Welcome to sunny Florida!

[WillsC]

Well this cold air (thanks Canada) arrived and while bad it was not as brutal as the forecast low of 23. At my place the low bottomed out at 26.8 which is bad enough. I started the overhead water on all 3 blueberry beds at midnight and woke up to this...........The weight of the ice has pushed them down but I did not see any broken limbs. Almost 11:00am and the ice still has not started to fall off yet. It is up to 44.4 so should start soon.

The blueberries will be fine the water will protect them down to about 18 degrees but the figs that were budding out got the leaves burned off if they were tall, the little guys that I could put a pot over seemed to take no damage.

[HarveyC]

Foggy at my place in California but only got down to 53, I'll take it!

[greenfig]

Wow! SoCal, pleeese, stay warm! All my figs have leafed out already.
Wills, how often do you have frost at your place? Is this way out of the ordinary?

Wish you a cooperative weather and for your plants a full recovery

[zone5figger]

The whole east coast has had it rough this winter, glad it wasn't worse for you and your greenery. Pretty ice, though!

[Kelby]

Well, frozen blueberries are delicious! Hope they thaw ok.

[Gina]

When they say frozen blueberries are delicious, I don' think they are referring to twigs, lol.

About 60* here now. Just looked outside at the tomatoes in pots against the reflective windows, and the first fruits are about an inch across.

Hope everyone's plants survive.

[fruitnut]

Beautiful and I hope successful. Very difficult here due to wind and low dew points.

[COGardener]

Is it rare for it to get that cold were you are Wills, it seems kind of extreme for so far south. If you want some more, I have 1 to 3 feet of snow coming my way, I'll gladly forward it to you.

[aphahn]

It was suposed to hit 20 in central FL at my grandparent's place. Possibly the end of the 100 year old citrus grove :P

[WillsC]

Well we have been here 11 years and have not had a frost/freeze free winter yet. Generally 1-5 frost/freeze events per winter, this winter this was the first freeze and have had no frost. Our frost free date is March 1 so this is probably it for our cold. The BB I doubt were hurt at all due to the water...the peaches and plums were loaded with open flowers and fruit so probably a 75% loss? But had not thinned them yet so mother nature just did it for me. I really don't know, could be 100% we shall see.

[Yeehova]

Man oh man that looks rough! Mine went through that a couple of days ago, but they were already dormant. Our worst damage here came in fall when in November it dropped down to 17 two months too early. Hope your plant pull through. My rosemary bush was covered in a thick coat of ice, but it looks fine now a couple of days later.

[FMD]

Such pretty winterland pictures, Wills!

We hit 24 but all the damage had already been done by the previous freezes, so here's me giving last night's temperature the finger.

[Chrisk]

Sorry about your plants Wills but the pics do look amazing. It dropped down to 14 this morning with the high at 27 . Farther north, GA is taking a hit this year. A lot of people without power and iced inn. They are urging people to stay inside due to icy roads!

[andreas-patras]

wow Wills. i was in ST. Pete. Tampa bay area for over 6 years. i never did see anything like that...
i hope all your trees make it.

[WillsC]

I looked at the fruit yesterday and the water spraying all night did the trick. I would guess less than .05% loss so next to nothing, The peaches still look ok but it could take a few days.

[SharonC]

Ok I know spraying them with water to get ice protects them but it makes them look so cold. Good luck.

[WillsC]

It isn't the ice that protects them exactly it is the water meting the ice and refeezing, it is called heat of fusion and without it I would get almost no crop from these low chill blueberries. The commercial growers want the berries to be early, not something I want but the university designs the varieties with that as a top goal. I would be happy if they bloomed in March then there would be no worries of freezes.

[Hershell]

look on the bright side. You could be trying to build a greenhouse in this.

[FMD]

Today the forecast is for 78' F.
Little wonder my figs are confused!
Me too.

[eboone]

Send a little of that up here Frank. We had a freezing drizzle last night with icy roads everywhere. Supposed to drop from 28 this AM down to zero tomorrow

[FMD]

Ouch!
Punxsutawney Phil's prediction seems correct.

[paully22]

To date this is One of the warmest winter(Vancouver/Fraser Valley - Canada) in the last 5 yrs. Only had one snowfall about 3" and 2 artic blast. If this trend continue, it would be a great fig season for brebas.

[greenfig]

Paully,
It is because you are on the right coast (well, it is the left one . Here in CAlifornia, the winter is abnormally warm too. Almost all my figs are going full throttle. The last year they were just waking up

[WillsC]

Here the winter has been colder than normal but just no arctic blasts till last week. I visited a friend here Friday that lives about a mile from me and has 50 or so BB bushes. 100% loss......sad. He has no overhead water and without it you are at the mercy of mother nature.

[Blueboy1977]

It has been a very mild winter here as well Wills. No frost or freeze at all this year. I need to check the chill hour accumulations for my area so far. We are suppost to get to 34 degrees Mon night here and hopefully that will be it for the winter cold snaps. Did your mangos set any fruit?

[WillsC]

Rob,

The mangoes were loaded with blooms but being in the hoophouse no bees.......they should rebloom though as I have heard they do that. Had to take the cover off the hoophouse today completely, was 110 in it even with both ends open.

[COGardener]

Well, we are half way through the "big" storm, they predicted between 1 and 3 feet of snow. Yeah, right. ... So far we are sitting around 5 maybe 6" of snow and it's 12* F.... kind of a let down!

[Gina]

We've had one of the warmest winters in my part of Cali as well - have yet to turn on the heater. Though today it's dropped down into the lower 60's. Brrrrr.....