This is my small Mango tree with 2 sets of C-7 (old fashioned type of Christmas lights)...I believe it has 25 lights per set, each bulb is 5 watts each so its 125 watts per set. I wrapped them around the branches and covered it with some sheets and frost cloth. This was taken last winter.

The C-9's I believe have 7 watts per bulb so it should put out appx. 175 watts per set of 25.

Nancy

Yep, I do it too. Last year I protected hanging bunches of bananas with c9 lights. Worked great. The bananas survived 23 degrees and ripened in the spring.

This year, I have small citrus that have been in the ground for just over a year. Last winter I covered them fully with shelters. This year, I am just giving them xmas lights. I also have a hong kong orchid that I put inside a shelter last year. But this year it is much too large for a shelter, so it has a couple strings of c9s on it. Here's hoping that's enough=)

Which reminds me, I need to go drag my COT into the house.

Yes, I have successfully used incandescent Christmas lights with a car cover to protect mangoes and papayas. They survived nights as cold as 24F without any damage.

GREAT Job sunworshiper! LOVE your set up for the rest of your fruit tress as well.Excellent job...very attractive and professional looking. Unlike mine,lol...

Wow! I need to keep an eye out for any clearance sale lights for sure, although when I checked at 6:30am, it was only 41 in my backyard - whew.

Be forewarned... I used c-9's this year and last. This morning some time between 1am and 6am a fuse went and the rest of the lights with it... my Brazilian/Barbados charries, strawberry guavas, young avocodos, mango - all my tropicals are toasty now. So make sure you are careful with what you've got out there. I should have used a frost cloth and kept those plants in pots. BLAH.

*crying*

Barbie

So sorry to hear about your disaster Barbie! But you bring up a very good point! These lights draw a *lot* of power - definitely need to be aware of it. Luckily for me, my husband was trained as an electrician, so he calculated the load from all my lights and balanced it across circuits to help avoid such a disaster. But still, some of mine are at max capacity...

Hey Nancy - nice to hear from you! How are your trees this year? How cold is it where you are?

Hey Angela! My forecast low this morning was suppose to be 23 degrees...Thank goodness it didn't reach that! 29 degrees was the coldest it got...but only for a short while...it hovered around 30-31 degrees off and on most of the night to the wee hours till around 9am. One more frosty night. I hope its our last but I have a feeling it isn't :o(

Nice to see you too!

Hi
I used to maintain a heated shadehouse but since I'm getting old and feeble I moved my orchids into beds between two palms. Set up a temporary shelter using frost cloth and heated with a heat lamp which has a themostat.
Don't use it until it gets into the 30's. The advantage to this is that it can be left up for the 3 day length of a front and will not overheat even in full sun. Has worked the last two very cold years but those growing on a carombola tree with only a bed sheet survived as well.lol The Catts aborted the flower cycle though? gary

Hey Nancy. My low was 29 too. Took the shelters down yesterday. Everything did fine - no damage. How'd you do?

That sounds like a pretty awesome setup Gary. Trees can give a lot of protection. I grow veggies and herbs under my maple tree. The tree canopy provides just enough shelter that usually my tomatoes and sometimes even basil survive without any additional protection.

I was worried about causing a fire. Is it possible to start a fire with christmas lights?

Minderella,

If the wires are not bare anywhere, no cracked rubber or plastic and/or nothing frayed you should be OK putting the Christmas lights for plant heat. Just make sure each of the light bulbs is not laying against any plant material.

Lou (retired electronics engineer)

Now if you are planning to start a fire it's a heck of a lot easier to use a match or a lighter.

MOO

LED Christmas lights also provide the benefit of being much less trouble. These virtually unbreakable lights don't have any filament and aren't susceptible to exactly the same kinds issue .lighting is the major concern for this time .C9 LED Christmas lights is the best for decorating your home in Christmas.

Hi
I use a non light infrared bulb with thermostat . Covered with frostcloth. the advantage of the frostcloth is that it can be left in place for the usual 3 day duration of the front without overheating even in full sun.
i found Christmas lights either were not enough or too much lol Be sure they don't touch either the plants or the cloth!!! Most LED lights I've seen don't put out enough heat in my experience gary

For the next cold season, you can hook them up to a "thermo cube". It's a plug that kicks on at 35 degrees. I got mine at home depot when I lived in Utah for 12 bucks. It kept my palm trees from freezing. But they probably
aren't big sellers here and you might have to order online.

I have had success with the larger non-LED lights when I was living in Houston and protecting plants from freezes. I found that by weaving the lights through larger plants and , then covering them with a sheet or fabric, I could get protection down to 28 or 29 degrees. Especially if there was not a wind. Much below that, I never had any luck, it was just too cold for the lights to do much good.

I never bothered worrying about keeping the bulbs from the plants, I figured that a little burn was better than freezing, but you do want to keep it away from the fabric or plastic that you cover it with.

And the main feature of LED lights is what makes them not as useful for frosts. Its all that inefficiency of C9 or C7 bulbs that you want, all that "wasted" heat.

I have mine packed separate from Christmas stuff, so they were easy to pull out when needed

And they are so pretty at Christmas!! when my mango was small it was lit up like a Christmas tree and people commented on our 'Holiday Spirit'.......sally

Yikes, have never experienced a 23 deg night in my 4 years here just south of Venice ! I use the large bulb Xmass lights exclusively on my four mango trees now. For the first 2 winters I also wrapped old bed sheets around each tree with the lights strung thoughout the tree underneath. But now the trees are getting too big ( the Valencia Pride is now about 13 feet tall !!! ) so I threw out the sheets and strictly rely on the heat from the Xmass lights ! Have not had a problem so far, and am hoping that the trees are nearing the stage where, with each extra layer of bark they grow, they won't even need the lights. So when a very cold night comes after that, ( say 28 - 32 degrees for an hour or so ), it might wipe out the coming seasons fruit, but not kill the tree. Always the optimist.

Does anyone remember how hot Christmas light bulbs used to get? I always assumed that they were higher wattage than new incandescent bulbs, which are must cooler to the touch. The new ones I use for freeze protection are 7 watts, which should be a measure of heat output. But I took a real close look at some of my vintage bulbs, and they are also 7 watts.

Someone explained that it might be reasonable that different 7 watt bulbs can feel different to the touch, and that it might be due to different type of coating/paint on the bulb. Does this make sense?

We put this tent over the whole garden and closed it on the sides with dollar store shower curtains....not real attractive but it worked. We then put a halogen shop light in the ground in the middle and everything was fine.

Hmmm, here it is almost a year since the question was first asked and the topic is still going. I have used both the C 7 and C 9 bulbs on my four mango trees sucessfully for the past 5 years. In the beginning, when the trees were young, I also covered them with a sheet. Now the trees are too big for that, so on the few nights when temps are forecast below 42 or so, I turn on the old fashioned Xmass lights at dusk and also wrap old towels around the trunks. So far so good, trees are growing up fast & healthy.

I drape Xmas lights on my fruit trees (the young ones, that is) and also spray them with a chemical called Freeze Pruf. I starting using the chemical a few years ago after losing several trees in the cold and after using the spray, have not lost a one.

Texas Aggieland here - top landscape architect suggested C7s for heavy hanging pot spider plants ... after the weatherman got me out of bed late nights with changes to freeze forecasts, the trick = not touching the plants, getting the heat close enough - even in wind - that figuring out how many/wattage ... certainly 100watts is too much, for 100-120watts is what farmers use to frost proof their water & septic wells to 40-50F when temps stay in the teens. Someday those reptile heat lights will drop in size/price & then hanging them over pots might be a good idea IF you trust your power co.......

I use the mini lights(not leds) on my new plantings in the front of the house with cloth drape over the plants and lights...i figured it couldn't hurt and they do put out a little heat to warm the plant.

i used to wrap my potted plants with the mini lights and cover them but now i have a garage to move them to.

This winter I again found myself with two babies I recently planted in my backyard. First was a 6 ft tall ( but skinny ) Valencia Pride mango tree I planted 4 1/2 mos ago, to replace the 22 ft giant that I had to cut down in May 2016, ( grew so fast it was blocking half the sunshine from my banana patch ! Live and learn ! ).

The other baby is the robust 5 ft tall Ruby Red grapefruit tree I planted 3 months ago. Have already warned the Citrus Greening monster to stay away, - OR ELSE !!!

No way was I going to subject these promising beauties to the four nights during the last two weeks, ( low temps all 4 nights between 36 and 30 deg ), that most likely would have killed both trees ! Bad news is it looks like I lost most of the 25 + banana plants, but no way could I have kept them warm,...still undecided whether to replant them or not !

Anyway, I was able to get out two strings of C- 7 Christmas tree lights, two extension cords and a couple of old white sheets from my shed for the two young trees. Needless to say this protection worked like a charm, as it has in the past. The sheets were removed only yesterday ( Friday ) but the C-7's will remain installed till I am sure we here are " out of the woods ! " Both youngsters look great !

The C-7's have always worked for me here on Florida's SW coast, - no need to string the C-9's.

Now looking forward to March 1st.,,..will miss the bananas but more concerned about the two young trees, - my fate could easily have been much worse !

I've used Christmas lights for years. Works great. Jofus sorry to hear about your bananas mine don't look so hot but it looks like they will be fine just look bad. I didn't have time to protect them from the freeze.

Glad to hear that you are optimistic about your banana's Glenn ! I am the first to admit I am not an expert, but what I saw on Thursday morning ( the 18th ), was a plethora of limp brown stalks, instead of the vibrant green ones that were there a week earlier,..before the 4 cold nights that had me scrambling !!! I have three types growing ( were growing ),..Goldfingers, Apple and Ice Cream.

Just perused a few banana sites and some say that my droopy brown guys just may recover in the spring. Sooo, will leave them alone for a few months, - maybe all is not lost ! What do you think ?

Wide angle look at dead grass & hard hit banana plantation !

My two newest, both Apples,..hoping to eventually get to taste one !

The only stalk !In the 9 yrs I've lived here, never saw banana's this hard hit ! Even Irma didn't cause much damage,..just a couple knocked over !

Jofus , I believe they will be fine. Just let them sit and trim the dead off come spring. They look better than mine. I just got a new but unknown type to add that will make 5. I have to stop getting banana trees.

Last winter I covered my avocardo tree with frost resistant cloth plus some canvas AND put a 500 watt heater, with thermostat, under the tree. Here in our area in SC we had temps down to approx. 28 degrees over quite a few days but hte tree came through very well and even though I messed up the pollination cycle I still got an avocardo! Want to try teh C-7/9 Christmas lights this year and make it easier to use....I think.

I may try Christmas lights on some of my plants should they be needed this winter, although even during the bad freeze this year, the plants I put up against the apartment wall and covered well survived, while those away from that wall did not.

28 DEGREES ? Can't recall it getting down that far hereabouts,..recently that is ! I do recall one night more than 7, 8 yrs ago, when it supposedly got down that low,...was big news here !!! I feel for you Lynn ! I hope your Avocado tree survives and puts out more and more of those delectable guys ea year ! I tried two small Avocado trees in my backyard plantation about 6 yrs ago, ( don't they need two different types, one an A and one a B, to produce ? ), but they attracted more critters than I wanted to deal with. Have gotten lazy in my retirement yrs,...the 'naners, peaches, ruby reds and mangos are easy to maintain, so am sticking to them !

I can unabashedly swear that a string of the old fashioned Xmass tree lights and a covering sheet works ! Being where you are I would recommend the C-9 bulbs over the C-7's ! :o)

Good luck !

Joe, this past January, we had three straight nights when it got down to 25 or below for several hours. So many things died or died back. That's actually not unusual up here. I was lucky, because most of my plants were either cold-hardy, or I brought them indoors, but I lost my favorite tropical hibiscus and the other two died down to the ground. Lost my 3-year-old pigeon peas that shaded my tropicals, and two large pencil cactus. I thought I had lost more, but things started coming back out from the roots later in the spring.

I wish I had room for a greenhouse, but for now, I just have to bring tender plants inside. I usually start some babies about this time of year so I can have something to replant in the spring. So far, so good.

I am planning for a rare snow in the Southern CA foothills expected on Thursday with cold temps and rain in the 30's for about a week or so. I am mainly trying to protect my hibiscus plants,9 to be exact. I bought the chemical you spray on to protect freeze and it will arrive tomorrow so I am hoping that will work and I am also going to get freeze sheets and use tarps. What I am confused about in using the C7 or C9 lights is where everyone is saying to not let the lights touch the leaves... well how in the devil would you do that except to the trunk of a tree? There is no way I can use them on my hibiscus plants without them touching all the leaves. I welcome any comments!

Confess I didn't read the whole thread, but do red or blue tiny lights on strings emit enough heat to do any good? I've noticed the white seem to heat up nicely and pretty sure they are LED having been bought this year.