Another year...another orchard destroyed by a hurricane at the family property in the Bahamas -- in this case, from Hurricane Joaquin. I thought I'd post for those interested to see what can happen when your trees are flooded by seawater.

We're at the north end of Long Island, which didn't get it nearly as bad as the south end. The high-water mark from ocean inundation was, nonetheless, at five feet over the orchard. Here's what one of the jujubes looked like ten days after the storm; most others were knocked down.

Here's the tree in December, with another jujube survivor in front of it. This part of the orchard is partially protected by the house, and this is probable reason they simply weren't swept away by the sea.

All three jujubes (three year-olds) survived, and this leads me to believe that they have fantastic salt tolerance. One out of two mulberries made it; none of the citrus (12 trees) survived (although two 'sour' rootstocks pulled through); one(?) soursop may have survived at the roots (out of three); one of three pomegranates struggled through; our allspice bit the dust, as did three carambolas, a lone breadfruit, and two avocados. The only trees to suffer just cosmetic damage were the Barbados Cherry, Ackee, cocoplum, and West Indian almond (altough that was partially toppled over). An interesting experiment in salt tolerance I didn't expect to have!