While hardy palms can withstand freezing temperatures, tropical palms may suffer from frost damage. Usually, palm tree owners living in warm climates do not have to worry about cold weather. But with the unpredictable winters of recent years, freezing temperatures often come as a surprise. How unfortunate would it be to lose your beautiful palm tree due to frost damage? But rest assured, there are ways to help palms with frost damage bounce back...
While cold-tolerant palms can survive cold temperatures around -12 °C, tropical palms are damaged if the temperature drops below 7 °C. The key factor is the speed at which the temperature drops. If it is around 15-20°C during the day and suddenly drops to 7°C at night, even hardy palms can be damaged.
On the other hand, a gradual drop in temperature day by day gives the palms more time to acclimate to the cold conditions and enter the dormancy phase. This allows them to withstand lower temperatures without significant damage.
The damage also heavily depends on multiple factors, such as
Moreover, conditions can be exacerbated by chilly dry winds, dehydrating afternoon sun, and the duration of cold/frost.
If you are trying to grow a palm in a temperate climate, it takes three full growing seasons for the tree to fully develop. If you have heavy clay soil, it may take even longer.
It can take a few weeks or even months to see signs of winter damage. Initially, the palm may look perfectly normal, but then the new leaves emerge deformed and partially brown.
By the end of spring, you will have a better idea of whether you need to replace your palm or not. But, let's talk about the things you can do now.
First, you need to determine the level of injury. To see how extensive the damage is, gently pull on the newly emerging spear. Sometimes a new spear is very loose and can be easily pulled out. If that happens, clean the hollow spot with water.
Make a small hole in the area directly below the leaf base to prevent water from collecting, which can lead to new growth rot. Check if the bud is still alive. If it is green, the palm tree can be saved. If it is mushy, get the shovel.
Next, we need to protect the palm from bacterial and fungal attacks. Spray the palm with liquid copper fungicide. After the stress of frost, palm trees become more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal infections.
Copper Fungicide has a unique formula that helps combat both. It should not be applied more than twice, with 10 days between each application. Soak the top of the palm with liquid copper and use the power of the spray to clean it. This should reduce the chance of crown rot from microorganisms.
Applying copper fungicide around the base of the palm will suppress the development of root diseases. One of the products I found very effective is Liquid Copper Fungicide from Southern Ag. It works very well against fungi and bacteria.
Wait a month or two before pruning leaves. Only prune dead branches and remove all dead leaves around the bud so it can dry out. Do not remove leaves with brown tips, as palms still draw nutrients for new leaves from dying leaves.
Be careful not to prune too much. The more green leaves you remove, the less food the palm can produce. Pruning too many leaves will only contribute to extra stress.
As I mentioned above, cold damage to the trunk tissue or roots can limit the palm's ability to supply water to the leaves. Spraying your palm with anti-transpirant spray is one way to reduce water loss from the foliage during cold weather.
Anti-Transpirant spray forms a clear film on the plant's foliage that retains moisture and reduces water loss during plant stress. I love a spray called ‘Wilt Stop’ from Bonide, which I recommend at the beginning of the cold season as one of the ways to protect palm trees from the cold.
Do NOT fertilize your palm trees right away, wait until late summer or fall. Most people start fertilizing as soon as they see brown leaves. Fertilizer is NOT plant food.
Despite the labels saying 'Palm Food' or 'Plant Food', fertilizer is a mixture of nutrients used to make the soil more fertile and promote plant growth. Plants produce their own food using water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight.
Consider fertilizers as vitamin supplements. You cannot make a weak, sick, and malnourished person healthy with vitamins. When you fertilize your sick palm tree, you are asking it to grow, which causes even more stress to the poor tree. Wait until late summer or spring and apply slow-release fertilizer.
There are three types of winter damage that your palm can experience: cold, frost, and freezing cold. The most important and vulnerable part of the palm tree is the bud. The bud is where new leaves appear. If the bud tissue of the palm is NOT severely damaged, the palm can recover and start producing new leaves the following summer.
New emerging leaves may be distorted, partially brown, or show other abnormalities. It can take 6 months to a year for the palm tree to recover from freezing. If the bud tissue is severely damaged, the palm may not survive.
If the palm is damaged by cold, you may notice curling and yellow-brown discoloration on the older leaves. New growth produced in a few months may emerge more slowly than normal.
Some of the new spears may not open. These are all signs of prolonged cold weather that will fade on its own after a few months when temperatures return to normal.
Frost can be devastating for palms, especially those with low cold tolerance. It usually covers the entire leaf and causes damage to the leaves and sometimes to the bud.
Within a few days or even weeks after the frost, you may notice severe discoloration on the leaves, turning a dark chocolate brown or even black. This is a sign of serious damage.
Freezing temperatures around 0°C or lower can be deadly for most tropical palms when faced with freezing cold without any winter protection. After experiencing a significant period of freezing, most or all of the palm's leaves will be lost.
A few months or even a year after freezing, vertical cracks may be visible on the trunk and crown. A bending trunk, bad odor, and a mushy soft crown under the spear are all indications of severe damage.
Freezing damage to the trunk tissue will limit the tree's ability to supply water to the foliage. Unlike regular trees, palms cannot regenerate trunk tissue. A collapsing crown may be a sign that this type of damage has occurred.
I have created an overview for you to show different signs of winter damage. Low severity means that the palm is likely to grow well again later in the season. Medium severity means there is a chance of serious injury that could go either way. High severity means that your palm is likely to die.
| Signs of damage | Severity |
| New growth is green and brown | low |
| New growth is slow | low |
| Old leaves are yellow/brown | low |
| Old leaves curl | low |
| Old leaves are brown or black | medium |
| New growth is distorted | medium |
| New growth pulls out easily | medium |
| New growth is brown or black | high |
| Crown is soft and mushy | high |
| Vertical cracks in the trunk | high |
| Strong odor coming from the bud or trunk | high |
| Collapsing or bending trunk | high |
If you know that more cold weather is coming, it is best to protect your palm tree from further damage. There are many simple techniques you can use, such as:
As you can see, it is much easier to protect your palm from winter weather than to save it once it has been damaged. To save a winter-damaged palm, you need a lot of patience. Don't give up and remember that the damage can sometimes be so severe that unfortunately, there is nothing more you can do.
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