Author Topic: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida  (Read 908 times)

CTMIAMI

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Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« on: March 10, 2023, 10:49:19 AM »
Can you report on what varieties of Mangos and Avocados have survived the cold spells of the last 3 years in zone 9B in Florida?

Would be much appreciated.
Carlos
 Tweeter: @carlosdlt280
www.myavocadotrees.com
zone 10a Miami-Dade County

Epicatt2

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2023, 01:06:23 PM »
I have an avocado 'Mexicola Grande' in the ground which is blooming right now at this writing.  It has survived in my yard here in Tampa without protection for five years and has fruited the past three years.  During the coldest times there has only been a very minimal leaf burn on the leaf edges on occasion.

I have five mango cultivars all dwarf or semi-dwarf, and all but 'Pickering' are in 5- and 7-gal. pots and are not yet in the ground.  'Ice Cream' has just finished blooming but does not seem to have set any fruit this time; maybe it will rebloom and set a few.  'Beverly', 'Fairchild', and 'Irwin', have not bloomed this year for whatever reason and 'Pickering' is yet too small to bloom. 

Of these above several mango cultivars, all have remained essentially undamaged outside in my yard over the last four years with the exception of the small grafted 'Pickering', in a 2-gal. pot, which succumbed to 32- or 33ºF this past December and has had to be replaced.  It was the smallest and most recent of my mango cultivar purchases which likely contributed to its death after a night that dropped down here to 33ºF., even though it was protected under roof that night.  I'm hoping for better luck with its replacement since it will have a whole season to get a bit of size on.

OK — HTH

Paul M.
==
« Last Edit: March 10, 2023, 01:27:04 PM by Epicatt2 »

K-Rimes

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2023, 01:32:57 PM »
I am in 9b California. Never had a mango make it through winter, large or small, seedling or grafted. As for avos, I have a hass that's doing ok, but Sir Prize and a Reed seedling are doing even better. They had snow on them and handled 8 hours of 29f.

Aiptasia904

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2023, 01:56:41 PM »
Can you report on what varieties of Mangos and Avocados have survived the cold spells of the last 3 years in zone 9B in Florida?

Would be much appreciated.

I hear Brogden, Winter Mexican and Mexicola are slightly frost tolerant for avocados.

I'm up near Jacksonville (9a) and I'm growing dwarf mangoes and bananas in 29 gallon pots. I have five varieties of mangos including: Pickering, Irwin, Rosigold, Venus and Ataulfo. Mangoes don't do cold at all, so anything totally tropical, I grow in pots that I can drag inside of my workshop with a hand truck during a cold snap. If it threatens to get below 40f., I haul it inside. I'm not aware of any avocados that you can grow in pots, but I could be wrong. At least a few are slightly frost tolerant.

johnb51

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Galatians522

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2023, 02:24:46 PM »
There are a number of cold hardy avocados. Mangos are another story. I have come to the conclusion that there is very little actual difference between mangos in cold tollerence. One season you may see less damage on a particulr cultivar and more on another. The next season that may be exactly reversed. For example, Pickering was originally selected because as a seedling it was not damaged by temps that caused major damage to older trees near by. It did not prove to be more cold hardy as a mature tree. And there is an account on this thread reporting that it is more susceptible than other cultivars! Bailey's Marvel is another one that has been touted as more cold hardy--I have not seen that. I think that tree size and the level of dormancy has more of an influence than cultivar. I will add that I have no experience with any of the north Indian or Pakistani cultivars that Alex has talked about. I suppose that it is possible they could be more cold tollerent (since it takes a stronger cold spell to make them bloom), but based on prior observations I am not expecting much.

CowboyFig

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2023, 02:54:30 PM »
Hey, Carlos. Day and Monroe avocados have survived down to 28 here in the Tampa area with zero care and no damage. I do feel like my Nam Doc Mai is more cold sensitive than the newer Florida varieties that I have. M4 got whacked pretty hard last year because of its spreading growth habit, but its bloom is so out of control it still gave me 2-3 dozen fruits despite only being 3 yrs old or so at the time. M4 seems like a rockstar and able to handle different conditions pretty well, but wouldn’t say more cold tolerant. It’s just able to overcome some damage.

drymifolia

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2023, 05:30:13 PM »
Craig Hepworth has a good summary of avocados he's grown in 9a north-central FL, so any of these should also do well in 9b even though other varieties may be better:
https://floridafruitgeek.com/cold-hardy-avocados/

Both Craig (in Citra) and Oliver Moore (in Gainesville) sell potted avocados, or did the last time I was there a few years ago. I have a few trees sourced from them, including the varieties Jade and Del Rio, but neither has fruited for me yet.

Many Mexican varieties are extra susceptible to anthracnose due to the thin skin.

1rainman

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2023, 05:59:38 PM »
It has been unusually warm for about 10 years. Mangos don't grow in Tampa normally. Seems avocados are slightly more cold hardy and the size of the tree is a big factor

C24mccain

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2023, 07:25:04 PM »
Im in Lakeland so we have certainly had our share of freezes the last three years often down to 27-28*, with total time under 32* 4-8 hours depending on the event. Avocados never have issue, Day, Bacon, winter Mexican. I cover small mango trees and sometimes have used a burn barrel or smudge pots on larger ones but many times i have done nothing such as the January 14 freeze down to 28 this year. My kent and Keitt did fine with minor leaf damage.  The Keitt was pushing blooms and has lots of fruit set as of right now. Below is a video on January 15 of that freeze event. Fast forward to the 4:50 mark to see mangoes and the bloom at that time. A second video was done a couple of days ago and shows the fruit set despite the freeze. This is pretty typical from my experience the last three years so i thought the videos would testify to what I have just said. On the second video fast forward to about 2:40 mark to see the mango fruit set. Obviously my experience isn't necessarily going to be the same for everyone else.

https://youtu.be/d3acdu08B6c

https://youtu.be/_g-JeqY3BQQ


Jagmanjoe

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Re: Cold hardiness of Mango and Avocados in Zone 9B Florida
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2023, 07:00:59 AM »
Im in Lakeland so we have certainly had our share of freezes the last three years often down to 27-28*, with total time under 32* 4-8 hours depending on the event. Avocados never have issue, Day, Bacon, winter Mexican. I cover small mango trees and sometimes have used a burn barrel or smudge pots on larger ones but many times i have done nothing such as the January 14 freeze down to 28 this year. My kent and Keitt did fine with minor leaf damage.  The Keitt was pushing blooms and has lots of fruit set as of right now. Below is a video on January 15 of that freeze event. Fast forward to the 4:50 mark to see mangoes and the bloom at that time. A second video was done a couple of days ago and shows the fruit set despite the freeze. This is pretty typical from my experience the last three years so i thought the videos would testify to what I have just said. On the second video fast forward to about 2:40 mark to see the mango fruit set. Obviously my experience isn't necessarily going to be the same for everyone else.

https://youtu.be/d3acdu08B6c

We are also in Lakeland, but after moving here several years ago immediately planted a bunch of mango and other fruit trees.  Then quickly found that we had flooding issues as well as being located in a cold pocket that has traditionally been 4 to 6 degrees colder than the cold forecast for Lakeland.

I also abandoned trying to cover the trees here this past winter and while losing a lot of panicles on trees the beginning of this year, several have come back and have mangoes forming.  Our Ice Cream Mango tree is a little disappointing in that although it is loaded with panicles, the majority of the blooms are male and not producing.

With the cold front hitting for a couple of days this week, given our temperature differential history, I am hoping it might be enough to force some more of the trees to bloom as well as get another batch of blooms on the other trees.  Certainly won't be cold enough to do damage but might prove helpful for some additional blooming.

Thanks for posting the link to those videos.

https://youtu.be/_g-JeqY3BQQ