Ouch, my plants are frozen!

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Deborah

I don't know anything about palms but I love Meyer lemons. I hope they all make it !

So far, the Meyer lemon looks good. I think the walls and chicken coop are protecting it. The edges look a bit frost bitten.
We are in a cold spot, probably 6-10 degrees colder than our local airport. I don't have a thermometer but when they say 40-42 I have frozen water or at least a frost. I really have no idea how cold it's gotten. It's gotten to 24 at the airport.

[Deborah]

Is the tree small enough to throw a blanket over it?

[Dak]

Pretty cold here in on the Central Coast (CA). I've been weeding and could not find a replacement pair of waterproof gloves, I treated myself to a pair of West County Waterproof gloves, what a treat! It was so cold today, my bird bath stayed frozen all day.

[Tracydr]

Wow, that's pretty cold for central CA!

[Alpinejs]

Here, near the Calif/Mex. border it has been down to 29 for three nights straight. I have
many toms in 5 gal. pails in my driveway and I bring them into the garage with an electric
heater. I can only cover and hope for the straw bale maters. The two hothouses and
hoophouses each have 5 votive candles burning and that sees to hold the temps just above
freezing. I lost several tomato plants in the back yard that were leftovers from last spring.
BTW, the .99 Store has tall votive candles for (duh) .99. They last 3 nights.

Re: palm trees. Queen palms should survive down to at least 20 degrees. Kings and
Triangle palms are in big jeopardy though. All the "Phoenix" variieties handle cold quite
well.

Well gotta go now and continue my hunt for that Al Gore guy.

[habitat_gardener]

Here in the SF bay area, it's been between 29 and 33F since Friday night, and is forecast to stay in that range until Tues. night. During the daytime it's in the 40s or low 50s. I watered all my plants in the past couple days, and moved a few containers into more sheltered locations. Tomato plants under the eaves are surviving.

Looking forward to Thurs. -- supposed to hit 63F in the daytime and only get to 38 at night.

I had some really large Sego palms "killed" by a really cold ice storm when we lived near the coast in Louisiana. It was disheartening to look outside and see my frozen palms covered in ice and live oak and pecan branches eight inches in diameter covering my yard with a heavy burden of ice on everything. After trimming my trees when the weather warmed and spring arrived, everything returned looking better than before. Even the dead palms produced juvenile palms growing from the base. In a couple of years I had ten times the number of palms growing around the house than I had before the storm.

Don't use plastic coverings on your plants. Cold air can't get through the plastic, but it will transmit the cold by contact. Every leaf and branch contacting the plastic will get a freeze burn. On the larger trees, wrap the trunk of the tree if you can't wrap the whole tree. The main trunk and branches will put out new growth when the weather warms if the second layer of bark or cambium hasn't frozen.

Ted

[Alpinejs]

Ted....not to be picky-picky, but lest some readers aren't aware......Sago Palms are not palms
at all and are mislabelled by growers, nurseries and garden centers. They are prehistoric
cycads. Another one that is mislabelled by the same group is "heavenly bamboo" that is
sold growing in a dish. It is not bamboo at all! Who do I sue for false labelling???

Originally Posted by Alpinejs

Ted....not to be picky-picky, but lest some readers aren't aware......Sago Palms are not palms
at all and are mislabelled by growers, nurseries and garden centers. They are prehistoric
cycads. Another one that is mislabelled by the same group is "heavenly bamboo" that is
sold growing in a dish. It is not bamboo at all! Who do I sue for false labelling???

Thank You! This reader wasn't aware. I always thought they were simply a more diminutive variety of palm. I did know they were one of the more expensive varieties at the nurseries costing a couple of hundred dollars each. Today, you can buy fairly large Sago's for much less.

Ted

[Alpinejs]

I have about a dozen sagos and several other cycad varieties, tons of bamboo and about
150 various palm varieties, but I am afraid to even go down and check on my 15 yr. old triangle
palm. If he is dead, I am going to beat Al Gore to a pulp!!

One more night of freezing here and then the soothsayers say we a good to go for at least
a month. I don't think I lost anymore plants last night, but it sure increases the workload.
Tomorrow is planting time for about 900 seedlings.