Winter is coming to central Florida

[yoski]

Right now the forecast in my area calls for a low of 29 and 31 on Saturday (1/29) and Sunday (1/30) . What are you doing to prepare?
I have about 3 micro jets per tree (2-3 year old Mango, Starfruit, Mamey). Some Mango that are without irrigation I will put mulch around the base and a plastic bag over the top, all the way to the ground. The mulch protects the graft line and provides a little bit of heat. I have some smudge pots, but I hate to fire up those monstrosities. Any other not too costly ideas are welcome.

[fliptop]

I already have damage on a few of my trees and plants from this past Monday morning's frost. This upcoming weekend, it's forecast to go to 31° in my area on Saturday night/Sunday morning and 32° Sunday night/Monday morning. I will be covering small plants with nursery pots and covering those with Frost Cloth I got from Rural King. I'll also wrap blooms and taller trees with the Frost Cloth. I use clothes pins to hold the cloth in place. It might be futile, but I'm desperate and hoping to preserve the blooms on my seedling Coconut Cream Seedling Mango Tree . . .

Here's one of my banana plants that suffered frost damage:



And a PPK seedling:

[CowboyFig]

Yeah this is gonna suck. Been reveling in zone 10a winters, but it’s about to hit 9b real fast in the Tampa area. My in ground mangoes are too big to worry about covering. I’ve put heat lamps under them in the past, which actually bought me a few degrees and maybe the rising steam made a difference. We had a light frost (34 F) last weekend and the bloom seems ok, which blows my mind. Expecting this weekend to smoke the bloom and maybe some leaf/small limb loss? I don’t know. I built the greenhouses around the trees in the past and it’s too much effort for me. YOLO baby.

[TnTrobbie]

I'm in Lake Placid. Yeah....this winter sucks. 29 and 32 F expected sat / sunday. 1-2 punch KO. But its not as traumatic for me as the Frost of 2021. Bananas, papayas, sour sop, jackfruit, suriman cherries are gonna look shitty in the cold weather regardless. Young Jacks will die if exposed. If you have large oak trees on your property...start planning to plant under the canopy especially on the south and west side facing areas. Learned allot from 2021 Frost event, and so far it's paying off. Planted, so far, 12 of my fav mango cvs. there beginning in October and its looking great despite the frost/ ice we had sunday/monday. Loquats, grumichima, and barbados cherries are doing great even though they're exposed. Longans and Lychees are exposed- longans took more of a beating but both are alive. Guavas are gonna look crappy like last year after this sunday.

[yoski]

I'm in Sebring on east shore of Lake Jackson. The lake helps a little, about 4F over the outlying areas. My Rosigold Mango already has little fruit, I guess I can kiss those goodbye. In my experience Starfruit and Mamay are the most susceptible to cold. Soursop I didn't even try, it freaks out when it drops below 40F. Logans, Sapodilla, Macadamia, Lychees and most Avocados seem to handle down to about 25F before it becomes a problem.
The ground water is 72F, so spraying them should help. On grafted trees it is most critical to protect the graftline. Even if the top dies, it will sprout back. There are a lot of multi-stem Mangos in the area that were probably killed back to the ground in the harsh freezes of the 1980s.

[Galatians522]

Right now the forecast in my area calls for a low of 29 and 31 on Saturday (1/29) and Sunday (1/30) . What are you doing to prepare?
I have about 3 micro jets per tree (2-3 year old Mango, Starfruit, Mamey). Some Mango that are without irrigation I will put mulch around the base and a plastic bag over the top, all the way to the ground. The mulch protects the graft line and provides a little bit of heat. I have some smudge pots, but I hate to fire up those monstrosities. Any other not too costly ideas are welcome.

If you can put a bag or tent over the trees and you run water inside of it the temp will probably never go below 50 inside. A blanket between the tree and plastic cover will keep the outside leaves from being burned. We have gotten young trees through the low 20s with that set up. We used hay bags like this cut in 10' sections.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://farmplasticsupply.com/silage-bags*%3F&ved=2ahUKEwj3gM_09dD1AhVYSzABHa5DA94QFnoECAkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3kQqbaPjnBVzzpOp3HoUBD

They work good until the tree gets too big to cover. They have lasted close to 20 years. Unfortunately, it looks like they are super expensive now.

[Jagmanjoe]

The extreme cold this weekend is going to be compounded by strong winds.  This morning, for the Tampa Bay Area they are also predicting gale force winds for Saturday.  That is going to make covering trees and plants more challenging and I am thinking that with freezing temperatures already, wind chill will become another issue.  That will, the way I am thinking, make heat lamps, smudge pots, etc. virtually worthless.

Those of you with well systems to supply your home water, don't forget to keep water dripping in at least one sink in your home to help keep water from freezing in your pipes.

[yoski]

@Galatians522 " Unfortunately, it looks like they are super expensive now"
About $250, ouch! I still have some 10x12 foot plastic bags I ordered years ago. Once used they are a pain to store since they don't fold up very nicely, but got to do whatever it takes.

[yoski]

@Jagmanjoe "The extreme cold this weekend is going to be compounded by strong winds"
Only during the day according to the forecast. around 6pm the winds will calm down significantly. But yes, wind makes a bad situation a lot worse.

[Gulfgardener]

One thing I've been doing up here is painting milk jugs black and placing them out in the sun during the day to warm up. Then I cover my plants and place the warmed jugs under the cover next to the grafts. It's worked pretty well. I also have them on the border of my unheated greenhouse. Something cheap and simple. My kids go through 3 jugs a week lol.

Since this is only going to hit a few days for you, you could fill them up with hot water before placing them under the tree's cover. I've done this too when it hit 28.

Edit: Add a bunch of salt to the jugs. Freshwater freezes at 32 but saltwater is 28.

[Galatians522]

@Jagmanjoe "The extreme cold this weekend is going to be compounded by strong winds"
Only during the day according to the forecast. around 6pm the winds will calm down significantly. But yes, wind makes a bad situation a lot worse.

If you don't have enough water and there is a strong wind, you are in danger of "hyper freezing" your plants due to evaporative cooling. My father killed his first citrus trees that way. There was a freeze, he iced the trees in, and then turned the water off... Evaporative cooling chilled the trees below the ambient temperature and they were toast. He would have been better off not running any water at all. Even better would have been to keep the water on until the ice started to thaw (usually about 40).

[Galatians522]

One thing I've been doing up here is painting milk jugs black and placing them out in the sun during the day to warm up. Then I cover my plants and place the warmed jugs under the cover next to the grafts. It's worked pretty well. I also have them on the border of my unheated greenhouse. Something cheap and simple. My kids go through 3 jugs a week lol.

Since this is only going to hit a few days for you, you could fill them up with hot water before placing them under the tree's cover. I've done this too when it hit 28.

Edit: Add a bunch of salt to the jugs. Freshwater freezes at 32 but saltwater is 28.

I'm not sure that salt water will do quite what you are hoping in this case. You actually want ice to form at 32 instead of 28 because the latent heat from the freezing ice keeps the plant at 32. If you ice something in with salt water, it will hold at 28 and the plant will fry.

[Gulfgardener]

I could be wrong but I think we are talking about two different things. I've heard about making the ice form on the trees and the heat that is given off by the freezing but this would be more along the lines of preventing the temp from dropping. Almost like the ditch flooding in groves that the youtube video posted in the other thread by the Tropical Fruit Growers. The radiant heat would be given off slowly in an enclosed space (under the cover). Granted, this would only help if there is a few hours of freezing temps and not a whole night. Farmers use the salt water bottle trick to keep the watering toughs from freezing so I thought I would give it a try.

I hope members keep posting on what methods they are using and the results later on. I wish you all the best down there.

[Jagmanjoe]

Whatever we do to help for this weekend keep it handy.  Weather Underground is now predicting another front for next weekend with temps in the low 30's again in Lakeland. 

Also, fwiw, if you are doing some last minute preparation Harbor Freight stores have pretty reasonably priced moving blankets that could provide some insulation value.

[bovine421]

We can all pretty much guess what the result from doing nothing is
If you soak the ground in the morning and it absorbs heat during the day and when you turn the irrigation on well before it reaches 32 degrees with a constant water temperature of 52 degrees how long will it take to form ice? They are calling for possibly four hours at 32 in my location if I can delay the amount of time the trees are receiving that temperature the less damage in my way of thinking. After last week's 34° with frost I still have my fruit set on my Sugarloaf thanks to the guidance of this forum and especially the folks from Polk County. It's the best shot I got and have no regrets following that advice. Will be turning it on well before it reaches 32 and leaving it on well after sunrise until I see Frost melting and particularly melting on the branches of the tree if ice does form. Will also be spraying a dose of bassoline today

[adiel]

Time to go back to the old school ways:   



According to wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudge_pot#cite_note-1:

A smudge pot (also known as a choofa or orchard heater) is an oil-burning device used to prevent frost on fruit trees. Usually a smudge pot has a large round base with a chimney coming out of the middle of the base. The smudge pot is placed between trees in an orchard. The burning oil creates heat, smoke, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. It was believed that this oil burning heater would help keep the orchard from cooling too much during the cold snaps.

[yoski]

... turn the irrigation on well before it reaches 32 degrees ...

Yes, absolutely. If you wait too long the water in the line to the sprayer might freeze, It is almost impossible to thaw the entire length at once, at which point you would be sol. I turn it on once it reaches 36.

[yoski]

At bit of trivia. I downloaded the weather records from Avon Park W 2 dating back to 1892 until 12-31-2020. Here're all observations with a low of 25 or less.
y-m-d                hi     lo
1981-1-14           55   18
1982-1-12           48   19
1989-12-24   44   20
1962-12-13   49   20
1982-1-13           62   20
1894-12-29   41   21
1977-1-20           41   21
1985-1-22           42   21
1981-1-13           47   21
1985-1-23       50   21
1962-12-14   59   21
1934-12-13   65   21
1985-1-21    74   21
1905-1-26    44   22
1989-12-25   45   22
1989-12-26   52   22
1895-2-8      -99.9 23
1985-12-27   48   23
2010-1-12    54   23
1981-12-12   57   23
1958-2-4      60   23
1980-3-3      61   23
1986-1-28    61   23
1983-12-25   70   23
1981-12-20   47   24
2010-1-6      49   24
1997-1-19     52   24
2010-12-28   52   24
1906-12-25   53   24
2001-1-5      54   24
1977-1-21     55   24
1981-1-18     55   24
1981-12-11   59   24
2010-1-13    62   24
1957-12-13   64   24
1983-12-26   44   25
1996-1-9      48   25
1895-2-9      50   25
1977-1-18    51   25
2009-1-22    51   25
1958-1-9      52   25
1957-12-12   53   25
1989-2-25    53   25
1977-1-19    55   25
1981-1-19    55   25
1905-1-27    56   25
1961-12-30   56   25
1909-12-31   57   25
1966-2-5      57   25
1996-1-10    57   25
1989-2-26    58   25
1965-1-18    59   25
2010-1-8      62   25
1902-1-14    63   25
2009-1-23    64   25
2018-1-18    75   25

Notably are "1894-12-29   41   21" and "1895-2-8      -99.9 23" which are known as the "big freeze" that caused Flager to build the railroad to what is now Miami. Also note the accumulation of freeze events during the 1980s. I wonder why. Maybe the explosion of Mt St Helens in Washington State in 1980?

[bovine421]

... turn the irrigation on well before it reaches 32 degrees ...

Yes, absolutely. If you wait too long the water in the line to the sprayer might freeze, It is almost impossible to thaw the entire length at once, at which point you would be sol. I turn it on once it reaches 36.

Here's something else you fellows had told me about piling up sand around your young citrus. Cut the bottom out of these pots to make it easier to pile up higher above graph Union hopefully it is enough. Last weekend Monday around 3 when it turned 36 I hit the irrigation and turn the mini wobblers on. Here's a photo of my Sugarloaf from this morning



What I'm debating in my mind should I cover these with plastic to try to keep as much moisture out of the sand that's possible so they don't turn into big ice cubes and possibly irrigation washing away the sand or just leave them as is. Sand is already moist and packs well

[palmcity]

I have about 3 micro jets per tree (2-3 year old Mango, Starfruit, Mamey). Some Mango that are without irrigation I will put mulch around the base and a plastic bag over the top, all the way to the ground. The mulch protects the graft line and provides a little bit of heat. I have some smudge pots, but I hate to fire up those monstrosities. Any other not too costly ideas are welcome.

I lived in the area during the 80's. Young & a lot of energy at that time so here's another free one except for expenditure of your energy.

Dig a hole a few feet away and throw the dirt with the shovel around the trunk over the top of the graft. I did about 15 trees back in the day (orange trees) and left them covered almost 2 months before removing the dirt & no problems.

But you suggestions might work... The dirt would definitely work (in my experience) in holding in the heat and avoiding freezing of the trunk / graft area if covered with dirt.

[fliptop]

Good luck to all!

[dwfl]

Roasting some marshmallows next to Mrs. Cherapu

[TonyinCC]

If you are able to buy and transport large round hay bales,  burying the trees above the graft line in hay can help.