Our freeze event for Jan 30

[C24mccain]

  Last night was interesting for us here in Lakeland Florida. We hit 32* at 10pm which is the earliest I've seen freezing temps start for me since I've moved here 6 years ago. We hit 29* at midnight. We went out and lit the burn barrels at 1am to save the mango trees. At that time I was expecting a really cold night. Then between 1:30 and 2 we had a warm pocket come over our property. It spiked the temperature 4* to 33*. We didn't get to 32 until around 5am. At 7 am temps really dropped, going to 27 but was close to 32 by 8am. Many of the nearby areas on weather underground were much worse than I had it. Within 20 minutes of me I saw temps as low as 23-24. Many areas were 27-28 a good amount of the night while we had a mysterious warm pocket over us. I'll share the video of our night here: https://youtu.be/ck7BG9-vbV8

Last weekends freeze hit us worse though mostly just cosmetic leaf damage on some things. In that freeze we hit 32 at 1am and at 6am we hit 29 which lasted about 2 hours. We were back to 32 around 8:30. Lots of frost in this event, much more than last night.

Hope everyone did ok last night and hopefully tonight doesn't get to bad. Only calling for 34 for me yet we're under a freeze warning with possible lows of 30 says the forecast.

[CowboyFig]

Great video, man. That warm pocket y’all hit was clutch. Btw, did you have to heat up the green sapote at all? If not, any damage? Hoping you get to sample some of those three fruits you got on there. Good luck tonight!

[C24mccain]

No I have not put any heat to the green sapote. It does have some minor frost damage on some of the top leaves from the first freeze. It's almost 5:30am right now and we hit 32* just after midnight this night. We are currently at 30* and have been there since around 3am. Seems like the forecasts have been terrible this year. They called for 34. If you still need a green sapote you can have one of the seeds from these three fruits so long as they continue to hold on. Should be ready soon I think.

[CowboyFig]

Dang man sorry to hear about the forecast. Lakeland throws me off because sometimes y’all are warmer than I expect and other times y’all randomly go 4-5 degrees below the forecast. Your property looks pretty stunning based on your videos. Your trees are becoming monsters man. I appreciate the GS seed offer! I’ll message you!

[Epicatt2]

I'm in Tampa at the east edge of Seminole Heights and the forecast low for Tampa in town on Monday morning was 35ºF.  I am about 3-1/2 miles NE of downtown Tampa.  In my yard it got down to 33ºF, as close as I can determine.  I only brought one thing inside, two very small chupa-chupa seedlings in 4-in pots which by 40ºF were showing limp leaves with burnt edges.

Everything else in the yard whether under open sky or under the shade of a tree, or on my open, north-facing front porch (under its ceiling) there showed no damage at all.  We had no frost that I could see im my neighborhood that mornong either.

Untouched by the cold includes, my four condo mango cultivars, a six foot tall biribá (with a 1-3/4" diameter trunk) outside in a 7-gal pot with new leaves that were undamaged, a 3-ft tall grumichama in the ground, various Eugenias and Garcinias, three young white sapotes, and several Annona species.  There were a few leaves on my several mats of bananas that were 'scorched'  a bit by the cold, but nothing serious.  The only thing really damaged was a bed of variegated creeping Cuban oregano whose succulent leaves all got burned by the cold, but it will likely come back from its stems after it warms back up.

Possibly one cold-damage mitigating factor involved is that my lot is situated on top of a broad shallow hill which may allow the coldest air to flow around us and downhill. And for any of you who might wonder why I didn't bring in or cover anything, this whole fruit forest was undertaken as an experiment for me to see what will survive here when exposed to the occasional cold or freeze we get in Tampa.

Of course I'll have to wait for a week or so to be certain that there really was no cold damage, but so far so good. . . . .

Hope everyone else had little or minimal cold damage.

Cheers!

Paul M.
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[cotter pin]

 Here in Charlotte County I believe we got as cold as 31 maybe even a little lower. My Jackfruits trees hate it, along with my Bignay, Guava and Soursop trees. I covered them but unfortunately some of the trees came uncovered through the night on Saturday, the 2 Jackfruits our of 4 lost their coverings so I hope they make it, I buried the grafts and a few inches above with composted soil, but time will tell as even the 2 that were covered look like hell as well. The Bignay I thought was pretty tolerant of cold but you sure cant tell by looking at it, all the leaves are brown, it was covered as well. I hope you all did not receive too much damage further North of Charlotte County.