Jan. 3rd, 2008 Cold Front

I live in Brevard County, Florida, gardening zone 9b.

Here are my fruit trees and plants:

Mangos: Kent, Keitt, Glenn, Edward, Mallika, Nam Doc Mai, Rosigold, Fairchild, Lancetilla, Alphonso

Bananas: Raja Puri, Ice-Cream, Cavendish

Atemoyas: 48-26, Geffner

Avocado: Simmonds, Monroe

Jaboticaba: Two small-leafed, black fruited varieties (Myrciaria cauliflora)

Black Sapote

Lychee: Sweetheart

Longan: Kohala

Blueberry: Sharp Blue

Pineapples: Kohala Sugar Loaf, Elite Gold, and others.

Cherimoya: Unknown variety

Loquat: Unknown variety

Dwarf Pomegranate

Dragon Fruit: American Beauty

Papaya: Golden Pollinated

Lemon: Meyer

January, 2008
It was extremely cold in Florida in the early morning hours of Thursday, January 3. The wind was really blowing hard here (25-30 mph gusts). NOAA had forecast a low of 34 for my area (zipcode 32780). Wunderground had forecast a low of 32, and Weather.com a low of 31. Since my fruit trees are young (under 3 years), I decided to take preventative measures to minimize cold damage/death of my plants. Here are the damage/death temperatures of some select, young fruit trees. My overnight low was 33 degrees.

Young mangos : killed at 29-30 degrees
Young sugar apple: killed/severely damaged at 30-32 degrees
Black sapote (adult): killed/severely damaged at 30 degrees.
Young longan: severe damage at 29-31, killed at 26-28
Young lychee: killed/severely damaged at 29-32
Young atemoya: killed at 28-29
Jaboticaba (small-leaf, black fruit): mature trees can withstand 27-29 for several hours if they are in good health. Unsure of the cold hardiness of younger specimens.

To ensure the survival of my trees (especially my Green Sugar Apple, Black Sapote, and small mangos) I went outside at midnight and placed two chemical hand warmers (a 6-pack cost $1.98 at Wal-Mart) with a paper clip on a lower branch of each plant. None of my covered plants suffered cold damage. The uncovered plants in my yard that had some damage were a "Lemon-Lime" dracaena, a variegated Golden Dew Drop (Duranta Erecta), and a begonia. Interestingly my non-variegated Golden Dew Drop appears to have no cold damage...and they are planted side by side.


Here is a picture of some of my fruit trees and plants covered with everything from frost blankets, thick moving blankets and sheets. I had to cover over 20 plants including bananas (seen here in the foreground), a lychee (seen in the middle of the yard in white), mangos (four are seen covered here on the perimeter of the yard), as well as several young palms, young avocados and a longan. In the back, far-right of the photo you can see a trash can covering a small Mallika mango...yes, I was down to using trash cans (don't knock 'em though, they were quite effective).