Hurricane protection.

[Plantking165]

What are good methods for hurricane protection as one may be hitting around my area next week. My palms have only been in ground for a couple months so they are not established enough to leave unprotected. Will wrapping them in a tarp with bungee cords be a good strategy to keep the wind off the leaves giving less leverage to move the palm?

[JLM]

55 minutes ago, Plantking165 said:

What are good methods for hurricane protection as one may be hitting around my area next week. My palms have only been in ground for a couple months so they are not established enough to leave unprotected. Will wrapping them in a tarp with bungee cords be a good strategy to keep the wind off the leaves giving less leverage to move the palm?

Putting a tarp over a tree for a hurricane is probably the worst idea, as the wind will catch the tarp, and if you tied the tarp to the tree good enough, it might not end well for said tree. 

Im letting any of my plants go through anything we get, you cant really stop 60+ mph wind from touching things lol

Like i had to do after Sally (2020), i had to stake one of my queens to keep it from wobbling around, Sally damn near uprooted it. No issues though, its on its way to becoming a monster, the hurricane was just a little bump in the road. It really depends on what kind of palms you have as to how concerned you should be. Root sensitive palms i would be a lot more concerned about compared to something like a queen for example. You could try staking your palms before the storm and hope for the best.

[PalmatierMeg]

If palms are potted, move them up next to the house and lay them down. If they are planted not much you can do. I let all my planted palms “ride out” the storm then dealt with the aftermath. If you feel you must try to protect them, remember hurricane winds rotate counter clockwise, are not straight line winds. Stake palms in a triangle to prepare for shifting wind directions. That means 3 stakes and 3 lines for each palm. I remember that Hurricane Charley literally “unscrewed” one of our mahogany trees out of the ground then dropped it on the ground next to the hole.

[Plantking165]

They are coconut palms and the reason I wanna try and protect them is they aren't established enough to take a hurricane. @PalmatierMeg @JLM so i guess ill just stake it in a triangle and hope for the best?

[Johnny Palmseed]

On 9/25/2022 at 5:46 PM, Plantking165 said:

They are coconut palms and the reason I wanna try and protect them is they aren't established enough to take a hurricane. @PalmatierMeg @JLM so i guess ill just stake it in a triangle and hope for the best?

Sounds like staking is your only option. If they are not too tall you could try to lasso the fronds to minimize tearing in the wind.

[Plantking165]

7 minutes ago, Johnny Palmseed said:

Sounds like staking is your only option. If they are not too tall you could try to lasso the fronds to minimize tearing in the wind.

That's a good idea its 6ft tall at the highest fronds so I'll use a bungee cord to hold the fronds together 

[Moose]

Just right them back after the winds subside. Coconuts are fairly resilient in Florida

[Plantking165]

1 minute ago, Moose said:

Just right them back after the winds subside. Coconuts are fairly resilient in Florida

Yeah they are tough palms but I put alot of time effort and money into them so im gonna worry anyway bc it can still go poorly. I did tie the spear thats currently opening up to try and prevent it from prematurely opening more it split open the day before the hurricane.