Frost damage on your palm trees in Phoenix, Arizona

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If you have miniature palm trees, such as pygmy date palms, chances are they got hit pretty hard this winter by the cold. If you're wondering what you should do now, towards the end of February, 2013, well, my advice to you is to get started on the trimming.

It's going to take several stages, but the outer ring of very badly damaged leaves can be safely trimmed off now. As you can see on this Phoenix rupicola x reclinata, the outer leaves are still brown and sickly. They will look like that, and get worse, and will need to be trimmed off. The new growth is in the center, and it will be green and healthy. I've done a bit of trimming and will come back to it a few more times before summer.

If you have planted them correctly, on a slope with free-draining soil, you can water them as much as you want. But that really won't do much. What they need is warm weather. This is Phoenix, so I'm pretty sure they will be getting quite a lot of it very soon!

By the way, if you would like to avoid frost damage in the future, get a Mediterranean Fan Palm (behind my feet and knees). They can take as much cold as the Phoenix area can provide. Heat and sun, too! Just about zero maintenance, if you leave them alone and let them grow like they want to, bushy and full.


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