My Sisters' over in AL got down to 17. Vicki's satsumas and my grafts on them were unprotected but totaly unharmed-- the only protection she gave them was hay around the base. Beth's Star Ruby gft has a few burnt leaves on some of the late growth shoots (I found out she was fertilizing with slow release-- she made the last application on the 1st of Sept like I told her-- I just did not know she was using slow release). My ponkan graft on her meyer lemon seedling was looking pretty sad.

Wilmington, NC had three consecutive nights of dangerously low temperatures for citrus...23, 16, and 21 degrees. I used the Christmas lights and bedsheets technique to keep my trees warm and it appears they all have come through with no new damage. A sudden drop to 22 back in mid-December while I was out of town froze most of the leaves off my tangerine, but I anticipate it will regrow them come spring since the stems still look green and alive.

This is my first post to the board. I've been reading messages here for over a year since Stan the Citrusman sold me my first batch trees and told me about the board. I look forward to sharing stories about how my trees do over the next few years!

- Ten Degree Tangerine (2)
- Owari Satsuma (2)
- Ichang Lemon (2)
- Yuzu (1)

Tim in Wilmington NC

Chilling injury and freeze damages will usually show sometime later, like after 3 to 7 days, or sometimes in the form of sever leaf drop come spring time.

Tim, Welcome to the citruholic's hangout. Glad that your trees made it through the cold-- I hope there are no delayed effects that Joe talked about.

Does this mean that all of us northern citrus growers are not going to have to send a care package (lemons, oranges, grapefruit etc) to our southern members to get you thru the winter? GOOD LUCK, AND STAY WARM!

I think it just means we had to work a little harder for our supper this time. I hear Colorado is getting hit hard by that storm that came in thru CA-- winds up to 80 mph. I hope you guys out there don't loose power too long-- Stay warm there! We're getting hotdown here.

As Joe pointed out cold injury can be slow in showing up-I did not protect any of my trees-the lowest temperature here was 22-but we had many hours below freezing.So far all the trees seem relatively unaffected-time will tell.Although I had intentions of using mini Christmas lights and sheets I was not able to-I was fighting to keep two greenhouses at the college from freezing-unfortunately the foliage house dropped to 33!I put in a multi-fuel heater to provide emergency heat-hopefully the university will give us some money for some real heaters.
My large Soap Aloe at my front door (Aloe maculata...a.k.a Aloe saponaria)was starting to bloom-now it is vey dark (a water soaked,ruptured cell walls sort of look)-I suspect it is cold damaged-but am hopeful

Skeeter I rarely lose power, usually only in the spring. As far as snow goes we have not had snow in Denver since Thursday. All the snow you read about is in the mountains. Millet who lives east of me probably got more snow than I did. The mountains are use to having alot of snow. High winds and whiteouts only close the roads for a day and then life is back to normal. Vail, Aspen, Brenkenridge etc average about 440" of snow a year in town. There is a whole industry of moving snow. The mountain people get depressed when summer comes. Today we are getting 1 - 3" more snow. It will abe gone in a day. Davidmac do your greenhouses at the university not have any heaters? How big are your greenhouses? Skeeter - how are your seedlings holding up with the temperatures?

Sunrise, My seedling did fine-- I put them inside the shop--unheated, but warm enough to prevent damage. I did put them where they would not get direct sunlight, so that I did not have to heat the roots. They are back outside in the shade nursery enjoying the warm spell.

I am seeing slight damage here and there where some of the tender leaves were touching the covers (a couple limbs on the Ponkan and a small limb on the Daisy). The top part of the lemon tree is dropping leaves, since I only wrapped it up to the roofline.

Here in the Gainesville, FL area we bottomed out at twenty four. My porch thermometer is six feet off the ground and we had no wind at dawn so at two or three feet it may have been a degree or two lower. A hard freeze but a sight better than the fourteen the Weather Service had predicted!

My Orlando tangelo and Page orange took some significant leaf damage and the Meyer lemon looks like as well. The unknown satsuma and the Smooth Flat Seville appeared to have taken only minimal damage. The Ponkan is in the middle. So far as I can tell at this time there does not appear to be any twig damage, but I'm going to wait another week or two before deciding that.

The greenhouse citrus all came through fine. I rigged up an impromptu cover of blankets and a tarp over the top to help out the little heater inside. Most everything in there is blossoming now but for the stuff I bought back in early December.

I picked all of the grove fruit the night before since I figured it would freeze off the trees. I'll be sorry to see the end of the tangerines as this is the first year we've had all we wanted.

Sure am glad we didn't really see fourteen degrees!

.....Alan.

Isn't weather interesting! Here in Canada (at least my tiny corner on the west coast) it hasn't dropped below 27 (-3c) so far this winter. Mind you It hasn't gone above 50 (10c) either - so there is no chance of mid winter flushes. I might add, the crocus and daffodils are poking through the soil. A couple of days ago I saw a row of ornamental cherry trees starting to bloom....We have gained around 27 minutes of daylight since Dec 21.
I know the temperatures down south have warmed up since Stans' first post
so I hope all goes well with your trees! Wasn't it last Easter there was another freeze event in the SE ?

Greg

Gregn I import from Winnipeg and 27F -3C would be a downright heat wave. Flowers on your cherry blossom didn't anybody tell that tree it is still winter!!! Skeeter it sounds like your trees survived the freeze reasonably well, hopefully that will be the end of the freeze for out southern members. Davidmac how is your Soap Aloe doing, hopefully only a little damage!

Citruscowboy -3c in Winterpeg is a heatwave in June!!! ( perfect breeding season for the July mosquitoes ) My Nephew moved there 18 months ago to kick start his aspiring music career. I stayed in Vancouver to grow Palms, Bananas and Citrus in my garden
Cheers, Greg

BTW, my rose bush is just staring to push little buds out and my neighbours vine (honeysuckle ??) on MY fence is sprouting too.

Hello Sunrisecowboy,
Oddly the Soap Aloe seems to be OK-it has not gone limp-the bloom stalk is still firm-I look at it every day and am still suprised that it hasn't been zapped.I have other hardy aloes that likewise seem none the worse for the dip down to 22-but rains are forecast and I am trying to keep my aloes and agaves from being wet and cold-that appears to be the lethal combination.However the citrus are just the opposite-they have to be well watered to survive cold events-drought stress will just add to cold injury on them.