South/Central Florida Cold Fronts

[johnb51]

Gotta love a Florida weather forecast that calls for a "Falling Lizard Warning"  🦎🦎🦎

But you gotta destroy them when they're immobile.  Otherwise they come right back to life when the temp warms a little.

[Flgarden]

I got 27f for a few hours east Orlando.
Weather app was showing 30f but my thermometer disagreed. Jackfruit, unknown variety, that was undamaged after 32f, looks sad now but hopefully alive.
Ana

[puglvr1]

Official low for me this morning was 28.2° and was 32° and below for about 5 hours, I'm sure I will lose the blooms on my tree, the Glenn was full of blooms and my Cogshall had just a few...others haven't started. My lychee had blooms too so I'm assuming those are going to die also  ...still a freeze warning for me for tomorrow but not predicted to be as cold as today...fingers crossed!!

[CowboyFig]

Hope everyone’s garden isn’t too affected or can at least recover. Seems like most places didn’t receive as severe of cold as expected. Obviously not the case everywhere. In y’all’s experience if cold kills lychee bloom can they bloom again like you see in mangoes? Seems like that may not the case for other fruits like stone fruit. I used to hear about late freezes ruining peach crops, etc. Thanks for the info and happy gardening y’all.

[puglvr1]

dwfl and orkine - Thankyou!

Should I cut of the dead blooms or just leave them?

[/b]

Not an expert but I would remove the dead blooms or at least the ones you can reach, I can't imagine that would hurt especially if it is truly dead. You might even see a second bloom since we still have a few more weeks of colder weather (possible?)

[fliptop]

Official low for me this morning was 28.2° and was 32° and below for about 5 hours, I'm sure I will lose the blooms on my tree, the Glenn was full of blooms and my Cogshall had just a few...others haven't started.

Wow, and I think you said in another post they're too big to protect. Reading that they can survive those temps for that long is encouraging--I went a little overboard, but the National Weather Service said my area was going down to 27° with 21° Wind Chill. We got down to 31° and had frost starting when it was 37° at 4am.

[fliptop]

Unfortunately, even covered, the Jackfruit seedlings look rough. I either have to give up trying to grow Jackfruit or find a better way to protect them during cold spells

[Flgarden]

I have a mai1 jack that totally got all leaves gone after 32f. I have seedlings of unknown jack that planted outside and totally looks fine after 32f. This time i put a plastic container over them and  after 27f they show very little damage. Seems like jacks cold tolerance could be very different.

Ana

[Galatians522]

Hope everyone’s garden isn’t too affected or can at least recover. Seems like most places didn’t receive as severe of cold as expected. Obviously not the case everywhere. In y’all’s experience if cold kills lychee bloom can they bloom again like you see in mangoes? Seems like that may not the case for other fruits like stone fruit. I used to hear about late freezes ruining peach crops, etc. Thanks for the info and happy gardening y’all.

Yes, Lychee can bloom again if it looses the first bloom to a freeze.

[Orkine]

Today was even colder than yesterday for me.
At 7 a.m. 31 degrees and frost on the ground and ice on windshield.

[johnb51]

Today was even colder than yesterday for me.
At 7 a.m. 31 degrees and frost on the ground and ice on windshield.

Wow!  If my lychee blooms this year, it will all have been worth it.  Last summer was a bumper crop.

[cotter pin]

 On Saturday, here in Charlotte County, we were below freezing, possibly on Sunday night as well. Trees look like they were torched, we covered them and we will see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

[TonyinCC]

Less wind last night but there was frost on roofs, cars, and grass this morning in my neighborhood. I wasn't expecting that since it was supposed to be a few degrees warmer. It didn't feel any colder.

[johnb51]

It's going to warm up now.  Hope we see plenty of bloom.  Special prayer to the lychee gods!

[fliptop]

Saw this on the news the other day.

Guess I got lower than 31°. I might need to get a thermometer.

One section of my yard got hit really hard. I will soon be on the search for cold-hardy fruit trees that can stand occasional flooding (thinking longan and white sapote?).

Didn't have enough time/frost cloth to cover Canistel, Barbados Cherries, and Suriname Cherries, and they took it like a champ. The small Peanut Butter Fruits got fried, but the big ones were unphased.

[Galatians522]

Saw this on the news the other day.

Guess I got lower than 31°. I might need to get a thermometer.

One section of my yard got hit really hard. I will soon be on the search for cold-hardy fruit trees that can stand occasional flooding (thinking longan and white sapote?).

Didn't have enough time/frost cloth to cover Canistel, Barbados Cherries, and Suriname Cherries, and they took it like a champ. The small Peanut Butter Fruits got fried, but the big ones were unphased.

I would recommend muscadine grape. Longan and White Sapote have not been good for flooding in my experience. Longan trees survive, but the fruit never sizes properly and WS struggles with wet feet.

[fliptop]

Thanks for the info and recommendation, Galatians522!

[Ulfr]

As above, two of my white sapote died due to wet feet. Wasn't even flooding, just soggy ground that didn't get a chance to dry out for a week.

[Galatians522]

Thanks for the info and recommendation, Galatians522!

Some others to consider for cold tollerence and wet feet are Sabara Jaboticaba and sugarcane. Sugarcane handles wet feet like a champ and will easily grow into Georgia if it is cut back to the ground and buried just before the first frost. If you get a cane juicer, you can grow all the juice you ever wanted in a 100' row.

[yuzr]

Freeze before mature mango tree had made flower shoots. All new leaves had matured. All leaves are completely brown, will die.  Central FL, Feb 8.

A thought : Would frozen leaf removal in late Feb result in new leaves sooner?
If so, then remove all, or just at ends?       

[Galatians522]

Freeze before mature mango tree had made flower shoots. All new leaves had matured. All leaves are completely brown, will die.  Central FL, Feb 8.

A thought : Would frozen leaf removal in late Feb result in new leaves sooner?
If so, then remove all, or just at ends?     

I would wait patiently for now. The frozen leaves will protect what is below them if we have more cold weather.

[yuzr]

Freeze before mature mango tree had made flower shoots. All new leaves had matured. All leaves are completely brown, will die.  Central FL, Feb 8.

A thought : Would frozen leaf removal in late Feb result in new leaves sooner?
If so, then remove all, or just at ends?     

I would wait patiently for now. The frozen leaves will protect what is below them if we have more cold weather.

Thanks.

I was specific ("late Feb").  Please define "for now", including the word "until" and some calendar-related phrase.

The core question remains.

[fliptop]

Freeze before mature mango tree had made flower shoots. All new leaves had matured. All leaves are completely brown, will die.  Central FL, Feb 8.

A thought : Would frozen leaf removal in late Feb result in new leaves sooner?
If so, then remove all, or just at ends?     

I would wait patiently for now. The frozen leaves will protect what is below them if we have more cold weather.

Thanks.

I was specific ("late Feb").  Please define "for now", including the word "until" and some calendar-related phrase.

The core question remains.

It was answered. Unfortunately, nature doesn't operate on as specific a timeline as you apparently expect.

[Galatians522]

Freeze before mature mango tree had made flower shoots. All new leaves had matured. All leaves are completely brown, will die.  Central FL, Feb 8.

A thought : Would frozen leaf removal in late Feb result in new leaves sooner?
If so, then remove all, or just at ends?     

I would wait patiently for now. The frozen leaves will protect what is below them if we have more cold weather.

Thanks.

I was specific ("late Feb").  Please define "for now", including the word "until" and some calendar-related phrase.

The core question remains.

Waiting for new growth from below the damaged area is probably the best option. But if you want a date, wait at least until March 15th. That has traditionally been the "safe date" for freezes here in central Florida. There can be frost after that, but it is rare.

[bovine421]

I've changed my go date to April Fool's Day.Last March the last two weeks the nighttime temperatures were below 50 degrees and daytime winds were 20-plus.
My soursop that I kept so Lush and green all through the winter by being inside under a grow light completely defoliated and took half the summer to rebound. To me March is to unpredictable. The risk vs reward the reward is not enough. I feel it's better just to wait till April