Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Ok fellow Floridians, how did you fare last night. It reached 25 in Belle Glade. Did not freeze at my house though.

The bananas at my house made it through with only minor leaf damage, however the bananas that I had been maintaining at work are toast. Get ready for a shortage of produce as it looks like most of the beans, corn, tomatoes and peppers have probably been lost.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Looks like it got down to 39 here in Boca. Didn't notice any damage to the plants but it was still dark when I left for work this morning.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Good afternoon Tom, Nicolas and everyone!

It sounds like ya'll came through the freeze well. I'm glad to hear it!! I was watched over also and had little damage! I posted a few pics. My Ele Ele was undamaged. What did surprise me was some slight damage to my KM-5. I'm near the mangroves in CC.

Best wishes

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

It hit 28 last night, I took a LOT of damage. I lost all Toms, the fruit was just turning red on some and now they have soft spots. Green pepper looks horrible but might come back. But most everything looks dead.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

My thermometer, somewhat sheltered and may read slightly warm, said 31 degrees Wednesday morning and 28 on Thursday morning. A couple, the Dw Orinoco and another (think it was a Dw Namwa, I'll check the tag later) seem untouched. But they are under 12" tall and maybe got the benefit of some warmth from the ground. I can't see the baby Basjoos from here, but I expect they are fine. Most of the others are between singed and heavily singed. Ice cream's leaves are singed but her proud, tall pstem is looking OK.

It is currently much warmer than it was 24 hours ago.

Curiously, some non-nanners which did OK last winter at 25 degrees and strong winds are looking rough today after 28 degrees and calm. Go figure.

K/Adrift

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

I read today that when freezing temps hit you are more likely to get frost damage on clear calm nights then on windy or overcast nights.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

This is true. I'm sure most of us remember from science class that warm air rises and cool air sinks. During a radiational cooling event the surface loses its heat to the atmosphere and if there is no wind the air closest to the surface can get quite cold. If there is wind it mixes the warmer air aloft with the cooler air at the surface. In Florida, we have a bunch of agricultural weather stations that let you look at temps at 60cm, 2m and 10m and the temperature differences may be as much as 6-7 degrees fahrenheit between the 60cm and the 10m.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

hopefully all veggies and nanas pull thru. keeping my fingers crossed for yall. we pay enough for citrus up here. lol.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Nick, do you have a link to where I can look at these weather stations?

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

fawn.ifas.ufl.edu look underneath the database section to look at recorded data

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Very cool. Thanks!

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Report from Tallahassee--

So far this winter we had a near record early freeze in October, which fried about 80% of the leaves of all my plants, and it did not freeze hard until a couple of weeks ago (January), and then again just last night.

By the time the first hard freeze came all the leaves had been cut off and all stalks were chopped to about 4 to 5 feet. This makes it managable to cover/insulate the stocks well. I have been wrapping towels & sheets over the stalks and covering them with big plastic lawn waste bags. I make sure to remove it all in between freezes to avoid fungal rot.

I check the weather forecasts every day to see when I need to wrap the stalks. So far so good, they still look intact and good. The other bananas in my neighborhood that were not wrapped in any way are now brown moosh--dead to the ground.

Once the freezes are over I am hopeful my efforts will pay off in allowing my plants to get a good jump start in the season and MAYBE start to fruit BEFORE September. I also plan to be very aggressive in removing pups as they appear, which I did not do last year (not to kill, but to replant elsewhere). Some mats had many pups come up and grow like mad and I liked the abundant verdant look of it all and let them stay.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

As a note to some of my fellow Floridians, the private meteorologists that a lot of large farmers use are predicting "the worst freeze in 100 years" in the next week or two

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Interesting, suppose I may need to consider pulling out some of the blankets and towels.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Then it appears that the large farmers are paying too much for the private meteorologists.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Here in the Panhandle,we got the coldest in a couple yrs, pretty much turning my Ornata to mush. The Passalong Cavandish lost it's leaves but otherwise did well. The rest were dug and stored in my shed for the Winter and ended up with a little frosted leaves but otherwise fine...
Cheers,
Pat

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Then it's a good thing I never plant out anything in my greenhouse or stored in the shed until at least the 1st of March;>....
Cheers,
Pat

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Weather Underground says it will freeze Tue, Wed, and upper 30's Thursday.

Re: Great Florida Freeze of '09
 

Gonna be back in the 20's again here in a few days:(

Re: Great Florida Freeze of \'09
 

For the last three days weather forecasters have been saying Weds night would be the coldest nearing 32 degrees F. Now the forecasters of weather are predicting freezing temps here in zone 10 tonight! Brrrrrrr!!!
In a little while I have to go pull in my new plants and cover some of the others. I left zone 9 to get away from the cold!

Best wishes to all! :03: