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minimum temperatures, watering...????

What would the minimum temperature have been in there? Average temperature? Sun exposure?

The garage is attached and unheated, but insulated. Lately, temps have been hovering around 40 degrees, but the minimum temps I've seen are about 30, which has happened a couple times. Not to say that it hasn't been exposed to colder bursts of air when the garage door opens on very cold mornings, but the coldest I've seen on the thermometer is 30.

There are windows on both the north and south sides of the garage, but this palm has seen no direct sun while in the garage.

Watering has been pretty minimal, maybe 3 times since November.

I moved the tree in the house yesterday and watered it pretty well to rehydrate it just to be safe.

Here is a close-up of one of the freeze-dried fronds. There are about 6 that look like this. The rest all look healthy and normal.

If it was the cold, would all of the fronds look the same and have equal damage?

One more pic...

Probably is cold damage. This species is definitely NOT the hardiest and in fact, rather tender for a Phoenix date palm. On the other hand, mine is in a detached garage, slightly milder zone, some sun, minimum watering this time of year...and it survives. It even survived the loss of its crown a few years ago but regrew another. Just too big for the house so the garage it is. But you palm does not look too bad, but I would suggest that you raise it higher above the ground as the ground is much colder. Good luck, and think Spring!

Thank you. I have this happen to my sabals intermittently, and my queen palms almost every winter. They always seem to come through but lose more fronds than I'd like. Then they have to spend the whole summer regrowing all of their fronds.

Massive palm but much cold hardier, you might consider growing a canariensis. They are even easy from seed, but wickedly sharp. they are among my favorites and have about half dozen to create my oasis. As an indoor species though, your Pygmy is vastly superior. Canariensis wants/needs to be outside the home!

I actually used to have a Phoenix Sylvestris that this happened to as well. It never really seemed pull through winter unscathed, so I ended up selling it in a yard sale to make room for something that made more of a statement (Giant BOP). Come to think of it, some of the palms this has happened to are pretty cold hardy varieties, so maybe this is a watering issue...I've just always read that you're supposed to cut way back on watering in the winter when doing the garage method. I'm wondering if they're drying out because the cold air is also dry...

I DO cut way back on watering, but they still need watering or you'll notice the leaves begin to fold. They are trying to conserve water. People have a fundamental misunderstanding of desert growing palms (including many Date palms and Washingtonia), they think that because they see them in the desert, they can be watered like a cactus. But these palms have deep roots in order to tap into ground water and springs (obviously life is different in a container). They are drought tolerant, but within limits. Most palms detest both constant moist (but there are exceptions here), and most resent having the root system dry out completely. I like to 'water' mine by taking mound of fresh now and covering up the soil in it. The slow melt is much appreciated. At this point, I have enough snow to keep my oasis happy till Spring.

P.S., I also have a sylvestris (talk about prickly!).

P. roebelenii grow naturally amongst rainforest along rivers where they often get completely submerged by flood waters. So a lot of water at times shouldn't be an issue with them. The problem is most likely related more directly to cold. Potted soil loses heat quite fast, whereas in the ground it's a lot slower especially when a bit drier. Maybe you need to insulate the pot a bit more to keep the roots warmer. And perhaps when you do water you could use warmer water. Are the affected fronds the more recent ones?

Njoasis- I know what you mean about snow...we just got slammed with over 16" of snow on Sunday, the 3rd biggest snowfall in history for this area. And you guys seem to get our storms the following day.

Tropicbreezent- The fronds that dried up are somewhere in the middle of the set, not the newest but not the oldest either. I ended up removing 7 of the dried fronds and bringing the palm inside the house to give it a break from the cold. I also have it a couple thorough waterings to rehydrate it.