View Single Post
 
Old 02-21-2015, 12:55 PM
Rons Landscaping Rons Landscaping is offline
Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 90
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozzello View Post
Back when they (citrus growers) were using overhead irrigation, during a freeze, the irrigation would be turned on all night creating an ice igloo canopy, supposedly to keep the grafted portion of the tree at 32F. It didn't work, unfortunately, and you lost all your fruit. Well, it wasn't fit for peeling and eating. Still ok to make OJ concentrate and feed cattle .
The best method the FL citrus farmer ever had to protect citrus, was the old fashioned way. Build a fire, well... a LOT of fires. The high faluting growers had grove pots to fill with diesel. In the 80s we lost the area citrus to freeze...twice, because nobody would come work all night helping the farmers keep the grove fires going. Why? One freeze on Christmas day night, (then 2 years of replanting) and then a freeze on Christmas eve. The 1st time the Gov. paid the farmers to clear and replant the groves. The 2nd time.... no dice. Retirement community property got real cheap though !
Covering (properly) can save your plants from frost damage in a light frost or save plants from dying from freeze during a short light freeze, BUT in a hard long freeze, you better add a heat source, I have seen tropical and sub-tropical plants die or damage even in a green house, because the heater broke down. Yes, right here in TV area. If it gets cold enough for long enough, covering a plant might not be enough.
Also well said, I remember those major freezes just a few years apart in the 80's. I was living in New Port Richey Florida at the time, and it got down to 17-degrees on Christmas eve. When it gets that cold it doesn't make any differents what a person does for their plants, there dead in those kind of temps. You did not see a Queen Palm alive until you got about 50-miles south of Tampa. The problem here in The Villages is, there are a lot of plants that should not even be planted here. Unfortunately they are being told by their landscaper that the plants will be alright in cold weather, when in fact they will not. I see so many sub-tropical plants here it isn't funny. Unfortunately these people planting them don't know, and a lot of them don't care they just want to take your money and move on to the next victim. They have absolutely no horticultural back round. Remember, anyone can grab a shovel and dig a hole and call themselves a landscaper.
__________________
Ron