That is a beautiful tree and flowers. I don't know where in zone 9 you are located so it is hard to tell.
I still do not believe that a mango tree can survive frost
and such low temperatures. If I were you I would try to prove me wrong and do all you can to save it.
I wish you the best and please let us know how it goes.
Felix

Thanks Felix!!

I am in Sebring, Highlands county(interior) two hours south of Orlando. I will do my best to protect them as much as possible...I just love these trees, I just don't want to lose them :o(

If anyone else out there has some good tips that worked for them, I'm all ears.

Thanks!

Puglvr1,watering your plants before the cold weather helps to absorb the heat from the sun giving better protection.
Felix

Puglvr1---Your tree is quite attractive. It's a shame we have to get frosts and freezes. You can save your tree and blooms. It just depends on how much effort you want to put into it.

Check out my thread on Cold Protection with instructions on how to make a mini-greenhouse. If you can, use LARGE bulbed Christmas lights for your heat source. That is the best. Sheets of plastic come in a very large roll. If you need a larger one, then buy 2 rolls. Also, you can consider pruning the tree a bit to make it easier to cover with the plastic sheeting.

Felix has a good point about watering the tree. A hydrated plant can withstand cold temperatures better because of the heat holding ability of water.

I have a mango tree not quite as large as yours but I will be outside tomorrow getting ready for the near freeze too. So, I'll be doing the same thing.

Christine

That is a gorgeous mango tree you have .
Do the best you can from the bottom up .
The idea of protecting plants and trees from a hard frost is to save the trunk and roots and not worry about the leaves .
Many things can return and flush out over time but with extensive trunk or root damage , they will die .
It is better to have a set back and a living plant instead of pretty green leaves on a plant that dies from the roots freezing .
And no matter how fried and terrible things look after the freezes - do not trim , cut or prune until all signs of frost are gone .
When the bald cypress green out - you know the cold weather is over .
Good luck to you .

christine--what thread?

Michael---The thread is called Cold Protection with photos. I posted a couple of pictures that I took last year of my young mango and other young, tender trees. I included detailed instructions on how to make a mini-greenhouse around tender trees using plastic sheeting and a heat source. I guess I should go find it and bring it forward.

puglvr1---You have to make this greenhouse if you are ever going to get fruit. If you let it get badly damaged each year, it will spend most of it's life trying to recover. In that case, just consider the tree an ornamental. How badly do want the tree to fruit?

Christine

My dwarf Mangoes are that size or larger. I use frost covers and sheets to cover them. The frost covers are well worth the cost! They don't tear easily and have drawstrings to close them around the trunks.

Lisa

Thanks everyone for the nice compliments!

Christine, I WANT fruit more than anything!! Believe me, that is the reason I planted this tree, I LOVE mangos!!
Appreciate the thread also. Very good idea on the mini greenhouse, its just not feasible for me right now to build one :o(

I am definitely watering them before the cold snap, thanks!

Thanks to everyone for all your help and advise. I am definitely covering them with Frost Cloth...Lisa, I agree about the frost cloth 100%... I just purchased (3) 10ft X 12ft med. weight frost cloth. Like I said in the post above, I covered them last year with frost cloth, but now they have more than doubled in size since last January. I didn't have Large enough sizes to use this year. But hopefully the ones I bought today will do the trick? Wish me luck and good luck to all that have to protect their trees also.

Thanks so much!!

We watered and put up the strings of lights on our orange tree last year when we were approaching frost temps. Our tree was just fine, but the leaves of our neighbor's orange tree only ten feet away were black. Maybe it was coincidence, I don't know, but that was our experience, and I think we'd do the light trick again!

Best of luck with your beautiful mango,
Jane

We have a mango tree that we have been nursing thru its 4th winter now. Ours is at least as big as yours if not taller. I agree that it is hard to cover when they get that big. What we are doing this year is using tall bamboo canes and tieing them in a teepee shape. Then we have taken two large frost cloths (sewn together to make it larger) and wrap it around it. We just push the branches gently up and in to be able to wrap it (better to risk some damage than lose it). We take the large black binder clips or clothespins and attach the cover at the top (with a ladder) and clip it closed all around. We weight it with bricks to keep it on the ground. On the coldest nights last year we put a trouble light under the cover. That worked well last year when we got down to 22 degrees for 9hrs.

This is the second mango we have had. The first one died the first winter because we did not have any experience before. We made the mistake of planting it out in the open, thinking it needed lots of sun. However when the cold temps came it did not have enough protection and died even though we covered it. This time we planted it in a corner by a fence and the house. Even though it gets less sun, it has survived with protection. We have even gotten mangos for the first time last year, thanks to the great advice (spray with coppper) we got here.

Gabriele

Thank you Jane and Gabriele!!

Jane, I'm glad the Christmas lights worked well for you, hopefully I will have the same results also.

Gabriele, thanks for taking the time to explain(very well) how you protected your mango tree. One question, can you please tell me on the trouble light what wattage light bulb did you use? I am always afraid to use something that is too strong that might get too hot. I assume I can find this at Home Depot? I appreciate it, I will do something very similar to how you did yours.

Thanks again!

Puglvr1,
I've been using the large XMAS lights for over 20 years with great success. Put more than you think you'll need and it will be fine. You may lose a few buds but because it's so early, you should have a second flush.
I'm playing a wait and see here in Tampa (Davis Islands). We're usually 5-8 degrees warmer than predicted. I like what you said about Mangoes. We sure do love them don't we - smiling.
Good luck.
TampaArt

You do have a lovely Mango Tree. Mine almost died years ago when it was younger from a bad freeze so it's not so lovely.

I'm afraid my Mango is on it's own tonight and tomorrow night since it is so large now. I did cover it once when it was medium sized. It has a wood fence on one side and a Myers lemon on another side and then a shed plus the huge magnolia on the other side. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I planted it like that for this very reason.

hi..how are your blooms doing ? this is everything i know about protecting trees from cold ..organic matter at the base puts off alot of heat a thick layer of organic mulch helps..christmas lights do work really well (but the new energy efficient ones wont they dont put off any heat)..if you have a few light bed sheet you might be able to toss over top that would certainly help..there is a thing called a frost blanket for larger trees like yours that arent too hard to find..you could put stakes up around it and drape the sheet over top it that way ? as long as its over top to trap the heat in at night .. you can wrap the trunk but im not sure that would protect your blooms um..you can put gallon jugs with water under the tree and the heat they absorb from the sun during the day they then let off at night..you can mist the trees with water in the evening because as water gets colder it puts off some heat ..there is a foliage spray called frost guard but im not sure whats in it.. i dont use it ..they do use it on fruit trees though..(ive actually heard of people spraying anti freeze on their plants its supposed to work!) next year if you can stop the tree from budding for as long as you can it might help..dont water it much or at all all winter..with hold water prevents budding..putting some ice or icy water at the base of the tree toward the end of the cold season can prevent budding ..the huge orchards hang fans 30 ft in the air to draw warm air down from the upper atmostphere but thats probably not an option um..thats all i got..good luck ! heidi

Thank you Tampaart, Starlady and Heidi for all your invaluable help and advise! Its much appreciated!!

So far so good, one more night to go...then we get a brief warm up for the low temps. Wow, only 2 more months of winter to go, LOL...

You're right about having to look for the large old fashioned type of Christmas lights, I had to make sure they weren't the energy efficient ones as they did put out less heat. Great for regular home use, but not for protecting fruit trees. I plan on leaving the Christmas lights on there till March, (turning them on as needed) and the frost cloths handy...

Mango Maniac...aka Puglvr...thanks again!

Fellow Mango Maniac! (I've used that term many times in my life) In fact: Go to the link and read the article I wrote for my column a few years ago.
Enjoy
TampaArt

Here is a link that might be useful: mango article