How cold did it get in your FL yard and what if any damage are you seeing

[Gulfgardener]

Here are some pics of the candle heaters. I they are glass encased and are supposed to last 7 days but with the cheap wax they use, it's more like 3 or 4. You can pick them up for $1 at Walmart. The clay pot is a 6 inch pot. They said it can stand high heat and they were right. I buried it so there was about 2 inches of glass above ground. I put cement garden borders around it to hold up the candle and allow airflow but any stable rock will do.  It is limited to heating small spaces so maybe just 3 - 4 feet around it. Good if you have a tree under frost cloth and need to protect the trunk and inner canopy. If paired with the mylar it has a good chance of keeping that heat trapped for longer periods.  I'd say test it out on a cooler night with a thermometer and tweek it a bit to work in your location. I heard some people use double pots to add to the heat capture and I don't know if the size of the pot matters or not. The heat is limited by the candle so 2 or 3 candles in the hole with a bigger pot??? Who knows?

[fliptop]

Awesome, thank you, Gulfgardener!

[850FL]

850FL, did you provide *any* protection to anything? Hopefully your survivors come out okay--I know after last year's freezes, some things that looked initially okay eventually didn't.

You've definitely got a point there- mangos are extra deceiving after bad freezes, they might look alive but end up being stumped. But actually almost everything is predictable in its 'decievability' after a bad freeze. Lychees for example look terrible immediately after the freeze, I just know what is up with most things now. Feeling, scratching and then smelling the stems gives a good indication almost always. Annonas you can rub the frost damaged skin and it will be wrinkly and loose. Ill scratch my way down a trunk to see at what point the cambium is still alive. If it's hard to tell then smell it- fresh living cambium has its own scent while frost scalded cambium has almost a sweet and fermenting smell often kind of like fermenting grape juice and the cambium looks discolored (mango cambium can sort of look ok and then really not be a lot of times but if theres a slight fermenting smell its dead wood).
I don't really do a whole lot to protect. I did wrap some guava and lychee trunks up in bamboo sheaths and then threw some leaves over them. It didn't do a whole lot. I think I saved an ice cream mango by leaning it onto a coffee ground mulch pile and then stacking up a foot of leaf debris over it. Its end branches  that were less covered are gone but i think the main limbs and trunk are ok. The pile was still steaming hot when i kicked it up during the last day of freezes. Just like 5 bags of grounds were in that pile. Honestly I didnt think most citrus was going to burn the way it did.  Lol. I still can't belive even somebody right on the coast had their grapefruit and Satsuma saplings completely defoliated! Kind of an awful sight but they'll probably be ok.

[850FL]

You should float the candles in a jar of water just in case, if possible. I like the idea though!

[Pan Dulce]

I'm on the southeast corner of Lake Apopka, 15 minutes west of Orlando, on the border of northern Winter Garden and Ocoee.  My yard was 31 first night, 30 the second night, and both nights were fortunately fairly windy.  Those temps were at daybreak and lasted only a few hours.

All in ground mangos and one in ground Alano sap have no damage.  Some mangos are in the 5-6 foot height range some in the 10-12 foot height range.  Brought the entire potted collection inside the garage, except some 25 gallon sized mangos, figs, and sugar apples. No damage on any of the exposed 25's, just standard annona winter leaf loss.  25 gallon dwarf ambarella, stored in the garage is dropping all leaves, and will need 4 fruit bunches pruned away.  Banana collection had full foliar burn on specimens planted in full sun, ones under live oak canopy had no foliar burn.

Next door neighbor lost soursops, pigeon peas, and had extensive leaf loss on adult sized acerola and mangos.  All the leaf loss was on the lower canopies, most likely coinciding with sprinkler coverage during late afternoon yard irrigation each day.  I was curious to see how the wet lower canopies handled 30 degree temps. Not a good idea.
 

[Galatians522]

Next door neighbor lost soursops, pigeon peas, and had extensive leaf loss on adult sized acerola and mangos.  All the leaf loss was on the lower canopies, most likely coinciding with sprinkler coverage during late afternoon yard irrigation each day.  I was curious to see how the wet lower canopies handled 30 degree temps. Not a good idea.

If they are going to use water they have to keep it running throughout the duration of the freeze. If the water gets turned off part way, evaporative cooling will drop the temperature even more and cause additional damage.

[tropicalisimo]

Soursop cold damage

[fliptop]

In spite of subsequent cold (but not as cold) nights and really windy days, my two seedling Soursops are rebounding. Hopefully other people's are, as well.

[Orkine]

My large Soursop are flushing new growth, it appears all will be well.
A grafted tree lost a couple of the grafts but it appears one is also flushing new growth.
I have been trying for a Whitmans for some time and I was please to see one of the grafts push new growth.


All in all I'd say it was not as bad as it could be for Soursop.

[Galatians522]

Unfortunately, I think our soursops here in 9b have finally bit the dust. We had a broken pipe and they didn't get the freeze protection they have in the past.