Sabal Palmetto in freezing rain

[BobStrauss]

So I’m in San Antonio, TX and last spring had a sabal palmetto put in my backyard. Maybe 6’ of trunk to it.

We’re getting freezing rain/sleet at the moment, it’s around 30 degrees now and dropping. Lows over the next few days shouldn’t drop below 20.

I know these are cold hardy but mine was only transplanted last spring, the fronds are dropping - simply unhappy or weighed down by the ice, not sure. Should I be concerned, or try to protect somehow? With even the cold hardy sabals, should I expect to lose foliage in situations like these?

[Allen]

Not familiar with ice in palmetto but ice is never a good thing.  if you can reach the crown and wrap some thin old towels, a sheet or ideally cut frost cloth about 1 foot wide and 6 foor long around the spear area then the ice will collect on it and not go into the spear and freeze.   remove as soon as the ice is gone.  

Edited February 3, 2022 by Allen

[BobStrauss]

I shook a bunch of ice off the fronds, so it’s not as weighed down as before. Used a shop vac to collect as much of the ice as I could out of the crown but there’s still quite a bit left in there. Added Christmas lights and wrapped with a bath towel, with another towel stuffed in there on top. Hopefully that’ll at least keep it from becoming a block of ice in there.

Thanks for the advice!

[Allen]

34 minutes ago, BobStrauss said:

I shook a bunch of ice off the fronds, so it’s not as weighed down as before. Used a shop vac to collect as much of the ice as I could out of the crown but there’s still quite a bit left in there. Added Christmas lights and wrapped with a bath towel, with another towel stuffed in there on top. Hopefully that’ll at least keep it from becoming a block of ice in there.

Thanks for the advice!

Yea that's what I do to my Trachy just to avoid the ice becoming a problem and rotting the crown.  It will collect on the cloth and you can pull it off tomorrow or whenever and all the snow/ice will come with it.  Usually trachy tolerate this kind of thing but with ice it always scares me a bit as it can become extreme.  I leave my palms wrapped in mini lights so it keeps the heat in there for me as well.   That palmetto should be a lot tougher there once it is established

 

 

Last winter's ice event which got me good but most plants bounced back.  1/2-3/4 inch ice

Edited February 3, 2022 by Allen

[PDXPalm]

Here we go again :(.  Last year in Frisco, TX I lost 3 Windmill's (4 Survived) and a Robusta (expected).  Replanted with a Mediterranean Fan Palm and Sable.  

We shall see.  I wrapped it them all.  Not too concerned on the Windmill's.  But the others :O

 

The good news is last year I was below zero for an extended period of time.  I see the 20's and one night low, with a quick bounce back Saturday.  Let's hope!

 

[Allen]

32 minutes ago, PDXPalm said:

Here we go again :(.  Last year in Frisco, TX I lost 3 Windmill's (4 Survived) and a Robusta (expected).  Replanted with a Mediterranean Fan Palm and Sable.  

We shall see.  I wrapped it them all.  Not too concerned on the Windmill's.  But the others :O

 

The good news is last year I was below zero for an extended period of time.  I see the 20's and one night low, with a quick bounce back Saturday.  Let's hope!

 

I don't know what palms you have but this event is MUCH milder.  Protect recovering, small or weak palms.  

[oasis371]

Freezing rain is the absolute WORST form of precipitation with the possible exception of hail.  Freezing rain can. do a number on deciduous, cold hardy trees and shrubs not to mention power lines, can't believe any palms would appreciate it.  I may get the occasional foot, foot plus of snow, but freezing rain or hail are extremely rare for my area. I would try to protect the bud from the freezing rain. At least snow is somewhat insulating, don't know if this is true for ICE.

[teddytn]

28 minutes ago, oasis371 said:

Freezing rain is the absolute WORST form of precipitation with the possible exception of hail.  Freezing rain can. do a number on deciduous, cold hardy trees and shrubs not to mention power lines, can't believe any palms would appreciate it.  I may get the occasional foot, foot plus of snow, but freezing rain or hail are extremely rare for my area. I would try to protect the bud from the freezing rain. At least snow is somewhat insulating, don't know if this is true for ICE.

I see ice events every year. Really terrible, trees and power lines knocked down. Calling for freezing rain here tonight in TN. I agree 100% snow is far better even if it’s a lot of snow. Palm fronds being weighed down by snow and by ice are 2 very different things. 

[oasis371]

Teddytn, I have a lot of Southern Magnolias, never any problems with snow loads here in over 15 years (for most of the cultivars), despite some TWO FOOT snowfalls over the years.  We have not had a single, serious, freezing rain event. I hope your weather event is not so bad. 

BTW, the WORST, WORST damage we ever had from snow (or any winter precip.), was when it fell in a freakish snowstorm on a Halloween maybe 10 years ago. It was weird, it was in the 40's, there was no forecast of any snow but when the snow did fall, it fell on deciduous trees in full, green leaf.  I saw multiple trees split in HALF, my Southern Magnolias were FINE. LOL!

Edited February 3, 2022 by oasis371