I've saved fruit many times from temps as low as 25/26/27 by going out in the very early morning hours between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM and spraying them down with water. It does help. A couple of things -- 1) bring the hoses inside somewhere they can't freeze. Even a little water will leave an ice plug in the hose, which is frustrating and problematic at 4:00 in the morning. 2) Be sure to wear heavy, waterproof gloves with insulated gloves inside. Your hands will get cold fast, especially when wet. 3) Always get dressed. Don't go out in your pajamas and an overcoat like I did, then hide behind the compost pile for 20 minutes while the cops shine your yard looking for burglars because some neighbor called the police about the strange goings-on in your yard at 4:00 in the morning! :=)

ATTACK of the red spider mites except yours look HUGE!!. that tree is infested with them. if its warm enough outside you need to blast that tree with water on all sides of the leaves and trunk. if its too cold I guess you could do the same in the shower. you could also use an insecticidal soap if you cant take it outside. Once you get the pest under control continue to water when the soil almost dry and fertilize lightly once a month or so until spring.

Check to see if you have male and female flowers on the vine. The female flowers have the immature fruit behind them...if they aren't pollinated, the fruit turns brown and falls off. In general, vines produce female flowers before it begins to produce male ones, so it is possible you have one and not the other. It is also possible you have both but that you don't have the insect activity to pollinate the female flower. That is easily remedied...take a qtip (or even just your finger) and get some of the pollen from the male flower and transfer it to the center of the female flower. Good luck!

Thanks again for all the helpful advice, guys. I just raked back a bit of the soil around the trunk and put down some straw, hoping that will prevent water from pooling in the middle. When I raked the soil I did run into a few VERY thin roots that I'm not sure were even connected to the tree. I hope my roughing them up didn't cause any damage. Overall, the tree looks a lot better and happier now. My next step is fencing it in to keep the critters out. It probably is opossums. I've seen them climbing over our fence at night in the past. I'd rather just make a cage/fence for the tree than try to catch them. I've also had a real problem with ants climbing up the tree and farming aphids that feed on the new leaves. I had to remove the Tanglefoot when I was working on the tree and will reapply it. It keeps the ants away but getting it on is a real pain. I have to crawl under this tiny tree and the usual method of wrapping the paper strip around the trunk doesn't work because the bark is not smooth and creates gaps under the paper that the ants just crawl through. So what I've been doing is putting a piece of duct tape around the trunk and putting the Tanglefoot on that. I don't really like taping the tree, though. I considered putting the goo directly on the trunk but I've heard that's not good either. Any other possible advice on that? Blocking up the gaps under the paper with cotton and what not is difficult as I have do do all of this while practically lying on the ground and straining my body. Ugh.