Okay. Woke up this morning to find my weather station reporting a low of 28 degrees F (-2 degrees C) and it's only 29 degrees at 7:00 am. Oh brother. I didn't cover my papaya. Think my citrus will be okay, but did not expect it to go below 33 or 34. I should know better, my property is colder than the rest of my town, so can't rely on weather.com predictions for my zip code And, it is supposed to be colder tonight, and stay cold through Monday. Ugh. We're not set up for this kind of prolonged nighttime cold temps here in San Diego coast county areas.

You can get frost anywhere below 37F if the conditions are right.

And to think, we are in a heat wave.

Oh, this isn't frost. We had a real freeze. Just found out our hose on the north side of the hose is frozen. This is extremely rare for us. Now I AM a little concerned about some of my younger citrus. May have some damage to my limes. Will have to go outside when it warms up a bit, and survey for damage.

Yeah, freak freeze. You're at 38 & I'm at 70. Good luck with the trees.

Thanks. Now that the sun is up, we're up to a whopping 34 degrees. Once it gets over 45, I'll go outside, lol!!

Gonna be down to 25F or lower in outlying areas of Tucson tonite.

How were your trees, Patty? I just covered mine for the weekend.

Trees look a little pale, but so far, no overt frost/freeze damage. So far, with a quick walk through yesterday, the St. Teresa and Moro looked to have suffered the most. It was 29 again last night. Papaya is toast sadly. And, the satsumas look just fine.

Thats too bad about your papaya tree. I stayed out last night covering my citrus trees with burlap. And now I shall be heading over to your neck of the woods driving by the orchards that are on 76.

Hey guys:

Take a look at the thread titled "Cold Front".....

Peter

Hi Patty !

Moro can take much more coldness, so no worries.

There are much more hardy Papaya species ...

Well, so far, no freeze burn that I can see on any citrus. Just my Nimlioh avocado, which is 100% Gutamalean, and frankly, I'm surprised it did as well as it did, and the papaya. And, there are really any "hardy" papaya varieties. It is a tropical plant, and not sub-tropical. Mexican varieties are a bit more tolerant, but no papaya would have made it through two nights of 29 degrees. What did mine in was me getting caught off guard, and not getting it covered with lights 2 nights ago, sadly. Plus, I really, really like the flavor of Solo, so, I'll just have to see if it can recover. It had gotten pretty big, so hoping it can. Plus, I was pretty excited that I was growing this Hawaiian variety so successfully in my Mediterranean climate, which is clearly not tropical I'm just so mad at myself for not realizing that 33 degrees from weather.com could certainly mean less than 32 at my place. Ugh. I know better.

There are some ... and some avocado too ...

The Inca had their domain on the mountains and breeded some hardy sorts therefore ...

No, no "hardy" papayas. Mexican papayas are a tiny, tiny bit more tolerant, but not by much. Trust me on this, Sanguinello, papayas are very popular here in S. California, and us CRFG members (California Rare Fruit Growers) all grow them. Now, avocados, yes. But, the Nimlioh is extremely good tasting, so that's why I grow it. I don't need to grow any "hardy" avocados as I just don't get that cold - I live in "Avocado" country. My area of California grows about 95% of all the avocados grown in the United States. So, I get to pick and choose, and I only have the best, and most desirable avocados growing on my property. Same with citrus, we are in "lemon country", and we can grow any citrus we want, even the Key Lime (which mine did fine, that was the one I was most worried about). The only citrus that won't develop an optimal flavor here are some grapefruits that need a lot of heat for long periods, and a few rarer tropical citrus (like Ugli). We can grow just about anything here except things that are very frost sensitive, as we do get these rare winter nights where temps will drop below 32 degrees. Very rare, and to have temps drop to 29 is extremely unusual for us. Especially as we are expecting to have at least 4 days in a row like this, ugh!!