Oh boy. Very sorry to see your loss...

Banana - feel really gutted for you. not sure what to do about the burnt leaves- i cant imagine how having them hang around would be good for the tree. My instinct would be to remove them all and prune some of the wood too and hope that starts a mega growth flush but thats just an instinct not based on knowledge. lets see what the experts on this forum think. also, i would definitly email bill of lycheesonline and see what he suggests. agaain, really osrry for you but your tree will be back within a couple of years.

Bananafan,
That really stinks. It seems that even in FL you can't plant tropicals and be guaranteed that they will grow and flourish. I know that cold weather was unusual but the last winter in FL was unseasonably cold also. It makes me realize that even if I lived there i may still have to grow in pots. Well good luck and I hope you don't have to wack it way back. Hopefully your other lychees will grow fast and fruit soon. Good luck!
Andrew

Banana...I am so sorry about your lychee tree. You are not alone, both my lychee trees looks worse than yours. Mine looks completely "torched". I am trying to be optimistic and hope for the best.

I am not an expert but have always been told NOT to trim anything right now since we still have 5-7 weeks of winter left with freeze/frost threats still very possible. Reason you don't want to trim anything off is if we have another freeze the already damaged leaves will act as a buffer or protection and will protect it from further damages. If you were to prune it now and we get another freeze...the new branches where you trimmed will be further damaged. At least this is what I've read and was told by several fruit tree nurseries in my area. Good luck...but I think yours will be just fine, the green leaves below is a very good sign that your tree is not dead. I am under the impression that as long as the soil temps do not reach the freezing mark(32ð) it should come back because the roots were not frozen? At least I'm hoping my assumptions are right? I also read that waiting till the threat of frost is over appx. (Mid March)for us in Central FL, you can see where new growth starts to appear on the branches...then you will know exactly where to cut off the dead branches... If my tree live, I know that I will lose 75% of the tree, which I can live with as long as it recovers...only time will tell?

BTW, I found this agricultural website(FL) that tells us what our soil temps are in our town...was very helpful for me. 40� was the coldest the soil got and that was when our air temps reached the low to mid 20's. I was very glad I found this link...at least I know the soil never got to freezing mark.

Here is a link that might be useful: FAWN....

BananaFan:

Heart breaking......really makes me sad. I totally agree with Puglvr1. Her advice is right on the money. Your tree will live to see another day. You're just going to have to wait a little longer to get back to where you once were. But you'll get there.

Harry

Very sad to see the tree like that. But we should be happy that it's still alive! I agree that you should not prune the dead leaves yet since there might be another cold night. Plus, we do not need new growth at this time of the year with the winter weather. Next time you should hang christmas light all over the tree. You get nice decoration plus it keeps the tree from freezing nights. I'm sure the tree will recover soon once the winter is over and you'll get a brushy tree.

Hi banana,

That is depressing since these trees are supposed to be more cold hardy as they get older. Just curious, did you leave the light on all the time while it was covered including daytime? I'm trying to beef up my protection for next freeze and was planning on thick plastic and light bulb like you did.

Ouch!
dont trim 'til spring.
-Ethan

Thank you guys for sharing my sorrow with me. I'm feeling a lot better with each of your concerns and words of comfort. They really mean a lot to me as I'm still recovering from the shock.

What puzzles me most is why this Lychee tree which is the oldest of them all has sustained so much damage while the other smaller ones are doing fine. It is the only plant that I've used the heavy plastic. If I had to speculate the reasons, it could be a few ... Firstly, the outer branches could have been in contact with the cold plastic sheet and I have read somewhere that it should be something I should be careful of. Well, obviously I didn't pay much attention to it while I was doing the job. The other lychees had a lighter plastic sheet on and that stopped the sheets from dropping down so much to touch their leaves. Secondly, adding more lights would have been a good idea too. All in all, I have learned a good lesson about Lychee trees now ... you never take chances with them. You would think that a Lychee tree that old will take the cold (I'm guessing it's 5-6 yers old now since it was about 2-3 years old when I first bought it). Again, this year's cold temperature is really unusual. The night that was coldest hit 23 degrees F!

On a brighter note, however, I'm still very thankful that there are still signs of life and hopefully the roots are not damaged. Once again, thanks to all of you who chipped in your suggestions and advice here. I'm going to go over them carefully and take whatever suggestions there are out there to help my very injured baby here.

By the way, puglvr, I too am very sorry to hear of your two damaged lychee trees. Do you have pics of them?

When I get a chance later on, I will post pictures of my other lychee trees that survived the cold. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though that there won't be anything that cold coming again, but then again, nobody knows ..., so I'll be more prepared the next time.

Pug,
I know it is a painfull thing to see, but I would like to see pics of your damages. I am a little upset also. I have 4 roses planted in the back of my flowerbed and all the snow and ice on the roof fell off today...we almost hit $0 degree mark. All the weight from the ice/snow snapped my roses to the ground:( The second winter this has happened. I am nervous about digging them out and moving them but I think this is the best option for me.
Andrew

I would think that one took more damage because you were covering a much larger area so the light bulb did not raise the temp as much. The tree touching the plastic would have only affected the leaves that actually made contact with the plastic. I would maybe pick up a small space heater for the next freeze. I would bet even those small ones meant for under a desk would work well.

Good luck for the rest of the season. I bet by next summer it will look better than ever.

BananaFan:

I have two further thoughts about why your tree suffered the damage it did. The first thought is that the smaller trees that survived in better condition were closer to the ground which may have allowed collected ground warmth to protect...as the lower limbs of your severely damaged were also so protected. The second thought is that the covering of this tree in plastic may have unintentially warmed the upper part of the tree through a kind of greenhouse effect (during the day when the sun was beating down) and the large temerature change between day and night, sunny and no sun, caused a cooking of the leaves. I had this happen to me with an orchid coillection that had to deal with a 26 degree morning. The ones I covered with plastic during that 3 day cold spell got cooked. The ones that had fallen to and were laying directly on the ground or were hanging under trees without any protection survived quite well without being torched. Anyway...those are my thoughts for what they are worth.

Harry

Bananafan,

It's sad to see a tree like that. My tree is 1000 times smaller than yours.

You could invest a heater, I bought one this winter at Homedepot for sale for 50 dollars, it was sealed with oil, so not too hot to touch, looks very solid built. It has 700w, 800w and 1500w switches, and most importantly it has this anti-freeze feature, it will automatically control the temp to around 5C. In your case, I don't think it need much electricity.

Okay...I'm posting the pictures of my "BURNT" LYCHEE TREES.
But, I wanted to give you a WARNING...THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART...especially Lycheeluva. I don't want you to faint,lol...If I don't laugh about these pics, I would be crying.

Below the mango pic are pictures of my Lychee trees that was treated with Freeze Pruf and what the tree looks like now. I don't know about anybody else, but this is what my personal experience is with FP, for me it did NOT work.

First picture is my Mango(Glenn) from last years (January 09) Freeze. BTW, this tree recovered...amazingly enough!
{{gwi:1305438}}

Sweetheart Lychee January 2010 freeze
{{gwi:1305439}}
Sweet Cliff? bought as a Brewster...Jan. 2010 Freeze
{{gwi:1305440}}

Please send some good vibes down here to Bananafan and I that our trees survive...even if I have to cut it down to 2 ft.

Nancy:

You were right....your poor trees are worse off. So, so sorry to see this. This is like post-Katrina or post Tsunami for us tropical tree growers. When youput so much energy, time and hope into these trees it is very upsetting to see this. I see you have the trunk wrapped on the Sweetheart. Were all your trees wrapped? The question is, how far along the branches and God forbid the trunk did the freeze affect. I am hoping that this is just a leaf and peripheral branch issue and you'll be back in business growing nicely by summer. Hang in there....it is always darkest before the dawn.

Harry

Nancy- my heart goes out to you. what a shame. i send my very best for a speedy recovery.

Seeing all these freeze damage pictures sends my mind back to our Hurricane Wilma aftermath. My trees, most of which were 8-15 years old at that time......80% blown over, some uprooted entirely. I have video of my yard and I can't even bear to look at it. I had to hat rack all the canopies and pull the tree into the best up-right postions that I could with the car, propping them up with the heavy branches that we cut as braces. Worked non-stop for the better part of three weeks (while we had no power) cutting and hauling what seemed like mountians of debris and cut branches to the roadway for pickup. I shudder to think about ever having to do it again.

The good thing about tropical fruit trees, however, is that they are resilient. I think I had Post Traunmatic Stress disorder after that storm 5 years ago.

Anyway, the good news is no one froze to death and trees can be replaced if necessary in the worst case. But it is still very saddening.

Hi Bananafan:
Part of the problem with your cold protection setup is that a 100W light is not enough energy to maintain the temperature of your 8 ft lychee tree above freezing. you should have used around 300W to 500W total power on a tree that large. Basically, install multiple 100W lights, until you reach the temperature increase you are looking for.

I have done this many times... In my opinion you should probably by a wireless thermometer and use it to test your cold protection setup...

Good luck and I hope your tree recovers soon...

Harry,
here are some pictures of my two 30 foot lychees, the first one lost over a third of canopy and the second over half because of huricane Ivan in 04, the good thing is you would never know this from afar now.

first tree

second tree

Pug,
I feel so sad for you. Those lychee remind me of how our trees look like during fall. I am hoping and praying that they make it thru okay. How did your mangoes make it thru. DO they look as bad as the lychee?
Andrew

Thank you Harry, LL and Andrew!!

Harry, that is the reason I wrapped the trunk to keep it from freezing. I don't think the trunk froze. The foam wrap seem to do a very good job insulating it. I am hopeful anyways? I feel for you when you were describing the devastation you endured with Wilma...I lived in Miami during Wilma and I can still hear the 100mph winds howling. I hope we never experience anything like that again. I'm glad your trees have recovered so well.

Ronald, those are amazing pics of recovery.Truly Amazing!!

Andrew, I sustained damages on my Mango trees...but thank goodness not to the same extent like my Lychees...don't get me wrong I have a lot of foliar and some small branches damaged but I think they will recover. Some fared better than others...due mostly to locations I'm sure.

Thanks for the pictures, Ronald. I have some lychees that have funky growths where they have tried to overcome hurricane damage. In some cases, I wonder if the tree isn't going to just snap in the next heavy gale because of the weekness near the base of the tree where a large section of the canopy blew off. So far, it hasn't happened. My oldest Hak Ip lychee went over and refused to be uprighted. I ended up just leaving it and trimming the new growths to make a new central leader for the tree. I know you have posted some pics where you have had to do the same thing with other fruit trees. Sometimes, you just have to do the best you can and go with a less than perfect situation.

Puglvr,

Now I know what you mean .... It's incredibly sad. Both of your lychees have a very full crown and they also look taller than mine. I'm glad you took it so well. I hope both your plants will bounce back too. My only comfort is that my other smaller lychees turn out ok and I've saved another of my potted Lychee Mauritius before the froze claimed more damage on it. Parts of its new flushes were damaged, but some are ok and I think it's trying to throw out some blooms. My plan is to always have one in the ground and one of its similar kind in the pot, so in case one dies, I don't feel so much of a pain. That said, I'm hoping that my Lychee Mauritius lives as it would be very sad to see it go after all these years.

Mostro, are you growing lychees in your area too? Yes, it would certainly have been helpful if I had put in more lights as it does make sense because the tree has got a larger area to warm up.

Harry, I actually learnt my lesson many years ago when a prized 10 foot tree got blown just a few degrees off center. Perfect situation to staighten it back up right? Wrong,the tree was leafless in a week and dead. So since then I have resisted trying to move them at all.

I have had large cracks in the truck of the trees but as long as they have time to heal before anymore strong winds they seem to be pretty strong, for a lychee anyway.

bananafan:
No, I don't have any lychees yet, I want to get one some time soon... However, I have three mangos (two in ground), three guavas, a keylime, a few pineapples, and 7 oranges/grapefruits/mandarins. I use to have an avocado, but the freeze killed it to the ground... It was a supposedly hardy Mexicola Grande tree. I am not sure what's up with that...

All my tropical trees made it perfectly, but it looks like the oranges/grapefruit got some significant leaf damage, but they should recover quickly...

Of course, the bananas froze all the way to the ground, the freeze-pruf did not seem to help them at all!