Nice to hear your plants made out as well as they did.

Let me preface all my tropicals are in the ground. My lowest temp in NW Houston during this time was 18.5
with several mornings at 23-24.

The worst of the trees, was my Jakfruit. The leaves aren't really burnt but just limp. After a week, they haven't turned brown. The stems look good and healthy.

The lychee, any limbs nearest the cover did get burned. But overall she looks good.

The Mangoes, few leaves are turning brown. This is really on the tips of 1-2 limbs, other than that they look fantastic.

The satumas came through with out missing a beat. The meyer lemons have lost about 50% of their leaves.

Sucks about your mangosteen. They are tough. Anything much below about 60 and they seem to go downhill fast. My big seedling that I posted pics of a few weeks ago was killed almost overnight for no known reason. My grafted one was 2 ft away from it in the greenhouse and it is totally fine. The main stem on the seedling is still green about halfway up but my hopes are slim for it.

Glad to hear most of your other stuff made out ok. I hope a few of your cacao pods are still edible.

Harry

Sorry to hear about your mangosteen. The elusive mangosteen seems impossible to fruit on the mainland.

Great news on the mango. Hopefully you'll get enough fruit to ship to cali.

I also had a low of 28 here in northern CA (weather report said 28 my reading was 29) but my lancetilla and glen did fine with no protection but I did pull them under the house eaves. The iceacream has some new buds about to grow. The carrie looks about dead but has looked that was for a month now.

Pineapples fine but jackfruit seedling dropped its leaves but stalk still has life.

Hello Harry,
I feel bad about the mangosteen, even if I have never tried it I have seen the hefty pricetags for the grafted and the seedlings. I am happy to hear the majority of your stuff made it thru.
Tammy,
Sorry to hear that your Carrie is dying. I have heard so much good stuff about the fruit of this mango. I always thought that it sucked having to grow tropicals indoors but I guess after hearing a lot of these sad stories I am lucky that I don't have to worry about that. Even if I can only get so many fruit because the trees have to stay at a maneagable size for moving in and out of the house, I can live with that. I hope everyones gardens pull thru and do twice as well!
Andrew

I'm sorry to hear about your mangosteen Harry. But glad to hear there was no damage to your mangoes and other tropical fruits.

Darn guys...really sucks. Try to provide the mangosteens with as much heat and humidity as possible. Maybe they will snap out of it. I'm sure it will take them an incredible amount of time to do so if they make it. Good luck.

I hope everyone's plants recover quickly.

Harry, very valuable info.

im convinced mangosteen is just short of impossible here. too fickle and too temperate of a climate without a dedicated greenhouse.

the only thing of mine to get scorched was my Malay Apple, and it appears the damage is just foliar. its in a exposed northern part of my front yard so it got alot of wind.

when i inevitably get bored of the usual tropicals this season and get the itch to seek out something more ultra-tropical i will focus more on autocarpus, they seem more hearty.

Most of my stuff made it through the cold ok, Banana plants fared the worst all have brown fried leaves but some of the stems look good so they should come back. my Tamarind also lost some leaves at the ends of branches but it looks good. My ackee tree seems to have taken some leaf damage mostly up top, but should recover fine. My sugar apple toasted all its leaves and they are in process of falling off, think it will be fine. All of my Mango trees survived the largest a Valencia Pride tree was not covered due to size and has some burnt/miscolored leaves on branch ends but seems fine otherwise. The other one with some burnt leaves is my Pickering Mango tree/bush...but it should be ok. All the other Mango trees look unfazed from the cold. My Natal Plum bush had some minor leaf burn on branch ends. Knock on wood...everything else seems totally undamaged.

Sorry about your Mangosteen Harry, but I'm so glad most of your plants made it with little problems. Its absolutely amazing to me that same front that you got on Jan.17 that dumped 2" of rain in your backyard...only gave me less that 1/10". I so wanted some of that rain as my yard could have really used it. Oh well...I guess I will have to drag the hose out again. Great news on your trees!

Thank you Harry for posting this, it is nice to have accurate updated information on these plants. How did your kwai muk fair so far? Dang mangosteens, do you have other garcinias, how did they do? Mangosteen was damaged but durian was fine.....mangosteens are a pain.

Sparky, which jak fruit do you have? Was it covered?

good luck everyone on the recovery

-Ethan

Thanks, all for the condolences on the mangosteen.

Ethan:

Forgot about my Kwai Muk. It seems fine, no damage noted thus far. I do have one other garcinia. Not really sure what it is. I'll have to post a picture when I get the chance. It was uncovered and unaffected by the cold. Its a Rheedia, I think...some people have told me it is called Cuban Mangosteen.

Nancy:

This front that just past was very atypical. Usually, they get much more rain upstate and we get a little thin tail of showers which deposits little rain. This one carried a pretty good wallop with heavy winds and lots of moisture, but not much temperature change. The weather sure has been strange.

Harry

Harry,

That rainstorm yesterday dumped so much rain so quickly it flooded a large part of my backyard, that only just cleared of standing water today.

It was actually funny my wife and me were scrambling outside in the pouring rain trying to fill extra containers with the overflow hose from my overfilled rain barrel. The 60 gallon barrel gives one - two weeks of minimal tree watering so we have learned to try to fill up extra containers to augment that. Looking at the side of my house it looks like I found a spring and went into the bottled water business...

Glad to hear most of your plants turned out ok, sorry about that elusive mangosteen.

Tony

Did some further updating of photos from the cold wave aftermath. Most are the worst of things. At the end I threw in some good news things.

Cacao...before

Cacao....after

More cacao before, side view

Side view of cacao, after

Cacao pod before

Sole surviving cacao pod after

Mangosteen before

Mangosteen after (next to it is a seedling Durian that made it through the cold with just a towel over it)

June Plum before

June Plum after

Tabouey x J-30 Jakfruit before

Tabouey x J-30 jakfruit after

Tabouey x J 30 to the far left....Black Gold x Tabouey center and Mia 3 to the right...cold tolerance differences with jakfruit seedlings

Ross Sapote before

Ross Sapote after

Malay Apple before

Malay Apple after (note Brewster lychee behind is untouched by the cold)

Coffee

Wilson Seedless Guanabana

Nutmeg

Amazingly, Rollinia seedling only tip burnt and still has green foliage.....the only annona I can say that for in my yard

Martinez mango...still chugging away, seemingly unaffected

Wow Harry looks like you took more damage then I thought from your description. Sucks about the cacao pods. At least it looks like the tree should be ok. Is the Jack dead? Looks horrible in the pic. Seems odd that only that one shows much of any damage. Is the coffee still green under the bark?

How do you like the taste of the June plum? I have a few small seedlings and am wondering if they are worth the space?

John:

Yes, as time goes by the damage seems to be getting somewhat worse. The coffee is still green when you scratch the bark. So far, anyway. I have three other smaller cacao trees planted around the same area as my larger one. They look pretty bad, one should survive, the others I am not so sure about. The larger cacao should make it, perhaps with some limb die back, but looks like even the largest pod is toast. There's a soft spot developing. Not too happy about that. Regarding June Plum....I am not a huge fan. I'll eat it when its ripe, but the fruits, especially of this dwarf variety have limited edible flesh and a very large spiny seed. I am not a big fan of fruits that you have to do lots of work to enjoy little flesh. By the time you peel it, and then deal with the seed, their is scant flesh to really sink your teeth into. It is very tropical tasting in a twangy mango sort of way, when ripe. Murahilin stopped by the other night and took some of the green ones. He eats them green....I am defintiely not into that. I do have a large June Plum tree (not a dwarf) that puts out fruits about twice the size of this dwarf. It's pretty defoliated right now and may have some die back but should be OK. I much prefer the fruit from that tree. The dwarf tree is nice and it produces a lot of fruit that you will not get anywhere else....but....its no mango, lychee, or mangosteen. I could send you some fruits to try if you like so that you could make an educated decision on growing it.

Harry

Wow Harry that was a lot of damage. Seeing that mangosteen now I understand your upset! To bad there is no cacao for you to try. That must be extremly frustrating for you. Better luck next year. I hope your coffee will make it. That is an impressive little tree. Do you grind your own coffee? The martinez mango looks nice. They are developing pretty fast. I hope that your trees pull thru. Good luck.
Andrew

Sorry about all the damage Harry. You're so right...seems like my trees are much worse today than they were a week ago. I guess the heat that we've been having the last several days just seems to make things look even browner and "fried". At least your mango and lychee seems to take everything in stride. I bet that Jackfruit will be fine after a few months.

Sorry to see you damage, esp. the mangosteen seedling and Jakfruit. That is amazing the difference in cold tolerance between the 3 Jaks. You've done a good job cataloging the before and after pics. I hope your stuff is o.k.

Bluepalm

That wasn't a seedling....it was a $125 grafted mangosteen from Excalibur. Ouch!

Now that I know what june plums are, I love them (especially when they're green). I also love your mango pic and how beautiful and sunny it is in your part of the country.
I hope your fruit trees will recover soon.

Ouch indeed. Sorry that happened!

Hello Harry,
You bought that nutmeg from that nursery in Hawaii right? The grower that claims that the original Nutmeg was hermaphroditic? I was just wondering. Do you think it has a chance at recovering? You had mentioned in a previous post that you had two diffrent june plums, one with a large spiny seed and one that had more pulp. The one with more pulp sounds interesting. These trees fruit at a small size right? I am wondering if you grow them from seed if you can get a plant that is true to type. I am just thinking of some new tropicals(besides mango) thatI can add. I really don't have anything unusual except the Caimito. I would like to add something a lil diffrent. Something that wouldn't be to difficult to grow but something that would be rewarding with fruit harvest. I am still thinking of the carambola bell but not quite sure yet. Maybe you can help me more when I get down there to your house. I have 2 nice seed grown quenepa now. I am praying that I end up with a male and female. My S.A. and soursop are growing nicely now. Both are still relatively small but they will make it. I have tons of seedlings of S.A. and not sure what I will do with them all. I will have to throw most out unless someone here wants them. I just hope they are worth the wait. I know grafted trees are much better. If you can think of a fruit that I could grow let me know.
Andrew

Andrew:

My nutmeg did come from Hawaii...a grift sent by a fruit friend. It is supposed to be self-fruitful even though it is a seedling. I am hoping for its recovery, but don't have any idea at this point if it will come back from the cold blast it took or not.

You misunderstood my comments on the two June Plums. Both have spiny seeds that take up a large part of the fruit. The larger tree variety is just a larger fruit and so has more flesh.....same ratio of flesh to seed, just more meat per fruitbecause of the size of the fruit. You could easily grow the dwarf tree in a pot. The larger tree is a 30 footer and I don't think pot culture will get you to where you want to go with it.

Harry

As more time passes more damage appears.My jackfruits have had damage to the smallest twiggs and some outside leaves have bronzed and darkened. They looked much better a couple days ago and I've noticed the same conditions on others in the area.Very slight yellowing of leaves on my carambola but the fruit is undamaged. No damage is noted on my mangoes, key limes,macadamia,longan and white sapotes. Bananas look the worst with some browning on the leaves and backening of some of the fruits but all the stalks look good. Coffee and soursop have completely defoliated. Sugar apples are an unknown since they loose their leaves this time of year anyway. Finally I have noticed more browning on coconut fronds in the area.(Stuart Florida)

Harry:
I appreciate you clearing that up for me on the june plum. My friens said they are nice and sour but the fruit to seed ratio is too small for me, even though I am growing the quenepa. I am only growing this because it is another favorite for me a very close competitor to the mango but I like the mango more. I wish quenepa had longer fruiting season. Have you ever tried grafting this before? Just wondering because all I have are seedlings. I will have to look into how this is done so maybe someday I can get some budwood from you and try it. I would LOVE to have a fruiting tree! Maybe I could figure out how to graft male and female to a seedling?
Staurt,
Is Stuart central or southern Fl? I was wondering because magazines that sell keylime say that it is most frost tender but mine experienced nightime lows around 34 degrees and it was fine. No damage. I really think they are much more cold hardy then some people believe. I tried to get this tree ordered thru a greenhouse in Erie but it didn't happen. I remember one woman who worked there said they wouldn't carry it because of its tenderness. She tried to convince me to buy a limequat instead but I refused. I finally got one last summer and it is a nice size now.
Andrew

Andrew:

Sorry, I have no experience grafting Quenepa. I have two trees and one pot bound seedling. One of the trees was in decline and may have been done in by the freeze. The other is doing OK and is the only one that has ever bloomed and fruited. Frankly, although these were purchased in PR by the person that gave them to be (as air layers), after ten years he yanked them from his yard as being non-productive. Now they have been in my yard for about ten years and I have had 1 bloom pannicle with 4 fruits that got eaten by the Cuban May Beetles before they could get larger than pea size. So, I may be yanking mine soon as well.

StuartDave:

You must be fairly close to the coast or near the water based on your freeze damage. You would have much more damage I would think if you were anywhere in land at Stuart's latitutde.

Harry

Harry, I am about 4 miles from the ocean to my east and 1/2 mile from the St Lucie River to my west. I also have a lot of plant cover after 12 yrs of planting that provide shade and wind protection. This particular freeze seemed to hit South Florida harder than those of the last few years.