Nice! I like all your ideas. I usually use construction stakes since they are free but they are a little flinsy and they eventually get brittle. I have 8' tree stakes and metal stakes spaced out at about 10' intervals for the shade cloth. Maybe I can use that to the same affect.

Skinn30a,

It's going to be about 30 here, but I am going to let the trees fend for themselves. I "watered" them yesterday for last nights cold and the ground is still moist. I have blossoms and flushing on all trees, the persian lime and nippon orangequat have developing fruit, the rio red has over 1 1/2 feet of new growth.

I really like your cold protection. It is well done and neat. You will love the pvc pipe frames when you start using them. I did mine two years ago with 1" piping. It is easy to set up and tear down.

David

It is cold here and although the temperature is in the 60s, it feels much colder. I have become so accustomed to warm temperatures that even 60s feels cold. The minimum temperature tonight may drop to 40F or maybe even 39F. Maybe next year I will have some citrus plants to cover when it gets cold. I fear citrus greening more than cold though.

We were lucky this year as this winter has been very mild. It is almost over now. Time for spring!

34 was the low last night. I checked every hour ready to turn on the irrigation if needed. I’m rolling the dice (a little) on any more hard freezes this year. Any more? We did not have one this year. Anyway I pulled down my soil banks and applied my Imidacloprid. In a couple weeks I’ll apply my first real fertilizer. Between now and then I think I’ll do a foliar feeding. Last year the CLM made my plants look like crap. This year I’m ready.

I do have a concern though. I am not seeing the level of bees that I had last year. Not sure why. Maybe it’s still too cold for them.