Frozen olive trees & palms

15 years ago

We are in Sierra Vista, at 4600' and had temps as low as 2 degrees F.

We planted a few fruitless olive trees in the summer of 2010. They seemed to be doing okay, but since we had the very hard freeze a couple weeks ago, they have really taken a hit. All the delicate little branches are now yellow/brown. We have not pruned anything off at this point.

Is there any way of knowing if they are still alive and/or will survive?

We also had 3 little squatty palms (can't remember the name) that took a beating from the below freezing temps, too. Any opinions as to how to determine if they survived? They look terrible right now.

We have been watering both types of trees regularly in hopes of them being able to come back when the weather gets warmer.

Thanks for any input anyone may have.

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Comments (4)

piranhafem
15 years ago
I'm sorry I don't have any answers for you, but wanted to commiserate. I'm in the Tucson area and we got down to 16 degrees. I have quite a few trees and plants that may not survive, including a fan palm, a willow acacia, and a potted sago. I don't think there's any way to know for sure yet. I'm just going to treat them as if they might live, and hope. If they aren't showing any signs of life by the end of March or beginning of April, I'll probably give up on them.

Best of luck.

--Maureen
grant_in_arizona
15 years ago
I agree with Maureen--the best strategy is probably to just wait until it's warm and see if you get any growth. Two degrees F is very, very cold for those plants.

Good luck and keep us posted!
Take care,
Grant
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User
15 years ago
Just wait, and see where the new growth pops out.
tracydr
15 years ago
I would just wait. My habaneros and eggplants looked dead and they are getting all kinds of new leaf growth on the lower stems. I've cut off the obvious brittle stuff and left the flexible stems.