You can water it but those mild temps for a day is not going to kill it or make it go dormant.

32 is no problem, 29 is slight problem, 26 and below is a big problem.

Great, thanks guys.

quirky, How does watering help?

Look up Columbia, SC on wunderground.com
St. Frankenweed is really popular there and on wednesday the forecast low says 18 degrees. 20 on the following day. True you probably have that floratam which can't take the cold as well but maybe this will ease your nerves some.

We posted at the same time. Watering helps insulate the grass/plants/citrus trees/whatever.

Water is denser than air, 64 times denser, thus 64 times the insulation value.

64 times the insulation value, wow.
Wonder what R'value 1 inch of water has ? Maybe I could load my attic up with water ballons.

Just don't stop watering in the winter and your grass will remain green. This only works for warm weather grasses in mostly temperate areas. If you get temps below 30 for days at a time, you're pretty much going to see St Aug go dormant.

Water has a much higher "specific heat" than soil. In order to convert water from liquid to solid, it takes an enormous amount of energy. All during that phase change, the water will remain at 32 degrees until all the water has changed phase. This is why you cannot warm a glass of ice higher than 32 degrees until all the ice melts. By wetting the soil prior to freezing temps, you can prolong the change from freezing to subfreezing by many hours. But once all the water freezes, then the soil temp can drop further. Oh but if you use salty fertilizers, none of this applies. Salt will allow the water temp to drop into the teens before solidifying.

I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it gets below 20*F. 2 years ago, it was 14*F and my st augustine lawn survived just fine including *Floratam* st augustine. Either that or mutated Palmetto that looks like Floratam...

I've hit multiple overnight freezing as low as 24* this winter and my st augustine hasn't completely gone dormant yet. Maybe After the next two nights which is expected to be in mid 20s will do it...

Water's great stuff. Here in the northeast, I can usually extend my gardening season by a week or three just by judicious watering.

At least you can take heart, it's currently 16 here, with a high of 23 and a low tonight of 10. I wish I had your weather...

Sooooooooo what happened? Did it die?

I'm curious to know what happened with the St aug that some oddballs are growing in alanta. I know there was one member here growing mercedes that would partake in discussion from time to time. I'm curious to know what happens with their lawn even if it isn't apparent until it comes out of dormancy. It has been 15-16 here last couple of nights but I am a bit north of atlanta.

No it didn't die. It appears to be fine. The temps early Thursday morning fell to 30 degrees which is unusual for our area. Pinellas County is surrounded by water on three sides. (Tampa bay, Mouth of Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico) Because of this it usually keeps us out of the freeze zone. East Central Florida actually got snow Thurday Morning.

I don't live in Atlanta though. I live in Largo, Florida.

Every year I hear about this "central florida" place getting snow. Where specifically?

Well on Wednesday it happened to be in Volusia county down to Bervard County. Cape Canaveral, where the Space Shuttle launches is in north Bervard County. It didn't stay on the ground, only lightly dusted cars according to the news.

The last time I saw snow in West Central FL. was about 13 years ago. It melted before it hit the ground.

Central Florida is defined as anything south of Ocala to a line extending from Vero Beach to Tampa. The Orlando area is considered Central Florida.

Well. Floratam did survive 0*F weather back in 1989 (and 1983?)... Very COLD weather. A lot of records broken at that time... Still same records as of today...

I read somewhere that the ones fertilized with 4-1-3 type did did better through that kind of weather. Still there were a lot of damages (probably poorly maintained)up in North Texas. Just for that reason, it was recommended that Floratam not be grown up here but we haven't seen that kind of weather since 1989....

Not to be a pain in the butt but why is it that people in florida always seem to refer to their hometown as "South/Central/North/Southwest/" Florida???
Why not just tell us the name of the town like the rest of the world does?

Notice how lou says he is in Dallas Fort worth. He does not say north texas or central texas or some other ambiguous term.

For instance why not just say it snowed around Daytona Beach? Instead of saying you live in South Florida, you can say that you live around Fort Lauderdale. Pronounced "Foot Wuttadale" by those that live in that area. :-)
The TV and radio stations use terms like "central florida" or "tampa bay area" to describe their viewing/listening audiences and it seems to have spread to the rest of the populous that seems to accept conforming to a system that places them within certain color-coded zones bordered by invisible boundaries with inspecific and uncertain descriptions. For instance, does someone on the south side of Vero Beach still live in Central Florida? How about Ocala? That place looks like North florida to me but since they get orlando tv stations, ocalians call it "central florida" Even though on a map it is without a doubt in the northern 1/3 of the state?

And why not call it "northern" florida? Why does it have to be "north" florida, that is poor grammar.

All rhetorical questions, just giving you a hard time.
:-)
Happy saturday down there in west central florida/tampa bay area.

querkyquercus, try the site floridagarden.com and click on soils and zones in the side panel and see if the scheme makes more sense. Then you might explain the concept to me. It is difficult to contemplate "Tropical Florida" when the outdoor thermometer is reading 31.

I presume you mean floridagardenER.com

Calling a place "north" or "south" doesn't really tell me anything about what will grow there or the climate. Sorry. Especially when I have to reference a website that explains it.

I lived in florida for a very long time and never understood it when I lived there either. If you want to know more specifically about the areas I lived in, does this tell you?
South Florida
Space Coast
Treasure Coast
First Coast
Nature Coast
Gold Coast
Central Florida
Bay Area
Southwest Florida

all names created by the media. Can you figure out where I was or what I was growing??!!

I think the reason this all pisses me off so much is because when I was living in "the treasure coast" and two hurricanes hit 2 weeks apart, the territory was claimed by both the south florida stations and the central florida stations. It was just to the south of Vero Beach (see how that example all comes into the picture now!?) and after the storm there was little mention of the aftermath in my area on the south florida stations nor was there on the central florida stations. It was ground zero for both hurricanes, most local piss ant radio stations were off the air so anyone in the community was basically alone in the dark with no information.

So it makes me mad when the media creates bogus community names to make viewers feel like they are all apart of it and to keep potential new stations from getting licensed when in fact they are only servicing a rather small geographic area that cannot be described by ambiguous terms like north/central/south/east/west.

Central Florida = Orlando. PERIOD.
Tampa Bay = Hillsborough and Pinellas. ONLY.
South florida = Miami, Fort Lauderdale and under certain circumstances, palm beach county.
North Florida = Jacksonville. THAT's IT.
Southwest Florida = Fort Myers. AND ONLY Fort Myers.
West Florida = Pensacola.

This is really what the media means when they say they "have ___insert bogus market name here___ covered".

The people of florida have been brainwashed into used these bogus community names in their business names and other parts of everyday life. People on internet chats and forums use it because it's anonymous. No need to be anonymous here guys.

quirkyquercus, I guess that I do not watch enough TV and it would not be among the top ten choices for me to obtain useful horticultural information. As for weather forecasting, "...weather forecasters are the only people I know who are paid to be wrong 50% of the time..." (Source unknown).
Predicting storm paths? "A hurricane will go where it wants to".
And in an attempt to mend a fence which I may have inadvertently broken, I wish to apologise to you, at the person to person level, if I touched upon a topic that that holds unpleasant memories.
I will sum up my perspective on all this with a qoute from a verse which I authored. "Thank God for America and all her bounty; Because I've lived in another country."
(Ronald B Persaud)

Okay, Okay I live in Pinellas County Florida in the city of Largo, zip code 33778.

Do you need a Drink quirkyquercus? I'll buy.

No need to apologize. I just think the people of florida should rise up against big media and tell them they are proud of their cities and towns and refuse to be lumped into one convenient, homogenized, yet mostly ignored community in attempt to keep low power broadcasters and other competition from sprouting up. That's what it's about.

And if you don't watch a lot of tv then you will see just how bad this epidemic has become because these terms have spread to business names, websites and casual conversation.