Hi fagopher,

I am in the same boat as you...I have several Mango trees that were severely damaged by the freeze, I also live in Fl, two hours south of Orlando.

I think my trees are worse off than yours. I have one that has 90% of the leaves completely "torched" burnt. Most of the leaves are also hanging on...I am not sure about the 10 day rule of leaves falling off? I did read an article that said the sooner the leaves fall, the less damaged the trees are...so mine must be pretty bad.

But I am very "hopeful" that my tree is still alive...I did everything in my power to protect it during the frost...I wrapped the trunks with foam, added some Christmas lights, I covered it with frost cloth and still it looks absolutely "horrible", visually the trunk looks healthy, I even did the finger-nail scrape test...and I saw green, so I am not giving up.

I have had 2 different advise from a couple of nurseries, one told me I can trim the dead branches off after the threat of frost is done end of Feb/firstweek of March. One told me to wait and see where new growth appears and then trim, so I would not accidentally prune off live wood. I haven't pruned yet, and am still deciding which way I am going to do it?

I have an article(link) that showed a mango tree completely "freeze damaged" in Phoenix... and it showed the tree one year later...shorter, but fuller... growing and healthy looking! I believe he said it took appx. 10 weeks before he saw some new growths? after the hard freeze. If you want the article, just send me an email(My Page) and I will email it to you...for some reason, it won't let me post it on here??

Here is an article on Rehabilitation of Sub tropical fruit trees, that might help...

Please keep me posted to see if your tree survives, I am really curious to see if our trees can recover from such severe damages...Good Luck to us both!

Here is a link that might be useful: After Care of Freeze damaged Sub tropical Fruit trees

i'm glad puglvr responded as she is in the same boat as you are.

there is also the thread below where mango tree damage is discussed

Here is a link that might be useful: Mango Freeze Damage

Fabio,

Have you decided when you are going to trim your Mango trees? We have another cold snap the end of the week (Sat morn) here in Central Fl...bet. 35° to 39° depending on which weather channel/website you go to. I will wait and see what the 7 day extended forecast is after Sat and decide from there?

Keep us posted your mango tree progress!

I too live in fla and went thru several freeze at th time
my mango tree had flowers...its a problem.. most trees purchased are grafted and the problem is most will come back but if the buds or sprouts are below the graft line
throw them away because you will get the wild mango that your tree was grafted on....you will not get a true fruit
SORRY.... take your loss and try another one.........

> Posted by fagopher
> "10 days" for the leaves to drop

Hah! 10 months maybe.
I always have to pull off many of the dead leaves.

On my bookcase is a dead seedling, bearing its seven long leaves,
that I snipped off at the ground five years ago.
(Kept for artistic reason -- I like the color and texture.)

I agree. If leaves senesce normally (die old old age, so to speak) they are shed fairly quickly. If they die off otherwise they tend to hang on for a very long time. I've cut off branches and many months later the leaves were still firmly attached despite the dead wood being riddled with borers.