Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Forcasted lows for the next 3 nites here in zone 9b --- 32, 32, 31 ---- gimme a break?!

Full Blue moon decends over pricey tropical 12/31. Of course this means 3 nites of predicted frost! Short duration but lethal nonetheless.


Goldfinger bunch, as yet unripened, comes down today. Will hang in the house.


Frost protection process begins -- leaf tuck up.




Frost protection kept simple. Blankets cut to 7' by 4' for most dwarf types. Larger as required. Top and side edges folded and clipped. Clips - one gross for $16.95 at Orifice Depot. Frost blankets (the good stuff) - $2.00/foot, 15' wide roll.




This stuff breathes real good and can stay on for protracted periods. At $2.00 per foot it had better!

Dan

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

for smaller plants you can just throw a blanket or sheets from your bed over them.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

They'd be fine at 33 - but 32, 31 - gone pecan. That's very cold for that part of FLA!

They'd come back just fine though.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Generally speaking, a 32 degree event, even a couple is ok for most banana plants. You'll get some fried leaves and that's about it. Just trim off the dead leaves and wait for new leaves to spiral out.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Your area has been revised, according to NOAA. Upper 20s are coming.. Please wrap your Ae Ae at least twice. Some areas are down to 27 in the Port St Lucie area, but I assumed you were close to the beach so only 29. But you'll need more than a frost blanket. Several wraps should be enough to keep stuff green. With one layer, it will be 100% roasting of leafs.

Overnight

Mostly Clear
Mostly
Clear
Lo 32 °F Monday

Sunny
Sunny

Hi 58 °F Monday
Night
Mostly Clear
Mostly
Clear
Lo 32 °F Tuesday

Sunny
Sunny

Hi 56 °F Tuesday
Night
Mostly Clear
Mostly
Clear
Lo 29 °F Wednesday

Sunny
Sunny

Hi 58 °F Wednesday
Night
Mostly Clear
Mostly
Clear
Lo 32 °F

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

I Like your concept but I don't like the metal clips just because they absorb the cold all to well.. to bad you can't buy chip clips in grosses :^)

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

thanks god in here free of frost hehe. we have sun light all long year heheh

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Check out our Thursday and Friday ;)

Today
Jan 4
47°
28°

Tue
Jan 5
50°
35°

Wed
Jan 6
57°
39°

Thu
Jan 7
41°
18°

Fri
Jan 8
36°
26°

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

I blame global warming (;

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

tru

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

This is horrible! I mean SOUTH FLORIDA! Its too warm to be protecting plants there!!! (or so you would think)

This cold is very unusual. Luckily over here the nights here arent getting to record breaking cold (most are above 20) but the days are barely above freezing which is about 10F degrees below average. All my palms are covered except of my needle palm.

I hope they cold air gets out of here soon. The only place getting it good is the southwest with ABOVE average temperatures (but they did get some pretty nasty temps earlier this season there too). Florida and the center of the contry seem to really be getting the brunt of it. Some northern parts of florida MIGHT see a little SNOW later this week, but right now thats wishful thinking (if you actually like the snow).


Good luck, hope everything makes it down there! Dont forget to post some pics after this rare and bitter cold event is over.


...
Global warming certainly is looking less likely to me every day. After a cool summer where the hottest temp (93F) was in april (with only 5 days from april to august in the 90s), and so far a forecast that doesnt even take me to average temperatures, I think we are definately in a cool period since probably 85% of the country (not inculding alaska or hawaii) is below average and so is many other northern hemisphere countries. Right now I can use some summer days!

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

I just got back from a week-long trip only to find that we're expecting freezes down here.

making my eventual move to Dade or Broward counties more likely.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Good luck to all you Floridians! :coldbanana:

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Be safe, not sorry. It's a lot easier to cover something once than start from scratch with a small plant. Dan, it looks great, so this advice is for everyone else out there who might choose to risk it rather than cover it.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

I wrapped bananas with window screen and filled the screen with leaves--about 5-6 inch layer all around--banana leaves are unprotected and will be toast. My new bananas, IC, DO, DR and DC are inside in containers.

For my citrus, I have them covered and have added 5 gal buckets of water--packed the bottom of the trunks with bags of dirt, and have added Christmas tree lights to the most of the ones with fruit still on them.

The pineapples are inside and the avocado is covered and wrapped with blankets.

The weatherman says this is just the first blast--we are looking at teens by the weekend.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

It turned from sleet to snow around 10am and snowed half the day...... too funny <-shakin head.. this is some weather...

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Thanks for all the good wishes and info folks. Taylor hit it on the head. Better safe than sorry. Last year I decided to ride out the 4 frosts we had and lost all the big naner plants except the Hua Moa and the Goldfinger. All the pups and mats were ok. Everything grew back. However, on this go around I went for blanketing.

Like the Phoenix, my bananas are going up in smoke and rising again from their own ashes in the spring. I'm not into banana growing to be a pupmeister -- I WANT FRUIT!!!!

Current lowtemp forecast for tonite thru Sun is 29, 31, 41, 37, 30, 34 deg F.

Red flag warnings are up for fire threat due to low humidity and ongoing dry conditions. Chances for rain mostly 0%.

Finished the blanketing about 7:30 PM Sun evening with a headlamp and help from p'd-off wife.

Here's the scene.





The tallest - the Goldfinger. Notice the power lines!


Some good news - one of Tog's favorite orchids

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Yeah, I've seen predictions of as low as 20 degrees here in the Houston area. It's going to be bad whether we wrap or not. Not looking forward to this at all.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

The predictions for here are scary--some predictions are as low as 15 for the weekend. We have been below freezing for 3 nights already and yesterday it did not get above until afternoon.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

The area where I live and the area where my farm is, are both in zone 10. In zone 10 we are to average 1 freeze every two years. Since we have lived here 1 freeze 2007 (Jan), 1 freeze 2008 (Jan), two freezes 2009 (Jan) (Feb),
and for this week the temps have been between 37 and 42 for morning lows all week (which is very unusual in this climate). Tomorrow morning and possibly thursday morning are supposed to be near freezing.Our local weatherman gave us freeze warnings tonight! Lows 10 miles inland are to be freezing or below.

Precautions are to take what bananas, in pots, I can inside the garage. I filled my garage with what I could. The Gros Michael should go into the ground in a couple of weeks, as well as many others.

This is one South Florida style Cold Preparation!

Bananimal I hope your efforts work! Please keep us informed. I did things like this in zone 9 but the efforts were futile.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

The last post was a lot of information with little reference, here are some pictures!





Another South Florida Style Cold protection! Some of them don't look so good after being outside in this unseasonably cold weather! Some are too tall to fit in standing up!

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Some plants in the ground and too large to be brought indoors just have to "deal."



I'm hoping they are not badly damaged! :2750:

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Ok, I live right next to Lake Okeechobee and the low this morning was 41, despite that I have 432 plants that I am trying to grow out at my house so I was out quite late last night building a structure to cover them all. Basically, you can fit about 500 6" pots into a 10x13 structure. I haven't been out to the farm yet, but I haven't gotten a call from my neighbor up there yet this morning so I am assuming they made it through OK. I'm more worried about tonight, since it is supposed to be more of a radiational freeze.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

The only good thing about "Freeze Week 10" is the bunch of Goldfinger I was forced to cut down. Wanted to get more plumping and size -- but now it's safe and can ripen in the warm kitchen.



Dan

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Good luck to all of you in frosts way. We in California fought it off a few weeks ago. The things we all do to save our plants is amazing. I have over 320 varieties of tropicals and hundreds of plants. Mine all made it with being covered, wrapped and put in the green house. I have learned a few more tricks from this post for next time. Thanks!

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Woke up to this the other day. It doesn't look like much, but boy was it cold.
Brrrr

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Almost as classic as BigDog's classic pic, lol:

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Wow Jarred, I won't post pics of the 10 inches we just got LOL.
It is amazing to see snow in FL!

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Yea, we're wimps here when it comes to that. 1 micron here is too much, lol.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

:0513::2788::coldbanana::2197::nanabath:

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

lmao now lets see if I get sent to Buffalo next week

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Another boring sunny day here. ;)

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Finally a break -- 75F today. Put the shorts back on. Saw "Avatar" at the Rave and ate a fat bloody steak at the Outback.

Tomorrow, before the next cold front, its a couple hours pompano fishing in Jensen in the lagoon.
Can you say Doc's Goofy Jigs, boys and girls? It'll be great as long as those pesky 42 inch long snook leave my Goofy alone.

The blankets come off the bananas Monday with a week of normal temps forcasted, I hope!

Sounds like So Fla again, right?

ewitte ----- Funny thing -- when I lived up north they used to send me to Houston at this time of year. Many not so fond memories of fixing the editorial system at the Houston post in the middle of the nite!!!

Dan

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Definitely had a frost Thursday Morning, everything below 2' was scorched pretty good. The Gran Nains, Kandrians, and Nam Wahs seemed to make it through ok, but the Misi Lukis took it pretty hard. I am really worried about the next two nights. We will have wind so it won't frost but it may just freeze. It's supposed to freeze in Homestead so at least I'm in the same boat as my competition.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Jarred when did you move to Palm City? I used to live in Jensen Beach for years.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Nick,

Just called my wife's cousin in Homestead. They already heard about the low 30's. I gave them 5 or 6 different naner types last year that were just getting extablished. I hope this cycle of cold fronts stops for a while.

The citrus in Ft Pierce is going into tonights frost already well chilled. Fruit is going to be lost - how much we'll see. I'm afraid to unwrap my bananas on Monday or Tues. Already took a few peeks and there is some scorching already.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Sorry to hear about all the cold weather down south. I hope all the plants come through okay, not just the bananas.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

What do they sell at Orifice Depot?? We don't have those up here in Canada :ha: Sorry, I just read that and had to laugh. Hope everything comes throught okay.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Hi Jeffrey... hope your bananas and all your other tropicals and etc. are all doing well after this bout with the cold. Still have that jungle in your backyard?

We moved up to Stuart about a year and a half ago, then hopped over the river to Palm City a year ago. Will be moving out of here and across the country in about a month or two.
:0519:

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Kevin,

Orifice Depot has lots and lots of everthing for the office in big packages. Can't buy a single box of paper clips. Thought the Canadian competitor was called "Out The Wazoo". Sorta same theme. They sell a whole lot of crap, most of which you don't need.

Last night's low was 30F at my place and 32F is tomorrows low forcast. The blankets come off Wed AM. Will post pics if there is anything left to show, eh?

Quick Winnipeg story --- around May years ago the wife attended a library association conference in Detroit. A bunch of librarians decided to pop over the border and have high tea in Winnipeg. The proprietor asked if they would like some scones, to which they all replied, "what's a scone?". She said, "you know, like your ma used to make". They all had no idea - and the funny thing was the group had members from all over the USA.

Today we make scones and Scottish shortbread and enjoy them very much -- no haggis, no way.

Dan

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

No snow this time but this is what we got for a place that normally gets under freezing 1-2 times a year (usually barely).

1/5 - 25
1/6 - 29
1/7 - 29
1/8 - 25
1/9 - 18 - Popped the breaker on my sprinkler system - oh fun
1/10 - 20
1/11 - 24

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Dan how did your banana fare from the cold?

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Good one!

Uh, how do you pop over the border to Winnipeg from Detroit? It's a bit of a drive. Do you mean Windsor?

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Kevin,

Checked with Angie -- yes, it was Windsor. Winnepeg was a different trip and that one was in January. It was so cold then it made New Jersey feel like where we are now. Ironically, we lived in East Windsor.

Dan

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Dan how did your banana fare from the cold?

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

How normal is 18F for Houston? Did you lose any plants?? That just seems like such a long cold spell.. wow

We're getting some warm subtropical rain now in the Sacramento area and haven't had frost in over a month. But things could always change:) let's hope they don't!

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

For that day the record that was broken was in 1976. The single digit number in 1989 was Feb 2 I believe. Not sure about the plants yet didn't do a full assesment. My guess is the mandarin and lime trees are gone because they were not protected. I'm keeping any eye on the bananans so far not mush yet.

Bright side - The apples, peach and blueberry trees should actually do better this year.

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

I learned last couple years if it gets below freezing for longer than 2-3 hours most leaves are toast despite what I have tried.
Some are a tad more resistant than others, and it depended on their location in my yard.
I stacked bales of hay around the plants, wrapped the plant/leaves, and then covered the whole thing.....leaves go despite my efforts, plant survives but not enough leaves to fruit.

This year I did nothing to save any.
1) 3 days of extended below freezing hours
2) I wanted to replant different species anyways

However I am the saddest for my coconut palm......decimated! And winters not over. I have 2 viable fronds left :mad::mad:

Re: Frost Protection in South Florida!!!
 

Removed the frost blankets and all the bananas survived - including all the pups, the shortest of which were not covered!

Ran the irrigation every night before the frost low temps hit and that probably helped.

The tomatoes, swiss chard and pigeon peas all are good with minor damage to the tomatoes and pp's. The 6 basil are toast - that was expected, but I covered them anyway.

Banana leaf damage per plant ranged from 30% to 60% burnt up - and most stayed partially green. The innermost leaves, the latest growth, were protected by the oldest. The latter took the hardest hit.

Here are pics showing the most, average and least damaged by nine days of at or below freezing temperatures.

Least damaged, the SH3640


Average damage, Dwarf Brazil


Worst damage, the poor Ae Ae


I'm happy! Should get bunches of different fruit this year. Unlike 2008, which produced one bunch of decent, but stunted, Goldfingers with 15 different cultivars in the ground. Oh, yeah - one small bunch of Hua Moa too.

Commercial vegetable crops were a near-total to total loss in the following south coastal Florida counties -- Indian River, St lucie and Martin. All saw major losses to the tomato, strawberry, cabbage, pepper, lettuce, arugala, sweet corn and potato crops. Most would have been ready to harvest in a month or so.

Did Bananas Foster tonight. Myers dark rum and " 99 Bananas" banana schnapps liqueur (this stuff is 99 proof). When I flamed the sauce it took over 30 secs to extinguish. Used Alton Brown's recipe and am still trying to gather all my brains - they fell out - it was so good!!!!!!!!

Wishing everyone a better spring and summer than this terrible winter season has been.

Dan