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Tropical Fruits

How to protect your tropical fruit trees from freezing?

9 years ago

Here in 9b fl, we're expecting some hours of freezing early Friday morning. I'd like to know what you would do to protect your fruit trees. I know some of you grow your tropical plants in even colder zones--so what methods of protection would you use to protect your fruit trees?

So far, I've read that spraying them with water helps. Some even suggested boiling a barrel of hot water. and placing it beside the tree. I've got a propane lamp, but haven't used it yet and wonder if that is a good idea to place it close to the tree. I've also thought of placing a pool of water in one of those kiddy swimming pool as I heard that having a water body close is helpful. Besides placing a 100w light bulb at the base of the trunk, to also hook up a portable heater to blow hot air at the base. Lots of ideas here ... but don't quite know which will work best.

If you have experience dealing with your fruit trees
during the Spring freeze, would appreciate hearing from you what works and what doesn't.

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Comments (6)

seagel
9 years ago
Ceramic Wrapped around a PVC frame and added some heavy items on top to keep it from blowing away
seagel
9 years ago
Of course, I covered the plant as well on much colder nights (last night and tonight). Cover the base. I filled 2-3 gallons of warm water before going to bed and placed them around the tree inside the blanket to soak up any cold that it can.
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Just because you see papayas doesn't mean everything is honky dory. We had a very warm winter last year, which may not represent the winter and growth characteristics for this coming year. And even if they did freeze they can grow back pretty quickly. So much so that even a year old papaya can look pretty impressive. Better to be safe than sorry. I wouldn't worry about the peach as they are deciduous, and many avocados are quite cold hardy if they have Mexican genes in them... although if it's small you probably should protect it too. The others I think will need protection at some point this year. The only thing that's going to save you is very close proximity to large bodies of water, or very close proximity to a lot of concrete. Just being south of Orlando ain't gonna do it. That cold air funnels right down the middle of the state. Be ready to deal with any frost warnings, and take them seriously. After awhile you'll learn what the temperature at your house is relative to the forecast... My house is always 2-3 degrees colder than the low forecast for my city. Frost can form at 36 degrees "air temp" (which is officially taken 3' above ground level, which is always colder than the air). Calm nights are always colder than windy nights. Clear nights are always colder than cloudy nights. Depressions always get colder than hills. Any over hanging branches stop the loss of heat through radiation, so rarely will you get frost under trees. That's the basic premise of covering plants, btw. On real cold nights use c9 Christmas lights under a blanket. It'll keep them good down to the low 20s IME.
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bananafan2
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi Seagel,

Sorry I didn't get to replying to you on time. Now I was able to see your plant a little better. Was that a mango tree you have there in the picture?

Anyway, your suggestion using a warm pool to soak up the cold might have been a helpful suggestion. I actually also tried placing a kids pool at the base of each of my three lychee trees. It makes a lot of sense since I've read that plants with water body close to them actually do better than those which are inland.

I love all these tropical fruit trees, but central Florida still can be quite a challenge when freeze hits home.
stanofh 10a Hayward,Ca S.F. bay area
9 years ago
Nothing beats actually warming the air under plastic. A light bulb works fine..but now they are getting out of date. Maybe a spotlight, even if they do come in high wattage's.
If they are calling for serious low 20's cold-- go with the heater. Its just a few nights.
I wish I could convince everybody in the world in this hobby...COVER,heat maybe. Dont lose years of work in one night.
waterfowler90
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Over here in the Coachella Valley(California), an Indian farmer I know uses 1200 of these for his 40 acres of moringa trees:

Says they work much better than burning straw or using windmills. He has them all linked up with gas lines. All his trees are 10-20 feet tall so wrapping them all is not feasible. He says the trees will survive almost any freeze we see here, but they take too long to recover if they aren't protected, and he looses out on getting to the market early when it's possible to get nearly $100 a box.

I plan on buying 4-6 cherimoya trees and using a couple of these propane heaters in between them during the winter. My mangoes have done fine during the past few winters because they're up against the wall and next to the pool which I think keeps them warm when we get freezes here, but the space I have reserved for the cherimoyas is more out in the open.
bananafan2
Original Author
9 years ago
Waterfowler,

Thanks so much for the very interesting information of the propane heater. Sorry that I did not respond to it in a timely fashion--my apologies here. I have in fact acquired a propane heater and have intended to use it. This Winter, we wanted to set it up, but wasn't able to get the propane to be installed properly for use here ... It's good that we're now warming up, so I don't have to think of how to set it up again .. at least for now. But, it's good to know that some people out there are using this as an idea for warming up their plants.

You've mentioned your intention to place them in between your cherimoya trees in the open. My question here is will they give the heat sufficient for warming the plants in the open? But, I'm also thinking ... any heat is better than nothing. So, maybe it's an idea here to consider for myself as well as I do have quite a few tropical trees growing out there in the open space.

Thanks once again for your post. I do appreciate the information you posted here. I hope all your plants will go well for you where you're enjoying your gardening :) By the way, what's your planting zone there, may I ask?

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