Hi Seagel,

Sorry to hear about your tree damage. What tree do you have there in the picture may I ask? I haven't looked at all my plants yet, but so far as my lychees go, I see the top 2-3 inch of "beat up" as well. But that is only for my Brewster lychee which I had cover on. Since I couldn't possibly cover all of them, I actually sprayed water on them and those which I sprayed water on
surprisingly sustained little or no injury at all (with the exception of some
bananas). Those that are grown close to the house are ok.

I have one concern when you said your plants were covered for two days.
As I remember for my case 5 years back when I covered my Mauritius lychee. It was then about 10 ft or so and I left the cover on for a couple of days too ... thinking that it would offer more extra protection after the cold spell. But when I opened up the cover, the leaves were all fried. That left me thinking ... could it be the heat that was trapped in the tent that burned the leaves, or did the cold really damage it down a leaving the bottom trunk undamaged. I think it might be from both factors. So, this time around, I covered my Brewster with a planket (which is a breathable cover by the way) and then uncovered it as soon as the threat of freeze is over. Some of the tips still appeared to have been beaten up, but I think that might have been caused by the process of covering it and as well the cold damage? I don't know for sure ... Compared with my two other larger lychees, they were ok without cover, but were sprayed with water instead. So, I'm thinking perhaps spraying water on it might be more helpful? Bottom line, I'm thinking that covering can be a tricky process as well as the trapped heat during the day can damage the tree faster than not covering it.

Anyway, going forward, I think that trimming off the damaged parts may be helpful and give it a chance to grow more new growths? If yours is a fruit tree and you have damaged blooms, I think the blooms might be gone for this season, but that said, the tree may produce more new growths and still be on time to flower? I don't have many suggestions to offer you except my own experience with my trees, but I surely hope your tree will recover for you soon.

I completely over looked the fact that I didn't put the plant type lol.

Carrie Mango, about 2yrs each. Thanks for taking the time to reply bf2

A lot of vegetation got damaged here. I had to cut down all my banana/plantains and most of back yard grass burned and dried up. I did the best I can w the custom PVC-Ceramic housings I made.

New shoots and or blooms are growing (plenty for a 5' plant), so I guess that's a good sign.

Hi

I'm in 10 florida so my approach may not work for you. much depends on how cold it gets and the duration naturally. Usually fronts are 3 days long with the coldest night on the second day, with the lowest daytimes. so you need to build something that can stay in place for at least 3 days .

As the front passes the following day will have brilliant sunshine so you risk overheating the plant which can cause more damage than the cold .lol

Check into "frostcloth" ,comes in many different densities ,even types that produce their own heat. depending on your needs.

My most effective is a PVC teepee covered with a lightweight frostcloth , though I have used cotton bed sheets anything but plastic lol Make sure it comes completely to the ground and I keep a moveable section at the top for ventilation. I use an infrared heater inside with thermostat because I want to keep it above 50.. When the sun comes up it will heat but generally stays below 80 even when the temps get into the 70's. Therefore I can leave the contraption in place for the duration.

Funny /sad story about this . When I first built my shadehouse a front approached with predictions of "hard freeze" so I covered it with transparent plastic with heater. Morning 30 outside 55 inside ,feeling smug I went to work , came home in evening 58 outside 153 inside!!! Naturally i lost everything but learned a lesson ablot materials lol goodluck gary

Hi Gary,

I completely agree with your "overheating the plant which can cause more damage than the cold" theory. I learned it the hard way too when I covered my 12ft or so tall Lychee Mauritius some years back and did not uncover the tent before the sun came out to heat up the tent. When I uncovered it, the leaves and branches were all damaged down to 2-3 ft at the base. At that point, I thought it was the freeze, but the tent was all lit up ... So many years after, I've finally come to the conclusion that the heat could have been a factor that contributed to much of the damage. That was in 2010, but fortunately it came around and took another 5 years to grow back to a healthy size.

Recently I bought some "plankets" which seem to be breathable. I'm wonder if they're the same as the "frostcloth" you talked about here? If they're not, where could I find them. I've also tried using vinyl table clothes with flannel backing and cover it with flannel backing turning toward the plant I'm covering.

What do you think about spraying water on the plants. This past freeze was a light one which is a good thing. I covered one lychee with plankets and the other two lychee trees I sprayed water on them as they were getting big 14 ft I'm estimating. I did the same for the rest of my tropical plants as I was running out of time and resources to cover them. The two lychees seemed to show no sign of damage, but my covered one had damaged blooms.
Even my papaya and mangoes which were sprayed on with water looked ok. So, I'm interested in finding out more about the benefits of this water spraying strategy.