Author Topic: Brace for Frost!  (Read 30719 times)

fruitlovers

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Re: Brace for Frost!
« Reply #125 on: January 09, 2015, 06:24:46 PM »
The weather has warmed up in the last week.  Are we safe from frost yet?  The forecast is about 45 degrees at the lowest next week.

I am itching to plant some mango trees into the ground.


January outlook appears to be looking good.....February and early March seems to be the question...I've almost survived the first Winter....just not sure what I'll do when the trees get much bigger...I need to see MangoFang's protection to get a few ideas...A greenhouse for 20 trees is out of the question for me...Frostcloth and C9 nights appear to work just fine....However Power constraints and tree size will become a huge issue with that same plan.
I'd recommend stocking up on cheap C9 Xmas lights online. I'm sure you can find very cheap sources if you do a search. If you're not already a Chrisitan than convert, and consider them as Xmas decorations. ;) Not that big of a power usage at all compared to people that run huge amounts of lights for 2 weeks all might long non stop just for decoration!  Heaters are much bigger usage hogs. Compare a 1500 watt heater to a string of lights that uses 50-100 watts. Especially wasteful when you use one heater to heat only one GOAT (LZ mango). HAHAHA

Oscar lol

Remember I went in to this first battle without any clue how to fight lol The stupid 1500 watt heater I bought....surely a waste now! Hopefully Lowes will still accept the heater back after several weeks....Clearly C9 lights offer incredibly protection at low wattage... I think Heater would be ok inside a greenhouse, but not for the kind of protection I'm running....

As for now I believe I will end up stapling and super gluing my 12x10 frost cloths together...and looking to by the bigger sized cloths that I have recently found at 20x10 sizes...connecting several of those together should cover an 8ft tree easy I would think...Now  what i'm really curious about is will the same string of 24 C9 lights offer enough protection for a 8ft tree like it did my 5-6 footers.
Anyone who has lived off grid, like i did for many years, will tell you that electric heaters are the most inefficient way to create heat. Even in a greenhouse it is much cheaper to run a propane heater. OK soldier, if you gonna go to war, next time you better learn more about your enemy!  ;) I'd say you did pretty good so far, all considering. But could be another battle on the horizon.
Oscar

goosteen

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Re: Brace for Frost!
« Reply #126 on: January 10, 2015, 02:16:48 AM »
Has anyone tried tying a large warm blooded mammal to their tree?