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tjfitzgerald

Ideas on keeping Citrus Warm in a hard freeze

17 years ago

Well, it's going to be a cold few nights and this site gave me a few ideas so I think I'll give a few back. We are in zone 9a-9b in Daytona Beach, FL area and we have a 3 day overnight hard freeze going (it's hasn't been this cold since the early 90's so it's near record breaking and a lot of people have various plants at risk). It's 2am now and the temp has dropped below 30 so I got worried (and I already have two black thumbs instead of green thumbs and I can kill a healthy plant by just looking at it, not the ideal gardener type but I'm trying to get better).

UF Sun Peach Tree - I have an 8' UF Sun Peach Tree which was freshly planted on Nov 1, 2008 and it has 6 small peach buds growing (about the size of small pea to a dime in size). This tree is rated for 100 chill hours per year (just found this out) and we are in a 310-420 chill hour per year zone (oops, hope I didn't make too big a mistake here). I had no idea what a chill hour is, so here it is since you asked ... it's an hour below 45F. I have protected this tree rather easily by placing a plastic circular Christmas Tree on it, the type with a single piece of plastic coiled in the outline of a tree with minilights on it. I then placed 25 C9 bulbs on it and covered it with 2 king size sheets. The temperature is about 8-9 degrees warmer with just the C9's providing the heat (the mini lights are useless for heating purposes). This peach tree was a memorial plant for my wife's mother and she would be devestated if it didn't make it.

Navel Orange Tree - My other, and more serious concern (for the tree that is), is my 20-25' Navel Orange tree. I placed a 500W shop light near the base of the tree (about 1' away shining on the base) and placed a remote outside thermometer at the 4' level of the tree ... IMHO, I did not want this tree to fall prey to my black thumb, so I got desparate and placed my gas grill under the tree and fired it up. After 30 minutes, the temp rose to 49F (increase of about 20 degrees and I am quite sure that the heat will radiate out enough to keep most of my orange tree from even feel a frost nip, now I just hope that the propane lasts for 6+ hours on the low setting).

The unprotected plants - I also have a rubber plant and just found out it is a zone 10 plant ... it might not make it so the only thing I can give it is a prayer. I have 11 hibiscus trees/bushes and I don't know how those fair with the cold, we'll have to wait and see and the Gardenia tree is in that category as well. If I can find my digital camera, I'll post a follow up with pictures to let everyone know if a gas grill is a good idea or not ....

Comments (9)

  • 17 years ago

    Peach farmers always say that the colder it gets, the better the quality of peaches it will produce that year. As far as Citrus is concerned, I'm a little further north than you, and I've got 18 citrus trees planted, some of them new plantings, and a few cold tender varieties like Lime.

    Most of them were covered, but it'll be interesting to see if some of the more cold tender ones have made it. If not, most of my citrus has a one year guarantee anyway, and I could take some of them back for a refund or exchange.

  • 17 years ago

    Gardenia will be fine, they grow like mad here and freezes into the 20's don't seem to kill them back any.

  • 17 years ago

    So what's the report from Daytona ?

    I am in a colder location than you and my trees are not happy .

    Just have to wait and see how much long term damaged was caused by night long temps of 20 degrees .

  • 17 years ago

    All I can say is WOW!!!!!

    I never knew that that area of Florida could get that cold! Ouch! Your poor citrus and whatever else hates the cold.
    Please don't tell me it gets that cold around Miami too, because if I ever decide to move to Florida, it isn't going to be where you all live now.......
    I hope you all fare well in your plants!
    Please report in..ok.
    Mike

  • 17 years ago

    One thing I've seen in my yard is that if you can drape a massively huge plastic tarp up and over bushes and small trees and extend the tarp out in all directions across the ground it will concentrate the heat coming up from the ground. It may not be enough to keep things above freezing but it does seem to help. It is also a lot easier to just drag and drape than to wrap and manage each and every plant in the flower bed.

    I also rig up a temporary hoop house with pvc pipe and plastic sheeting from the home improvement store and set a small kerosene heater in it. Kerosene is an easy fuel to work with, costs about $3.50 per gallon around here (NC). My small heater will run for around 13 hours on one gallon. The trouble is finding a small kerosene heater, everyone sells the large ones which over heat and burn a lot of fuel.

  • 17 years ago

    I just saw on the news ,a landscaper down there in Florida that sprayed all his plants with above all things...FOAM!
    The kind you put out fire with! All his tress and plants were incased in this stuff. His yard looked like snow.
    Then what he does is just water it away in the am.
    All his plants did well.
    I wish I knew if he was in buisness ,to this for people, because if he was, he would make a killing down there!

  • 17 years ago

    The hoop house idea works very well, especially if you don't get a lot of snow. If you don't want to use kerosene, try strings of outdoor Christmas lights, as they're now on clearance. You can use a ThermoCube TC-3 or another device to regulate the temperature. The combination apparently kept my thornless Mexican Lime and a bunch of other stuff alive through a low of 7.2F.

    PS--That news story on the foam was reported by Jim Cantore on the Weather Channel, right? Weird . . .

  • 17 years ago

    i live in port orange( subburb just south of daytona beach) it got down to 26 thurday morning. 3 days of hard freeze frost. hasnt gotten that cold in years!!! hibicus are dead. i covered my citrus and mango trees. pretty much everything else is gone.

  • 17 years ago

    bmeredith, I have 11 hibiscus trees and live in Port Orange too so if you want to try to grow some off my clippings (if that's possible and how it's done) then I'll be cutting/shaping my plants at the end of Feb/beginning or Mar (we're also resodding my entire front lawn at around the same time so if you come on that day, you might get put to work :) ... I'd be glad to help you if I can, just drop me an email).