The low forecasted is 23 degrees, with 11 total hours freezing (but about 20 straight hours at 36 or below).


I have: Meyer lemon, Lakeland Limequat, Owari Satsuma, Rio Red Grapefruit, and Clementine outside. Most trees are fairly young. I hope they are pretty well hardened off, as it has gotten into the mid or upper 30's the last few nights.


A couple questions:

I already have them covered, do you think I should take more measures? I have a shop light I could put under the least cold-hardy (the limequat I guess).

Anyone ever used fire in the area to keep temperatures up? How far away from the tree would you go?


I know this is last minute, but the forecast has really dropped significantly in the last day. This is the coldest is has ever gotten in the 6 years i have lived in Houston area.

Wow that is cold for Houston this time of year. Hope everything fares well. We are supposed to drop to 35 tomorrow night and then back up to normal again.

The weather man is saying we are supposed to be getting snow tonight. I can't remember the last time it snowed and didn't melt the second it hit the ground.

Don't put plastic over the citrus or they will get too hot when the sun comes up tomorrow. It is a little late put I heard and have used heavy cardboard boxes like a refrigerator or washing machine would get shipped in to cover citrus on nights like you will have tonight. They work great until they get wet a few times from heavy dews or rains. I also use large old fashioned Christmas tree lights on and around the base of my citrus trees. Last year was my first year so I'm no expert. The plastic would probably be ok if you had plenty of room around the trees then it would be like a green house but if its too small and the plastic touches the leaves, you will get too much heat when the sun comes up in the morning. Good luck and its ok with me if you can keep that cold stuff out there.....I did great until a late freeze tore me up last year. I may have baby sat them so well they didn't really harden off too good...

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I covered the limequat with a blanket and plastic over the blanket, and ran a shop light with a 60 watt bulb to give it a little heat overnight. I also covered the meyer lemon, satsuma, and clementine with blankets/sheets. The grapefruit was not covered at all, but had some overhead protection from pine trees. All the covering blankets were covered in a layer of ice this morning.

Here is the data for last night-- low temp: 22 degrees. Freezing temperatures for 11 hours (from 9:30 pm to 8:30 am). Today was sunny and in the 50's - a nice recovery day. We set all-time area records for earliest snow fall for the year and for low temperature for the day.

8:00 pm -- 33
9:00 pm -- 32
10:00 pm -- 32
11:00 pm -- 30
12:00 am -- 29
1:00 am -- 28
2:00 am -- 26
3:00 am -- 26
4:00 am -- 24
5:00 am -- 22
6:00 am -- 24
7:00 am -- 27
8:00 am -- 32
9:00 am -- 34

Lakeland Limequat (with supplemental heat) -- no damage that I can tell, including the fruit:


Rio Red Grapefruit -- tender, new flush was destroyed, no damage to rest of tree


Clementine -- no damage


Owari Satsuma -- no damage


Meyer Lemon -- a little leaf damage to newer, outside leaves (photo did not turn out).


The trees seem to have fared better than I expected. I will follow up on leaf drop in a few days or so.

wow that is cold

good luck

Great job. How did you get your temps....recorded there or from another site. That was too cold and for a long time this early but you did an excellent job of protection-nice photos too. I'm hoping you have a recorder because I hope you didn't have to stay up baby sitting all night !

Tom, I used a temperature data logger (link). It's probably not the most accurate measurement in the world, but it does the trick just fine as a hobbiest (especially considering that I accidentally had it on the setting to round to the nearest degree).

I did not have to stay up babysitting, though I would have if I thought it would have actually helped anything!

Very nice and new to me, maybe better than a baby monitor-I am a grandfather.Welcome to the forum. You will be a valuable member here and there is lots of great information and good people too.

Ok, just a follow-up on leaf-drop: Only the Rio Red Grapefruit had any leaf drop whatsoever. It dropped about 5% of its upper leaves, but all trees look like they weathered the cold just fine.