Temp when mango flowers get ruined??? Internet lies.... :)

[chrobrego]

Concerning this bout of cold we just had in Florida, in my area of Orlando we bottomed out at 32.4 degrees -- was hovering close to 32 for about 3 to 4 hours. I was dead sure that my mango blossoms were all going to die (I have about 40 trees), but surprisingly they are all fine. No damage whatsoever. Insects are happily buzzing around the flowers a couple of days after as if nothing happened. I'm writing this because common wisdom on the internet says that mango blossoms are damaged or will die when the temp drops below 40F -- I've read this in a lot of places; not true in my case by a long shot. I really think the blossoms need to go below freezing to actually get ruined.

Anyone else with similar experience?

Chrobrego

[C24mccain]

We had 31* here in Lakeland and my mango blooms look fine. However I thought the issue with blooms wasn't that they would be visibly damaged but rather internally made sterile thus appearance means nothing. I have pondered pruning off all my blooms (4 trees) and letting them rebloom but I think I'm going to leave them and see what happens for a learning experience.

[achetadomestica]

There are allot of factors to keep in mind. The winds saved our Butts!
There was no dew and no frost. My thermometer read 29F and I have a water
dish for a tortoise that was frozen this time. My tomatoes and pepper plants
are fine and all my trees look like nothing happened. The grass also is staying
green so far. In the past we have had 36 degrees and frost and my tomatoes
are toast. About 10 years ago we had a night in the low 20s and the same thing
happened. There was a wind all night and little to no damage. They were
predicting 8 hours of freezing weather and severe damage to the citrus trees
but luckily the wind blew all night and there was very little damage. We had a 30F
2 years ago and my cotton candy tree was heavily burned and so far the tree
still has fruit on it.

[Squam256]

It once got into the 20s on my old farm in Loxahatchee (had 3 different Thermometers confirming) and I had no visible flower damage. And yet I’ve also seen flower damage in the low 30s as well.

I’ve also seen panicles wilt due to cold, only to spring back up again once the temperature warmed up. Kind of bizarre to see.

Overall most of the issues encountered with sub-40 temps before freezing are the impact on pollen germination and embryo abortion. The degree of impact from this likely varies by cultivar.