Instead of just giving a boring list of stats, I thought I would introduce the set-up of the experiment on the first post. Then before showing the results on subsequent posts which I'll supply this evening, I want to flavour them with answers to any questions or comments members may have. If you want to put forward any suggestions to continue the experiment, I'll try to follow these up, if practical. (Bit of an experiment in itself - this

The PTvT is a 'double' plant of a young seedling next to a more mature pinnate leafed palm, giving the impression of a suckering plant. The younger seedling was more active into the winter. It is planted on a raised bed two feet away from a south west facing house wall and here it gets almost complete shelter from winds between north and south-east. It can also get uninterrupted winter sunshine from around 10AM till dusk. To illustrate how warm this border is, a bowl of water against the wall will only begin to freeze when the temperature has fallen to around -2c in the coldest part of the garden.
The protection consists of a wigwam arrangement of 6 foot canes over the gently tied up palm. Two blanket covers are used. The inner one is a light, nylon-based thermal blanket that is weaved to allow airspace in it's tiny square holes and the outer blanket is a standard cotton type. The blankets are draped over surrounding soil about eighteen inches from the base.
These were placed on the palm at dusk on 30th January. The day had been cloudy
and the maximum was +4.6c following an earlier minimum of -0.7c. Before the blankets were positioned the temperature probe was placed into the spear of the larger palm as close to the growing point as possible. After a few minutes the temperature read +4.5c. No warm water was used overnight.
The weather overnight (31st January): Cloud cleared and temperatures dropped from +2.0c at midnight to -2.8c at 0630. 0800, freezing fog had formed, temperature -0.9c. At 0900 the temperature from the coldest part of the garden was 0.0c.
At this time the PTvT was inspected.
The temperature outside the blanket was +0.5c and the probe still placed into the spear read +3.0c. The bowl of water on the bed eight feet away had a thin layer of ice.
Day two, to follow. In the meantime, post any questions or comments.