Shower Freeze Protection for a Jackfruit Tree

[C24mccain]

Today I was working on a freeze protection setup for my nearly 15 foot tall almost two year Jackfruit tree. Here is the video showing how it turned out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRIk16Z7970

Any thoughts on whether or not it will work? I might wrap the bottom 8 foot enclosing the tree inside to contain heat and block wind and cold from getting in though it will be open from above for the shower to rain inside. Any ideas are welcome.

[Coach62]

That’s a buttload of water, I’d have gone with a regular, small irrigation head.

[C24mccain]

What if I turn the water down? What are pros and cons of more or less water?

[pineislander]

I don't see any downside of too much water. A six foot Jackfruit might represent $200 plus time to establish/replace. Loss of that would be the downside. Cost of water a few dollars per night. I like the idea of the shower curtain it should help a lot. I saw you were zone pushing last winter and some of your losses.

[C24mccain]

Yea I'm more prepared this year than last and a few less things to protect. The Jackfruit is 10' bigger this year than last year so I had to come up with a different way of protecting it. I like experiments but I wouldn't be upset if we have no freeze nights to test things. Last year we had two bad nights and one other that wasn't bad and on average the cost to protect things a night or two per year is not bad. Thanks for your thoughts.

[bomjik]

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[Epicatt2]

Hi C24,

I have just a few observations about your freeze protection set up . . .

1]  amount of water? - That is indeed a lot of water to dump on that tree.  Possibly one of those brass Dramm Fogg-It Nozzles* could put enough moisture into the air to buffer the cold, but with a much lesser output of water, plus it's at the mercy of the wind that night (see #2 below) 


2]  wind direction - Might blow the water aside leaving part(s) of the tree unprotected. Some provision should be made so that the position of the water (or mist) source could be quickly accommodated to altered wind direction, critically important in case the wind happens to shift direction at some point during the night!

3]  Water in hose and PVC could freeze - Ufff! You don't want that, so it might be practical to wrap the hose and PVC upright, etc., to insulate them.


* Just FWIW . . . I've used Fogg-It Nozzles (fine or superfine) mounted on top of an eight-foot metal conduit shoved into the ground on a number of occasions to protect my orchids and other tropical plants on a few really cold nights.  Some of the orchids wound up with icicles hanging from them but the water kept the plants above freezing and saved them.  I left the mist running the next morning just until the icicles had melted/dissolved away.  These nozzles are easy to use since they have standard female threads so they screw right onto a regular garden hose.

The Dramm FoggiIt Nozzles are available on Amazon if you are interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Fogg-Watering-Nozzle-Pack-gpm/dp/B00W9X0HDQ/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Dramm+Fog-It+Nozzle+GPM+Brass&qid=1606372534&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-2

OK — Just a few comments on how I handled a similar situation with my tender plants.

Fruit-aholic, save that tree!!

Paul M.
==

[C24mccain]

Thanks for the ideas. I wasn't planning on protecting the tree this year as the tree has struggled for two years ever since I put down way to thick layer of mulch. I thinned the mulch out back then when I saw the symptoms but probably not enough. This year the tree never grew in height although it did get a little wider. Back in August I pruned about 6-8' of the height off to see if it would get a good flush response. It didn't grow but it did put out female flowers. There are four of them currently but I doubt they will hold through winter. It doesn't help that the area was where the previous home owner kept his horse and he put down a ton of sea shells in that spot. The ph of the native soil there is just over 8 from what I remember. The mulch helps but the tree has suffered ever since I put down too much mulch. I have since planted a jackfruit seed in a different area of the property. It's a few inches tall. Thus I was already getting a replacement started and planning on leaving this big Jack up to fate this winter. Last year it handled 31* with no issues. I didn't use the shower that night.

As for too much water, perhaps your right. I was trying to go that route to avoid ice build up. Wasn't sure if the Jack would like a bunch of ice on it from a mist. Maybe it would do fine now that I have seen it handle 31* well.

As for the wind, on the cold fronts we always have wind out of the north or northwest from what I have seen. I have an excellent wind break just to the north of the tree in a line of oak trees and a long industrial building that butts up to my property.

I'm not giving up on the tree completely but the above is why I don't plan on protecting it this year. Thanks for the ideas as they will be handy in the future.