Author Topic: Freeze damage recovery  (Read 774 times)

Yorgos

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Freeze damage recovery
« on: May 04, 2021, 10:01:21 PM »
I lost all my citrus during the cold spell in mid February here in Houston. There were several days where the temps did not get above 22 Fahrenheit.  It seemed my 25 yr old meiwa kumquat (20 years in the ground) would make it. Started making shoots from the branches within a month but now the new shoots are withering and dying. Is this plant toast?




Near NRG Stadium, Houston Texas. USDA zone 9a

poncirsguy

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Re: Freeze damage recovery
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2021, 11:08:09 PM »
sometimes the rootstock use is not hardy and dies but the scion has energy in it trunk and bark to push growth.  The tree later dies with the dead roots not supplying water..

Citradia

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Re: Freeze damage recovery
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2021, 06:52:12 PM »
I had a ctradia flush out after a tour of zero degrees and sub freezing temps for the entire month of January, then it just up and died a week later; I noticed the trunk bark had a split in it at the base on the south side of trunk. I’ve noticed if the trunks split, the tree is toast.

Millet

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Re: Freeze damage recovery
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2021, 11:01:06 PM »
he trunk split due to freezing.

incubator01

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Re: Freeze damage recovery
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2021, 09:24:49 AM »
I lost all my citrus during the cold spell in mid February here in Houston. There were several days where the temps did not get above 22 Fahrenheit.  It seemed my 25 yr old meiwa kumquat (20 years in the ground) would make it. Started making shoots from the branches within a month but now the new shoots are withering and dying. Is this plant toast?





your new leaf buds look green and healthy, his seems like a good sign.
I once had a Kaffir lime with severe frost damage , I pruned off all dead branches, even parts of the main trunk, it grew new leaf buds like yours but also red/brownish ones and a little later one of the side branches completely died off. When I removed that half, I smelled a yucky mould odour and saw the thick trunk core was greyish and just a little bit green dot in the center.
So in the end I had to dispose the entire plant because the new growth was on another side branch attached to the same sickly trunk.
Keep an eye out for weird trunk patches and new growth, branches with sudden leaf death may be a sign of that branch having died from the cold long ago.

lebmung

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Re: Freeze damage recovery
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2021, 05:16:06 PM »
I would provide shadow for the tree, with 60% shadow fabric. A root biostimulator would help with amino acids.
If the trunk is split I would seal it all in parafilm and paint it white.
The new growth came out when the sun is already too strong and the plant can't adapt.
To grow new roots you need foliage to provide sugars so if the new growth dies the tree might die.