Heating Cables

[Muslim Gardener]

I am sure many of you are aware of the heated cables used to keep pipes from freezing that turn on automatically at 3°C. I was thinking, what if someone in zone 7b wanted an in ground queen palm? They should wrap the trunk and especially the crown in heat tape AKA heat cables. A YouTube video titled "How Freeze Protection Cables Can Save Your Pipes - Gear Up With Gregg's" is 7:54 long. I watched the first 2:22 of it and every time he said "pipes" I replaced it with "queen palm in zone 7b" and I believe if you wrapped the trunk, crown, and buried some cables in the mulch below the palm, you could add an extra thick few layers of burlap. This has got to be foolproof. If you live in southern UK, Georgia, Carolina, Hampton Roads, Orange County, or Gold Beach OR you can DEFINITELY have queen palms using this methed. Heck, add a layer of heated Christian people lights and you've got at least a foolproof 8B queen palm.

 

[RJ]

Plenty of folks in colder climates implement this type of protection. 
 

the problems are the fronds on larger palms are hard to protect. And often times the palm doesn’t look good till the end of summer.  We want palms to thrive not just survive 

 

queen palms like lots of heat and water, often lacking in the UK and PNW. The palm just never recovers or looks good and slowly declines. 

Edited February 26, 2022 by RJ

[Allen]

I am going to have a big reveal party on my 12' mule soon but I wouldn't try a queen.  Using lights because they are more versatile than the cable because I am now running them on the fronds.  I don't see how you could run the cable this way to heat fronds well and you can't change the length of it.  

Mule at 15 sec mark

 

[Alex Zone 5]

Yes....a reveal party, sound great