With forecast this late, it will most likely happen this early morning.

I have a couple of friends come and place a tarp over my citruses tonight. I'll turn on the camping stove in between canopies under the tarp, at very low flame setting and place some water in the pot. Will keep it on from 4 am to 7 am. I really wanted to have those fruits from UCR budwood collection that are blooming now.


http://www.kcra.com/severeweather/1582497/detail.html

Central Sacramento Valley

Freeze Warning:

Issued at: 1:49 PM PST 2/15/06, expires at: 10:00 PM PST 2/15/06

Freeze warning remains in effect from midnight tonight to 9 am pst Thursday,
Cold and dry air will settle over the region tonight. With clear skies and light winds, overnight low temperatures will drop below freezing in most areas. Especially cold temperatures are expected in rural areas away from large cities. Temperatures in the valleys will bottom out in the 25 to 30 degree range early tomorrow morning.
Several record low temperatures may be broken tonight. These include 28 at redding, 30 at sacramento executive airport, 27 at red bluff, 30 at downtown sacramento, 28 at stockton and 29 at modesto.
A freeze warning means sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely. These conditions can harm crops and other sensitive vegetation.

O.K., I chickened out and moved all the citrus into the garage for tonight at least. The cymbidiums got moved to where the citrus were under the eaves.

34F at midnight and falling rapidly....

Kent

Was up and about at 5 am, my yards, front and back iced over with surface temperature at 23 deg F, the air temperature was at 28 deg F. The tarps stayed put and I did not bother to turn on the camping stove, as I worry it might cook my citruses instead. Will remove the tarps before going to work. A warming trend is in the NWS froecast, with perhaps only the weekend to worry about at temps just above freezing, but will be cloudy so frost danger is small. Anyway, the warming trend is good news. I know that my citruses will survive this, but wondering if most of the blooms will make it.

Joe:
I am up at 6 AM and measured the tempt outside: 28 degrees but I put up clear plastic as canopy and some Christmas lights last night.
Are blossoms of my pome fruits will be affected by the freeze? They are in full bloom right now.
Benny

Sure glad you got the message Benny!

Your pomes should be okay as the freeze was only very brief, like a couple of hours.

My tarps got iced out or frost bites, but I think I did good. The citruses and bananas underneath and their blooms, not a single ice crystal. So I think I have most of them fruiting this season. I only managed to cover 3 and 2/3 citrus trees, not enough tarps, so priority-wise mandarins, calamondins, quats, yuzu, and even a poor meyer was not covered. I covered half of the blooms of my pluot to see if there are significant differences in the fruit set. I normally thin them out anyway so I can afford to lose half of the fruits.

I think we should be okay, and also Benny would have great fruits from his apples and pears. My apples and pears are still fast asleep. Only the pluots and some early plums are in bloom. And of course some of the newest citrus recruits from UCR are in bloom (still unopened), that is why I shared the panic in the first place.

Thanks for the prayers and concerns of you people here. The forecast is for a warming trend, and a little bit freezing this weekend, but I think my citruses should be able to handle that as they have hardened from tonight with a little protection.

I was up till 5 am and they had turned off everyones electrisity.. Talk about Jerks we have people who are older and need there air supplies .. Yes i wrote my congressmen about this since there was no reason..
I had 5 guests here to stay warm and to use my fire place ..

the plants kinda made it hard to cook in the kitchen so right now im thanking god i went with the old fire place with the flat top instead of the electrical Pellet stove when i bought this Place ..this am at 8 we still had no power .. my birds and fist tank where warm but no air due to the freezer and the refrigerator needing the electricity instead ..

now my neighbors who are from az desided to help by telling me how to hook up a wind mill Small 5 ft tall and how to generate the electricity for it infact sold me a plan on some they use in cali and down scaled it for my home .. Cool huh .. any way any one interested in it can get one from Arazonia for 40.00 (the plans )it wont cost alot since there really cool you can use 3-9 batteries (car) and actually sell the electricity back to the electric company we plan on both of us having one in our yards since florence is a retirement town ..

Keep those plants thriving and have fun be safe and warm Tammy

Follow up:
All of my plants are doing great from this icy weather. They think they are in their cocoon with clear plastic and Christmas lights on at night.