What is the coldest temperature your Trachycarpus Fortunei has endured so far this winter?

[SALOttawa]

Tell us the coldest temperature your Windmill Palm has sustained this winter. How did it react? What kind of winter protection, if any, are you using? Is your Trachy in a sub-group which might be more cold hardy than regular ones?

[oasis371]

Ottawa, what the palm may look like now, is not nearly as important as how it looks coming out the deep freeze.  Cold damage frequently does not show itself until it gets warmer.  Having said that, it's obviously in better condition if it has more green leaves and fewer fried ones now.  I ended up covering mine up a week ago with blankets, shower curtains, and a plastic can. Glad I did, it got down to 8 F this AM.  It's a regular Trachy but hoping it will be OK because the preceding days were mild (upper 40's) and rising into the 40's tomorrow with heavy rain, so glad it's protected from the moisture.  I am currently germinating the Bulgarian strain. Good luck!

Edited January 16, 2022 by oasis371

[ColumbusPalm]

Mine is a Waggie, possibly hybrid, but my low so far has been 10F. Has a wooden structure plus mini lights. 
 

Here it is today - more cold coming though but 10F is still the lowest forecasted. 

[Chester B]

23F. Mature trees and seedlings unprotected and not bothered by it at all. 

[SALOttawa]

3 hours ago, oasis371 said:

Ottawa, what the palm may look like now, is not nearly as important as how it looks coming out the deep freeze.  Cold damage frequently does not show itself until it gets warmer.  Having said that, it's obviously in better condition if it has more green leaves and fewer fried ones now.  I ended up covering mine up a week ago with blankets, shower curtains, and a plastic can. Glad I did, it got down to 8 F this AM.  It's a regular Trachy but hoping it will be OK because the preceding days were mild (upper 40's) and rising into the 40's tomorrow with heavy rain, so glad it's protected from the moisture.  I am currently germinating the Bulgarian strain. Good luck!

Hey Oasis! That’s pretty cold for no extra heat! I hope it is fine. Good luck! I will try a trachy in the ground this year, but, here in Ottawa, I will still need heat and a box.

[RyManUtah]

This winter? 20F 

[Allen]

11F.  3 10’ + trachy with lights/burlap on trunk, fronds unprotected.   Smaller ones under 8’ covered

[SALOttawa]

3 hours ago, Chester B said:

23F. Mature trees and seedlings unprotected and not bothered by it at all. 

Niiiice! No protection!I am envious!

[oasis371]

I just uncovered mine. Did not want the blankets to get soaking wet from the coming rainstorm. I will cover it up in a couple of days again. Looks good so far.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by oasis371

[ShadyDan]

-8.3C and a bunch of snow. No issues. Just regular ole T. fortunei 

[scarecrow]

22F. No protection ever. About 15 feet tall. Definitely lucky with the old hardiness from this one.

[BeyondTheGarden]

16f after a week below freezing (except one day, couple hours).  No need to protect.  

Even the strap-leaf seedling that germinated from seed I scattered randomly in the garden seems unphased.  I did however throw an upside down 1 gal flower pot over it.  But I believe T fortunei has naturalized up around here so I'm not too worried.  

[GeorgiaPalms]

26F, no protection and unfazed. 

[Gator]

I have a strand of C9 light on the trunk on my trachy.  

The coldest it has had is 14 degrees.

 

We did have an arctic blast on new years and it got below zero, but i had a bubble wrap cover i put over it.

[Will]

18°F so far, looking healthy

[NWpalms@206]

All my in ground and, potted over 5yrs trachy were untouched after a 5-6 days below 30 with two day 18-19 in a row. Had a 3yr old that was just transplanted get pretty shocked after the pot almost froze solid. Fried the fronds and the 2 older spears but newest spear green and firm. Marked with sharpie to monitor growth inside now. 

[SALOttawa]

I hope that one recovers! The big one is a beauty!

[SALOttawa]

15 minutes ago, Will said:

18°F so far, looking healthy

Wow! That’s a nice one too!

[SALOttawa]

Keep them coming! I will do a chart in the next couple of days! I have been busy shoveling about 18 inches of snow today! Phew!

[Sabal King]

During the winter deep freeze here in North Texas, I had a 15G Trachy endured our weather, with a low in my backyard at -1.8F.. we had I want to say six days below freezing, with that being the absolute low.  It required no trunk cutting, nothing, and is doing great this year.  I had three that did NOT make it, and one that had to have trunk cutting done, which is now doing fantastic.

[BeyondTheGarden]

@tlow that is incredible. 

[Sabal King]

9 hours ago, Jesse PNW said:

@tlow that is incredible. 

It was quite the experience to be honest.. I really have wanted palms forever but just moved to North Texas last year so I went gung ho and started with basic stuff before I even knew of PT.  These T. Fortunei were my entry into the hobby (and as teddy can attest, it's all gone south from there lol).  I will take some pictures but they did impress me.. I figure these genetics are what I want to propagate given the intense cold this thing took and seemed to have shaken it all off.

The one below didn't need any trunk cutting, nothing.  I believe it spear pulled, but looked pretty dang good most afterwards.  It defoliated nearly entirely IIRC and looks like this.. I'm proud of this one!

This guy was as well a 15G, bought locally, spear pulled, defoliated, and because of @Jimhardy I got the courage to trunk cut.. Well, peroxide, sun, and trunk cutting got me this guy.  This is just after this last season of growth.  Soon you won't even know it was trunk cut.  This one is going really strong.

Here is my weather station for reference... It was downright cold.. That's just air temperature and IIRC the wind chill was -25F+... brutal.

 

[Jimhardy]

Thats so awesome...makes me really happy to see they recovered!

I could not even tell mine were cut by the end of the following year...

just a slight blip in the frond pattern on the trunk that would never be noticed.....

I wish I still had all the pics but was to inept on the computer to know how to save

my pics when photobucket went from 2.99 to 39.99 a month-   hostage situation there...

I did not negotiate.

[Swolte]

I had a Trachy (Fortunei) go through Uri last winter and it did quite well. Not as extreme as @tlow but 3F is no joke either and we also had several days below freezing. It was kinda sorta protected... To be honest, it was the last palm for me to protect and I had ran out of large frost cloths (and energy). I didn't want to cut all leaves off to wrap it so just threw all the hay I had left in the orifices and used my last frost cloth to keep the spear dry (see pic, not my proudest work ). 

The second picture is a few days after the storm when I took all the 'protection' off. I ended up getting no spear pull but it took great damage to the leaves (lost almost all in the end). Right now, I think it is safe to say the palm has fully recovered.  Its not as full yet as before because the poor thing had to push everything out from scratch.

Palm was/is very healthy. Barely needed water and fertilizer and had still looked like a champ for years. A friend of mine in the area was less lucky. He left several of his trachy's (very mature, some 10+ years old) unprotected and lost about 30% if I recall correctly.

 

 

[maskedmole]

About 7 degrees F. All I had was 2 or 3 blankets over it and a tote on top. Also a fence around it with leaves piled up a little. Some years back it survived down to about zero degrees with similar protection. I think I put mulch over it back then though. It's probably been in the ground about 4 years. I haven't been out in the freezing cold to take a picture recently but here is one back in June 2021. It has put out quite a few more leaves since then. The picture doesn't really do it justice. No damage, it's still looking good and green. It only defoliated it's first winter when I just put a little rag over it in like 13 degree weather and then it got to around zero. I also am putting up a picture of around when I first planted it. December 2017.

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by maskedmole

[Las Palmas Norte]

On 1/16/2022 at 12:33 PM, ShadyDan said:

-8.3C and a bunch of snow. No issues. Just regular ole T. fortunei 

We dropped one night to -11°C (11°F) and no issues with fortunei or wagnerianus.  A small two gallon fort was burnt bad. Same one spear pulled last year. Seems like a week specimen.

[ShadyDan]

50 minutes ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

We dropped one night to -11°C (11°F) and no issues with fortunei or wagnerianus.  A small two gallon fort was burnt bad. Same one spear pulled last year. Seems like a week specimen.

Should probably cull that one, don't want any weak genes getting into our BC Trachy genetics!

[WSimpson]

My Trachys have seen 20F this winter and obviously no damage . My Trachys have seen that  8 days below 32F  in 2018 and were damaged , but all grew out of it fast . Mine have also  seen 4F without protection and had some damage  , and they all grew out of it fine the next season . 

I'm worried about a 0F type of cold . My stuff is getting too big to protect so I hope it doesn't happen , or that my stuff can handle it  . I have some Taylor Forms and they survived in Raleigh when it went down  -9F ,  I believe . Funny thing is is that Taylor Forms lose their spears at winter Lows of 16F when small , and even when they are around 5 years in the ground from small pots . Then somehow they gain super hardy status ? 

Will

Edited January 20, 2022 by Will Simpson

[kbob11]

-1F a few days ago, with many single digits to go coming up.  This winter has been the coldest in a while.  7’ Trachy is doing well.  The coldest it’s enclosure got was 25f for a few hours.

[Jimhardy]

I had one that kinda fit in a plastic trash can (smashed) that got down too -2F,it did pull but recovered in spring.