Author Topic: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees  (Read 2796 times)

Dane

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Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« on: June 25, 2018, 09:09:58 PM »
Hi all, I’m not sure if there’s already a list on here but wondering what success people have had with different fruit trees at certain low temps. If you could list cold hardy fruit trees and the temps they are able to survive at, it would be much appreciated.
Dane

Rannman

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2018, 06:38:26 AM »
Dragonfruit(all varieties) - Temps from light frost(0 degrees) up to 45 degrees and very dry. No damage!

Jakfruit(1yr old seedling) - Light frost up to 45 degrees and very dry. Some deformity of leaves from cold, no damage from the heat. Needs occasional watering in dry times.

Logan(seedling) - Light frost up to 45 degrees/very dry. No damage at all. Very dry tolerant.

Achacha( seeds direct sown into permanent site, tree guards) - Light frost up to 45 degrees/very dry. 25% cut back to ground in frost but re-growing. 75% no damage at all. Slow growing(15cm tall - 14 months since seed was sown), but very tough! Must have a huge tap root! Dry weather hasn’t bothered it at all.

No irrigation on Dragonfruit, Longan or Achacha. Only occasional water for Achacha, 20lt/ month when dry.

« Last Edit: June 26, 2018, 07:34:26 AM by Rannman »

Tropheus76

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2018, 10:41:17 AM »
Longon and Jakfruit? Those are super sensitive unless you guys have a different kind of frost than we do. Even a light frost will fry the leaves off both of those.

-Lychee likes a bit of cooler weather.
-Citrus- most can deal with a light frost fine, cooler weather makes it sweeter supposedly
-Pomegranate
-loquat
-Myrica Rubra- supposedly. You guys would have an easier time getting them than us
-Surinam cherries
-lilly pilly- mine did fine with heavy frost.
-any of your stone fruit
-any apples
-Jaboticaba
-white sapote
-Ice Cream bean
-Irish Strawberry :P
These are my observations from my yard anyway. I am 9B and we had a fairly cold winter this year. I have other things like Mangos, macadamia, and some various Eugenia that survived but did not survive well, even the light frosts.

baccarat0809

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2018, 02:16:24 PM »
Longon and Jakfruit? Those are super sensitive unless you guys have a different kind of frost than we do. Even a light frost will fry the leaves off both of those.

-Lychee likes a bit of cooler weather.
-Citrus- most can deal with a light frost fine, cooler weather makes it sweeter supposedly
-Pomegranate
-loquat
-Myrica Rubra- supposedly. You guys would have an easier time getting them than us
-Surinam cherries
-lilly pilly- mine did fine with heavy frost.
-any of your stone fruit
-any apples
-Jaboticaba
-white sapote
-Ice Cream bean
-Irish Strawberry :P
These are my observations from my yard anyway. I am 9B and we had a fairly cold winter this year. I have other things like Mangos, macadamia, and some various Eugenia that survived but did not survive well, even the light frosts.

My Longan seedlings did fine in the cold and I'm in Longwood (Orlando) area.  I took them in when we had the mid 20's temp but the frosty nights at 30-35 were fine.  They are cats eye seedlings if that makes any difference.

sunworshiper

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2018, 06:57:52 PM »
Tropheus's list is pretty good. I'm in 9b and have had lows down to 24 in the last 10 years. I successfully grow mangos, lychees, atemoya, citrus, banana and peach. Any time the temps dip below 32 the banana leaves fry (but clump survives) and the mangos require cold protection. Anything below 28 and all but the peach and citrus require protection. Down below about 26 the citrus start needing protection. If I'm not expecting a hard freeze, then just old fashioned xmas lights will do as cold protection. Anything colder and a full hoop house is needed to protect the trees. So it is worth thinking carefully about how much work you are willing to put into frost protection before planting. Have fun choosing!

echinopora

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2018, 05:24:23 PM »
How cold?
http://rfcarchives.org.au/Next/CaringForTrees/MinTemps3-88.htm
http://rfcarchives.org.au/Next/CaringForTrees/FruitsForAreas9-83.htm
http://stfc.org.au/frost-by-steve-symonds

The fruit tree for areas is pretty conservative, with good site selection most of the trees listed for Rockhampton will go well in northern nsw. If you want to grow them for 20 plus years and never worry about cold protection it would be reasonable to follow. Coolangatta area already saw 1.5c this year. Duranbah/terranora were at 8c on the same night.

Ulfr

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2018, 08:04:21 PM »
Really matters how long it’s cold for too.

The list above is accurate here it seems. I get frost here but have a cempedak halfway through its second winter with only a barrier for protection. Jackfruit are fine.

The frost forms only at ground level, the air temp never really drops below 3 at its absolute coldest. Those temperatures are also only for an hour or so and days are warm. The above trees are still growing (slowly) even now in mid winter.

Dane

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2018, 08:47:29 PM »
How cold?
http://rfcarchives.org.au/Next/CaringForTrees/MinTemps3-88.htm
http://rfcarchives.org.au/Next/CaringForTrees/FruitsForAreas9-83.htm
http://stfc.org.au/frost-by-steve-symonds

The fruit tree for areas is pretty conservative, with good site selection most of the trees listed for Rockhampton will go well in northern nsw. If you want to grow them for 20 plus years and never worry about cold protection it would be reasonable to follow. Coolangatta area already saw 1.5c this year.

Duranbah/terranora were at 8c on the same night.
[/quote

Wow!! 1.5 at Coolangatta, I’m moving out near Canungra mid July and wondering what of my collection will handle the temps in winter. I’ll prob have a massive greenhouse by next winter though.

Dane

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2018, 10:37:37 PM »
Really matters how long it’s cold for too.

The list above is accurate here it seems. I get frost here but have a cempedak halfway through its second winter with only a barrier for protection. Jackfruit are fine.

The frost forms only at ground level, the air temp never really drops below 3 at its absolute coldest. Those temperatures are also only for an hour or so and days are warm. The above trees are still growing (slowly) even now in mid winter.
I’m moving to Witheren, next to Canungra and they have got a couple of days last week at 0 and -1 I believe. But only for like an hour. I think the average low is around 7or 8 c. Like you said, I’ll just have to protect my chempedek and other sensitive trees on the freak cold days.

echinopora

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2018, 03:58:14 AM »
The bottom of the valley at Canungra can be a frost trap. We hike O'reillys a bit and it definitely gets cold in canungra. It really cools off in the valley because you lose the sun early in winter. You'd want your tender stuff on a north facing hill I'd think. Maybe direct seed some of the more sensitive ones and graft over the survivors. I imagine Mango, Banana, Jabs, Citrus, low and low/mid chill stonefruit, low chill Kiwi, black sapote, Mulberry, Guava, Loquat, Nashi's, dragonfruit, pitanga, some garcinias would be fine without protection. I've seen jackfruit that far inland but they didn't look to stellar. If you direct seed I'm sure you can get scions of most of what is around here from Dan or myself.
Rob

Ulfr

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2018, 06:11:12 AM »
I'm the Dan Rob mentioned. Happy to share scions come summer :)
I'm actually slightly more inland than you but a little north (Greenbank). My place is warmer than BOM would have you believe, but still cold for that hour before the sun comes up (the weather station must be in a less favourable micro climate). My Jacks do fine but you do have the frost trap issue Rob talked about. A good friend of mine lives near the army base there and grows jacks among a bunch of other stuff. He certainly gets colder than me though and actually has frost of consequence. He makes good use of some canopy protection for smaller trees. I'm not sure how his more tropical stuff is looking this time of the year.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2018, 07:23:36 AM by Ulfr »

Mike T

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #11 on: June 28, 2018, 09:09:35 AM »
We have talked about those lists before and the many others produced in Australia with minimum tolerable temps and what each town can grow. There are a few that are a bit out and should be tweaked and for a few species the variety and provenance make a big difference. Time spent at low temps and maximum during the day, humidity and wind at low temps and low humidity also make a difference.

Dane

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Re: Cold tolerate tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees
« Reply #12 on: June 28, 2018, 05:14:19 PM »
I'm the Dan Rob mentioned. Happy to share scions come summer :)
I'm actually slightly more inland than you but a little north (Greenbank). My place is warmer than BOM would have you believe, but still cold for that hour before the sun comes up (the weather station must be in a less favourable micro climate). My Jacks do fine but you do have the frost trap issue Rob talked about. A good friend of mine lives near the army base there and grows jacks among a bunch of other stuff. He certainly gets colder than me though and actually has frost of consequence. He makes good use of some canopy protection for smaller trees. I'm not sure how his more tropical stuff is looking this time of the year.
My new place is like 2 mins from the army barracks. I’ll have to meet your mate ! I want to know as many growers in the area as possible.