How do your freeze-damaged palms smell?

[LeonardHolmes]

We were below 30 for 3 days in Williamsburg, with a low here of 7.5 degrees for 3 or 4 hours. I can see obvious damage on my Sabal Palmettos although it is too soon for spear pull. There is a mild acetone-like smell (nail polish remover). I am treating with copper and hydrogen peroxide. I remember more of a pumpkin-like smell from years ago in a similar freeze. How do your frozen palms smell?

[Zone7Bpalmguy]

I can't put the smell into words to describe it to you but I know it. I also recall a freeze several years ago in early April after a warm March and everything was leafed out. We dropped to the low 20's and the next day the smell was very strong. A smell of cooked greens or green leaves.

I can't imagine the cold you described would completely fry your palm fronds. How low were your highs? 

[LeonardHolmes]

Highs were in the mid-upper 20s.  They actually don't look too bad - but the smell tells me that there is dead and rotting tissue somewhere.

[Zone7Bpalmguy]

50 minutes ago, LeonardHolmes said:

Highs were in the mid-upper 20s.  They actually don't look too bad - but the smell tells me that there is dead and rotting tissue somewhere.

I was very similar in that my highs were 27,24, and 35'F for my cold spell. Absolute low was 10'F but the other nights were teens also during this stretch.  Plus I was 72 hours consecutive below freezing and yet my small-ish palmetto is pretty much untouched. Interesting.

 

[Zone7Bpalmguy]

12 hours ago, LeonardHolmes said:

Highs were in the mid-upper 20s.  They actually don't look too bad - but the smell tells me that there is dead and rotting tissue somewhere.

@LeonardHolmes By the way, let me clarify that I'm not discounting what you're seeing.

Sunshine can also help on those cold and frigid days to warm our palms. 2 of 3 of that cold spell were sunny days for me. Lots of variables and it can be difficult to make assessments on things. Hopefully yours will be fine and look like nothing happened come summer.

[LeonardHolmes]

The leaves had been smushed by snow a week or so before, so the petioles are bent down. The leaf shape is different too.  We'll know more in Spring when they start growing again and the spears start pushing out.  The smell is still there in the immediate vicinity.  I drenched the crowns with dilute copper again after the recent rain.

[Virginia Palmetto]

I've never noticed any smell coming from my Sabal palmettos after a freeze, although they did get slight spear damage during a dip down to 10F about two years ago. The Washingtonias, on the other hand, defoliate every year and always give off a smell of fresh hay. Sometimes it smells very sweet. This winter their fronds got absolutely fried by the cold, but they've seen worse. I saw the Chesapeake airport dipped well into the single digits, but where I am, it probably stayed above 10 degrees.

[LeonardHolmes]

I think that the smell is/was from this one which had a crispy newly emerged leaf (bottom pic).  It is an odd phenotype with very stiff petioles that partially break off toward the bottom (rather then bend) especially if they are buried too deep.  Mine are on a pretty steep hillside and they have gotten deeper over the years thanks to erosion.   My Bald Head Island phenotype (top pic) has yellowish petioles and seems to be the least damaged.