Talk of The Villages Florida - Rentals, Entertainment & More
Talk of The Villages Florida - Rentals, Entertainment & More
#1
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Hard freeze warning
Just a reminder to everyone, turn your timer off on your irrigation until this cold snap passes. You do not want your irrigation to run during freezing weather, it will cause icing on your plants and do serious damage to the plant tissue. Cover your tender plants with sheets or old blankets. Do not use garbage bags or plastics of any kind, that will do more damage then good. Let's just hope it doesn't stay below freezing for to many hours. Then turn your timer back on when the cold weather passes.
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Ron |
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#2
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seems that water spray is used to prevent damage to crops when a snap freeze is imminent...where did I get that from?
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#3
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I just remembered it was from a movie staring Mary Steenburgen and Rip Torn, local was the Everglades and she was trying to grow...something?
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#4
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I'm confused,Ron. Waters freezes at 32 degrees. If the air temperature goes down to 25 degrees,aren't we protecting our plants from further injury,like wearing a jacket,as they do in Orange groves?
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#5
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Don't farmers, citrus growers, etc. run sprinklers in freezing weather to prevent damage?
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#6
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Yes. To prevent the fruit from freezing they spray the orchards with water to coat the fruit. The water freezes but the fruit does not.
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All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Winston Churchill |
#7
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So in a hard freeze, if you cover the plant with a "sheet or old blanket", It's going to be 25 degrees under the blanket if it's 25 degrees outside the blanket. Covering only works with a frost, not a freeze. Correct?
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#8
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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. |
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Ron |
#10
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Ron |
#11
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Ron |
#12
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In the several hundred landscapes over the last 2 years I designed, 70%..yes SEVENTY PERCENT.. were originally installed 3-7 years ago. So much for the good landscapers being out of work when the building stops. I agree with what you say about the guys grabbing a shovel and calling themselves a landscaper, but even some of the bigger fancier companies that have shown up in the last 10 years are sending out 'designers' that are more salesmen than designer. Find out if your big company fancy designer's experience is all south Florida, or maybe they are dog groomers with a new found profession. I can remember ol' J.W. Jr (God rest his soul) sitting in his garden center in Fruitland Park giggling about folks planting weeping bottlebrush here. I bet no one heard those trees are cold sensitive here in over a decade. Folks, find out the SPECIFIC temperature the plants your designer is using will damage at, and die at. If your designer tells you a plant "goes down in winter", ask about root hardiness.. or better yet, find a landscape designer with 20 years or more in THIS AREA, and maybe, one that cracked some college books on horticulture, construction and landscape architecture. If you show up at your landscape designer's office and they have a couple thin DIY books,and doesn't say "ya'll" ... be careful. |
#13
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I didn't realize my reply went to the second page that is why I made 2-post. I had to laugh when you made that comment about weeping bottle brush. I actually lost a couple jobs over the years because I told people what they didn't want to hear. Another problem with weeping bottle brush trees is they will always split in the crotch in a strong wind. It's sad to see what is happening south of 466-A with the landscaping on residential yards. Most of it will be gone when we have a normal winter again. So many landscape companies are selling them any kind of plants no matter if they are for this zone or not. A lot of them don't care they are just there for there money and nothing else. There is more mason work going on in the yards then horticultural work. Even though we do walls also, I always tell the customer of all the maintenance required with the walls before they choose them in their landscape design. You can have a very nice landscape look without all the walls.
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Ron |
#14
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Have you noticed that Ron is the only landscaper on the forums that contributes useful knowledgeable advice.
There are others that advertise their services but contribute nothing to the community. I think this is a company that deserves the support of the residents. |
#15
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