Author Topic: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.  (Read 4996 times)

JoeP450

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Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« on: September 11, 2017, 09:49:16 AM »
Hey Forum,

Hope everyone affected is ok with minimal damage. Wanted to start this thread and so we can compile enough reports to get an overall idea of how well certain tropical fruit trees hold up against hurricanes. Please be specific on what measures you took to protect your trees and post pictures with how they fared. After surveying my yard it seems certain trees were harmed more due to their location on my lawn but also based on the type type of tree.

Pervuvian apple cactus: pushed over and will need to be straightened and staked, also in same pic oro negro 🥑 just chilling and not affected, maybe partially due to near house privacy wall and also zip tied to an electrical conduit pipe hammered into ground about 3 ft for support. Lisa atemoya: battered badly, was zip tied to electrical conduit stake and zip tie broke. Seedling ivory mango: no precautions were taken too the storm like a champ, leggy branches are bent but not broken. Naha chanok: no precautions and tree is bent over and will need to be stakeked.  Seedling sugar Apple: beaten to a pulp, no precautions were taken, hope this guy survives.  Coco cream: gave it a heavy pruning, some branches are broken but overall it fared way better this year vs Irma than it did last year vs Matthew. Cereus bar monstrose: limb was broken off, also not pictured multiple limbs of various dragon fruits blown off. Sweet heart lychee: this tree was most exposed and took the storm like an absolute champ, no precautions were taken. Not pictured are my citrus (tangelo, grapefruit, lemon) all handled the storm well.

In summary for me at least I would rank lychee, citrus, avocado, mango, cactus, Anona in terms of hurricane resistance.

















-joep450

Frog Valley Farm

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2017, 11:07:39 AM »
🗯
« Last Edit: March 19, 2018, 09:05:51 PM by Frog Valley Farm »

nullzero

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2017, 11:47:18 AM »
A well trimmed mature live oak can withstand winds above 100mph. I had a Peruvian cactus apple large section snap off. Coconut palms that are well anchored into the soil can withstand high amounts of wind.

Things like type of soil, amount of saturation, and direction of wind play a big part in tolerance. If the tree is use to winds from the east, and the wind comes from the west it can cause failure easier.
Grow mainly fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

KineticUrchin

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2017, 03:29:21 PM »
Any advice on how we can repair Irma damage? This is a Makok sapodilla, bought and planted it June 2016 as a 3gal. Snapped trunk last night. And it was covered with a bunch of pea-sized fruitlets already. I was hoping to enjoy some. This was my only snap, the rest of my trees we blown over at 45 deg angles.

How would you pros fix this? And it would probably help if I removed the fruits huh. Thanks.

About finger thickness.


JoeP450

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2017, 10:16:29 PM »
Kineticurchin- can you take a pic of the whole tree? ...to see where the break is in regards to rest of tree.

-joep450

fruitlovers

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2017, 11:04:52 PM »
While it's true that no tree can be totally immune to high winds, it's also true that some trees are more susceptible than others. From my very limited experience i would rank them like this:
Poor resistance: Longan, lychee, abiu, jamaican cherry (muntingia)
Medium resistance: Avocado
High resistance: Mango, Jackfruit, Chico, Java plum, Ice Cream Bean, Santol
« Last Edit: September 12, 2017, 11:07:07 PM by fruitlovers »
Oscar

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2017, 08:44:03 AM »
This tree is only about 4 feet tall, the split is an inch or two above the graft.



kalan

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2017, 10:28:01 AM »
One mantra I've always tried to keep in ind, in life, in gardening: "the least flexible tree fares worst in the storm"
With that in mind, my hardest wooded trees (citrus, mainly my lime tree) got destroyed, while my mangoes faired very well. I event had some recently planted 3gallon mangos survive with nothing more than a lean. I watched two of my 10 foot mangoes push at 30 degree angles for hours and hold up virtually unscathed.

Also, my Avocados, due to their uneven distribution of weight (trunks often forking only inches about the ground) often struggled as well.
Kei

Tropheus76

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2017, 02:57:00 PM »
My lychees took it  like champs and are sitting under water right now. One is knee deep under water. I didn't even have a snapped branch.

Most of my other trees are standing at an angle. I wasn't able yesterday to restake them as many are on mounds out in the middle of flooded areas with every dry spot covered in fire ants.


JoeP450

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2017, 08:45:39 PM »
This tree is only about 4 feet tall, the split is an inch or two above the graft.



That tree looks really rough, sorry. Probably better off buying a new one, or maybe make a clean cut right below the break but above the graft line and remove the top portion maybe it will send out a new shoot.

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Canvo

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2017, 09:31:20 PM »
How about cutting it 12-18 inches above break and try inarching grafts bridging the break. Possibly could use material from top of tree to graft with and if it works keep canopy compact until grafts and trunk strengthen. No guarantee but worth a shot I reckon

fruitlovers

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2017, 11:03:31 PM »
The combination of flooding and high winds makes it really hard for plants to stay in place. Softened soil makes falling over so much easier. Great to hear most people's trees made it throuh ok even with the flooding.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2017, 11:06:21 PM by fruitlovers »
Oscar

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #12 on: September 13, 2017, 03:41:17 AM »
How about cutting it 12-18 inches above break and try inarching grafts bridging the break. Possibly could use material from top of tree to graft with and if it works keep canopy compact until grafts and trunk strengthen. No guarantee but worth a shot I reckon

i was wondering if that was an option. you would need to act quick though i'm sure.

SunshineState

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #13 on: September 13, 2017, 05:19:48 PM »
My observation from having to work this hurricane (Saturday AM - Monday PM, 60 hours) after driving through the streets of St Pete early Monday morning, which is loaded with mature fruit trees.

Lots of mature Oak trees down, but there are thousands growing so proportionally not that bad.
A few large Avocado trees down
A few Jacaranda trees down
Zero mango trees down
Zero Lychee trees down

Overall from what I gathered the mature avocado trees seemed to struggle more with this Category 2 hurricane than the mangoes and lychees

achetadomestica

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2017, 08:55:27 PM »
This tree is only about 4 feet tall, the split is an inch or two above the graft.


I had a silas wood sapodilla snap and split right at the graft. I dug it up and  luckily I have another
in a pot I was wondering where I could plant. I would also cut yours as far up as you can from the graft and make a
clean cut. Then knock off any new suckers below the graft. You are in 9b, hopefully there is time to put out new growth. Since that
tree was a couple years old, the new growth should grow fast with the root structure it has. Hopefully next summer it will catch
up to the size it would have been if the weather cooperates? Be careful this winter it will be more sensitive to cold.

fsanchez2002

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2017, 05:50:05 PM »
While it's true that no tree can be totally immune to high winds, it's also true that some trees are more susceptible than others. From my very limited experience i would rank them like this:
Poor resistance: Longan, lychee, abiu, jamaican cherry (muntingia)
Medium resistance: Avocado
High resistance: Mango, Jackfruit, Chico, Java plum, Ice Cream Bean, Santol

My own observations strongly support Oscar's list (with about 200 data points of trees on the ground exposed to hurricane Irma in Homestead) :
Poor resistance: Lychee (40% out of 20 trees snapped, maybe it has to do with being airlayers). Longan. Most younger Garcinias have bad resistance: they topple over but don't break (Maybe it has to do with fact that they're raised in pots initially so they can't develop proper straight/deep tap root?). Jaboticabas get toppled easily but don't break.
Medium: annonas, guavas, abiu, avocado, white sapote
High: Black sapote, Mango, citrus, jackfruit, kwaimuk, sapodilla (branches break off, but trunk ok), sapote, grumichama and Cherry RGrande, spondias,
Needless to say: taller trees and trees with heavy foliage/branching fare much worse that others (jackfruit and black sapote seem to be exception) 
Federico
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strkpr00

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2017, 02:02:57 PM »
Lychee Mauritius broke at the trunk, Coconut Cream mango sheared clean at about ground level, Glenn mango leaned, overgrown Tropic Beauty peach leaned, pomagranate leaned. Carambola broke off about 7' above the ground.
There might be a good reason to trim the trees back every year.

shot

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #17 on: September 16, 2017, 03:39:08 PM »
After cat 5 and cat 4 biggest standing fruit trees were java plum then old seedling sapodillas ,spanish lime.  When I say standing I mean stumps about 15 feet tall every thing else unless pruned well not!!!!!!

Mike T

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #18 on: September 16, 2017, 06:17:20 PM »
The cyclone experience here is that short thick trees, those that can flex more and those worth substantial root systems do better in strong winds, Those that do badly include mangosteens that get smashed at winds of well less than 80mph and durians that snap off at the trunk at the same wind speed, Jaboticabas and Mexican limes in my yard blew over at low wind speed and rambutans also snapped off and lost all the branches in only modest wind speeds. Sapodillas do pretty well as does Lansium and prunes mangoes. Pometias snap off with their soft brittle wood but grow back from the stump. Lychees, abius, star apples and avos act like sails and get cracked and lose branches but have good root systems and can grow back as do mangoes. At wind speeds of over say 180mph like what Mission Beach had with Cyclone Yasi just about all species snap off o are blown over. The Tatura trellising of the Salleras farm was remarkable in that all species survived cat5 winds and were fruiting again with a couple of seasons.

It would be good to catalogue the Floridian experience in terms of effects on various species at different wind speeds. Documenting what actually worked for protecting trees would be a great guide for the future when the next calamity threatens.

Cookie Monster

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #19 on: September 16, 2017, 08:18:41 PM »
Growth rate / branch age also has something to do with hurricane resistance. For example, both lychee and sapodilla have very dense, hard wood. However, branches that have grown "quickly" are much more brittle than branches that are either very old or which have grown slowly.
Jeff  :-)

pineislander

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #20 on: September 17, 2017, 06:38:19 AM »
I would put Indian Jujube in a class very easy to blow over if not pruned annually. They have a thin trunk and if overgrown on top the root system with saturated ground is very susceptible to blow down, especially since they bear fruit right in hurricane season. If they are thorny types you've got a bad problem to deal with. One which I stumped in springtime did ok and had fruit, not so many now though....

ftmyersfruit

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #21 on: September 17, 2017, 08:19:52 AM »
From my experience with hurricane Irma at probably cat 3 winds. I had the following trees bent to the ground: muntinigia, lychee, Beverly mango, NS1 jackfruit seedling (4yaears old), grafted cheena, coconut (small in ground 2 years), peanut butter fruit (dead), tall nam wah bananas and manzana, moringa, Neem, red Sugar apple seedling, green sugar apple seedling, rollinia (probably dying), 3x soursop, red morning Jak. All the remaining mangoes, Jak, and lychee were almost untouched. Chupa chupa was defoliated, achachariu was bent by bananas, atemoya held it's fruit but looks terrible with some broken limbs. Tamarind is completely windswept now as well as a Barbados cherry. Mamey x4 were untouched. Ice cream bean defoliated on top branches.

PurpleAlligator

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #22 on: September 17, 2017, 05:16:35 PM »
While it's true that no tree can be totally immune to high winds, it's also true that some trees are more susceptible than others. From my very limited experience i would rank them like this:
Poor resistance: Longan, lychee, abiu, jamaican cherry (muntingia)
Medium resistance: Avocado
High resistance: Mango, Jackfruit, Chico, Java plum, Ice Cream Bean, Santol

My own observations strongly support Oscar's list (with about 200 data points of trees on the ground exposed to hurricane Irma in Homestead) :
Poor resistance: Lychee (40% out of 20 trees snapped, maybe it has to do with being airlayers). Longan. Most younger Garcinias have bad resistance: they topple over but don't break (Maybe it has to do with fact that they're raised in pots initially so they can't develop proper straight/deep tap root?). Jaboticabas get toppled easily but don't break.
Medium: annonas, guavas, abiu, avocado, white sapote
High: Black sapote, Mango, citrus, jackfruit, kwaimuk, sapodilla (branches break off, but trunk ok), sapote, grumichama and Cherry RGrande, spondias,
Needless to say: taller trees and trees with heavy foliage/branching fare much worse that others (jackfruit and black sapote seem to be exception)

Longan trees that fared poorly were biew kiew. Kohala are mostly still standing.

roblack

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Re: Tree specific hardiness, post hurricane Irma.
« Reply #23 on: September 17, 2017, 06:10:11 PM »
cacao, abiu, and banana took the winds the hardest here.

mango, jabo, rollinia, soursop, and papaya blew over, but could be propped back up and saved.   

caimito, carambola, and atemoya stood strong, but with leaf and branch damage.

beaumont macadamia seems to have appreciated the wind and rain, doesn't look any different.

all my small and low lying stuff was fine. Hurricane didn't touch anything below 12 inches. didn't even blow over tiny plastic seedling pots left out in the open, on the ground.