is of a THB sensor reading outside of the frost blanket and about 2’ away from the palm. 
 

Pic 3 is of a reading on the temp probe only sensor after about 10 minutes with the 25 light strand plugged in. I left the lights attached to the tray they come in and placed them next to the pot vertically. The probe is not quite directly above the lights and about 2 feet above them. 
 

Pic 4 is, you guessed it, the palm under the cover. 
 

So basically in this tiny environment one strand of lights it is capable of increasing the temp at least 9° and as much as 14° difference between it and the exposed sensor. Even with the wind blowing the cover is holding in a good amount of the warmth. Anyway it seems like a good no fuss way to bump 2 zones on a small palm if you need to. 

[kinzyjr]

Hopefully we don't need it but that the setup works if we do.

[D. Morrowii]

2 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

Hopefully we don't need it but that the setup works if we do.

Agreed! I hope we have several mild winters ahead. Just want to avoid the mad rush in the event of coldness!