We got 28 last night, turned the grass to crunch white. This should stop my crocus from popping up because it thinks it's January temps?? It's 48 degress now, way too cold all of a sudden, where did the low 60's go?? Brrrr

First time I've had to cover my tropicals here! EEEEK! Getting a workout on sheet waving. :o) BRRRRR! I am trying to cover the tangerine tree to save the fruit....

I tired something different around the citrus. I bought some new kind of house insulation... it looks like silver bubble wrap -- and made a circle-tube around each citrus. One roll was $50 at Loews and made it around only 4 of them. If this works I'll need to buy another roll because I have the feeling these aren't the only cold nights we'll be having. I still haven't strung up the Xmas lights... I want to see if this other works first.

Yep, we had ice on the windshields this morning too. Supposed to get down to 29 tonight. I didn't do anything but water and wet the ground. Most of the plants should be fine. My more sensitive plants are all planted in protected locations and usually don't have a problem.

Folks were at the nursery today buying frost cloth and Cloud Cover in droves.

Doesn't this seem a bit early for frosts? I thought our frost in Dec. last year was early, but jeez, it's only November. I don't normally expect frost until Jan. or Feb.
Global warming?

wanda

Wanda, you are right. Don't you remember last year? It was one of the mildest winters on record -- until the end of February, when we got our "first" and "last" frosts all within a week super late in the year. The garden was already in spring mode. So yes, it's early -- in fact, I think we're close to record lows, but it's not unheard of.

Still, I don't think it's worth wrapping citrus and overpampering it. Most Citrus takes some amount of frost without protection, and we've never done anything to protect it. It's more "sub"tropical than tropical. I think all this business with cloudcover, lights, and wrapping them is well intended but totally unnecessary unless we were getting all-time records.

I agree, unless its a lemon or lime the fruit will be fine. Make sure your sheets or plastic doesnt touch your plants, it will burn badly on contact during a frost. Tangerine fruit will take temps into the 20s, the riper they are the better they take cold.

I think limes are probably the most sensitive. Bearss is supposed to be one of the most cold hardy.
I think most citrus, if established willl handle some pretty cold temps.
In our last "hard" freeze of 1998, when temps dropped to 19 and stayed that way for close to a week, my 15yr old lemon turned black and dropped most of it's foliage, but as soon as the weather warmed up, it bounced right back, although it delayed fruiting until the following year.

wanda

The duration of the freeze is more important than the absolute minimum temperature. A pre-dawn dip to 24º will not cause anything near the damage that a night when 30º is reached before midnight, resulting in a six-hour duration below freezing.

In agriculture, 26º is generally considered critical for oranges, 28º for lemons/limes. This is for fruit. Blossoms, buds, and new spring growth is an entirely different matter.