We also got colder than what was expected. Saturday night we fell to 22 degrees and Sunday night we went to 21. Our forecasted temperature was 25 for the first night and 27 for the second. The area where I live is on the edge of a swamp basin, in sort of a micro climate, but after driving around looking at blueberry farms both nights, I can tell you that there wasn't much difference between our place and areas on higher ground. The high pressure stalled and brought cold.

I ran micro sprinklers on my twenty trees and made good clear ice, but also made a mess due to the volume of water. Water ran for 28 hours combined and totaled a little more than 17,000 gallons for both nights. There was a little damage from broken limbs, but no complete destruction of trees.

Darkman,

I'm using the rain bird micro-quick sprays with the 120 degree deflector and a 30.6 gph nozzle. One per tree, covering the whole tree from about 4 feet away. I positioned them on the northwest side of the tree so that the wind would be pushing the water into the tree. I know it's probably overkill, but better safe than sorry. When the chance of freeze is over I'm switching the nozzles to a 12 gph nozzle and a 360 degree head.

One of my friends in Haines City, Florida sent me an email saying that his lowest temperature was 24.4.

David,

I'm also interested in how this product works. I work as a horticultural consultant and reading about your product sparks my interests.

We had a nasty frost early this week and it really devastated my Banana leaves but it did not appear to harm my citrus. It looks like I'll have quite a few blooms soon.

David,

Please start a thread to discuss your product if you are serious about getting it trialed! I doubt any one here will try it without some serious discussion and the ingredients being disclosed!!!!!

Way to much time, energy and money invested to risk it on uncertainties.

Looks like we might have a very deep trough and cold air intrusion early March. The GFS shows the 0C line dipping all the way to south Florida! Could be the strongest cold front so far this winter. Still it is more than a
week away and could change.

I remember the March 1980 cold wave set all time record low temperatures for the month. I doubt this one will match the 1980 cold wave though.

I do not think it will be too severe. I certainly hope not! It is not all that unusual to have a cool spell in early March. We have much higher sun angle this time of year and should help to modify the cold air and the day length is not as short this time of year compared to early winter. Looks like highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s for north Florida according to accuweather. Probably will not have such cool weather until next winter. You might wish for this cool spell when it is 95F and 70% humidity this summer! Your citrus plants should come out OK.

Remember it is not the low temperature that is most important. It is the duration of low temperatures that is most important and the durations should be short this time of year.

At this point, I'll take just about anything over this rain...supposed to keep going strong until Tuesday. Started Friday and six inches so far.

Most of my trees are almost in full bloom. My navel orange started 1st, Hamlin & Cara Cara are just behind. My Meyer and Owari have little pinheads now. Every tree with the exception of the Meyer is flush with new growth. The cara cara continues to struggle - presently is 2x more flowers than vegetation but is trying hard to push a flush.

Looking like it could be a great year for my trees with the exception of the cara cara. I think that I'll replace it with another budded on cleo or x-639.

Best,

Skinn30a

I still think that tree will thrive. Mine surprised me once.

Temps are dropping to 32 tonight so I went ahead and covered my trees. They are all flushing and blooming so I figure better safe than sorry. For the smaller trees, I put an upside down tomato cage over them and then wrap it with a blanket. As for the larger ones, I build wooden frames over them after planting. When it gets cold, I just sandwich the trees with two king sized blankets and clamp the edges together on the frames. Easy and works great. Pics here:















Best,

Skinn30a

Thats a pretty good idea. I might use it next year.

Thanks j3u5a8n! You can see the frames here on these pics of my Owari and Minneola... I used bolts and wing nuts as fasteners when building them so that I could add additional lengths of wood as the tree grows taller.





If you're going to build them, put them up soon after planting so that you don't have to dig holes through the trees root zone. This spring, I'll pull up the legs of the frames and replace them with sections of 2 inch PVC pipe. That way, I can pull the frames out of the ground when they are not needed and when I do, I'll just slide them into the PVC "sprockets" as opposed to digging new holes.

Best,

Skinn30a