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Cold air headed for Florida midweek


SubTropicRay

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As a result of this past Thursday's radiational freeze, here's two typical Dypsis lutescens in my colder subdivision due to being at a lower elevation than the town of Lake Placid:

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Now, contrast the below Dypsis lutescens growing in town, at 70 feet higher elevation than at my place/subdivision just two miles away:

2069059290042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

2392844710042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

Mad about palms

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The Thursday night radiational freeze, where my open yard temperature dropped to 23.5 degrees, and under canopy dropped to 28 degrees, didn't cause any cold damage to lzone 10 palms near ake side.

The royal palms below are growing at lake Clay, about 1-3/4 miles from my place. I've documented as much as a 14 degree difference during some radiational cooling events between temperature readings at my place and lake side:

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The tall royals in the below two photos are also near lake Clay, but back off the lake about 200-300 feet. These palms have been here since the 1950s, so they've stood the test of time and prove that there's no substitute for large bodies of water in central Florida to hold up nighttime low temperatures:

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This is one of five banyan (Ficus benghalensis) trees growing near lake Clay, near the royal palms in above photos. There's lots more royal palms there not shown in these photos.

2660471180042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

Mad about palms

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very interesting. i think if you want grow the marginal palms in florida away from the ocean move to by some lake.

the damages i see in the fotos is not very bad. i think most the palms survive if you have warm weather in the next weeks. but some times you must wait longer. i think ruskins palms are all to be ok.

TEMP. JAN. 21/10 C (69/50 F), AUG. 29/20 C (84/68 F). COASTAL DESERT, MOST DAYS MILD OR WARM, SUNNY AND DRY. YEARLY PRECIPITATION: 210 MM (8.2 INCHES). ZONE 11 NO FREEZES CLOSE TO THE OCEAN.

5845d02ceb988_3-copia.jpg.447ccc2a7cc4c6

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I will make it a point to ride out on my bike and get some photos. This was a very odd cold event here on the coast. 99% of my plants show no damage, and the entire Cape Haze area escaped the cold event it seems. When I drove to work in Lee County today, even along the road near Charlotte Harbor (Burnt Store Road), I saw Adonidias fried as well as D. lutescens, some Foxtails, Coconuts, etc. Once I crossed over the Myakka River into Venice from North Port on 41 I saw no damage to write home about. The groundskeeper on the property I work on logged a low temp of 27F on the coldest night, and this is 1/4 mile from Charlotte Harbor on the Lee/Charlotte border.

I hit 36, 33, 36F with no frost on the ground but at the property's edge and on the rooftops. Even the bananas are fine, I am a little baffled!

Christian Faulkner

Venice, Florida - South Sarasota County.

www.faulknerspalms.com

 

Μολὼν λάβε

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After seeing some of the lows posted, I am surprised Kendall-Tamiami Executive hit 31F! It is on 137th Ave, but should be warmer than Homestead and other points mentioned in Broward and Dade.

Christian Faulkner

Venice, Florida - South Sarasota County.

www.faulknerspalms.com

 

Μολὼν λάβε

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After this cold event ( 1/22/09 29.4f 6.5 hrs below freezing with heavy frost and 1/23/09 32.8 with heavy frost) my garden will be changed forever. Palms that received 60% damage or more will be removed: damaged %= C. obtusa 70% , R. regia 80% +, A. pinnata 90% and R. farinifera 90%.

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Scott,

Don't give up to soon. You might be surprised what will recover with your summer heat. After the '89 freeze in Calif. many people chopped down their Queens and other palms to soon, but many of those that were left recovered. I'm sorry you Florida guys got cold blasted, but we all knew it was coming sooner or later.

Dick

Richard Douglas

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After this cold event ( 1/22/09 29.4f 6.5 hrs below freezing with heavy frost and 1/23/09 32.8 with heavy frost) my garden will be changed forever. Palms that received 60% damage or more will be removed: damaged %= C. obtusa 70% , R. regia 80% +, A. pinnata 90% and R. farinifera 90%.

You are going to chop down that big huge Royal youve got?

Larry 

Palm Harbor, FL 10a / Ft Myers, FL 10b

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Scott,

Don't give up to soon. You might be surprised what will recover with your summer heat. After the '89 freeze in Calif. many people chopped down their Queens and other palms to soon, but many of those that were left recovered. I'm sorry you Florida guys got cold blasted, but we all knew it was coming sooner or later.

Dick

Dick, I have received damage like this 5 out of my 11 winters here. The palms do recover and look half way good only to have another cold event.

As you see on my removal list, most will flower and die after seeding, so I will feel better to remove them now. The Royal still looked bad from the freeze of last winter, only to be reduced to a green spear again this week. Scott

Edited by Tampa Scott
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After this cold event ( 1/22/09 29.4f 6.5 hrs below freezing with heavy frost and 1/23/09 32.8 with heavy frost) my garden will be changed forever. Palms that received 60% damage or more will be removed: damaged %= C. obtusa 70% , R. regia 80% +, A. pinnata 90% and R. farinifera 90%.

You are going to chop down that big huge Royal youve got?

Larry, Yes, I got a new chainsaw ready to go. Scott

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It is sad to see all this damage and I hope plants and palms suprisingly recover.This area of the State(inland PB) does not appear to take the shots fringe areas do,where people are couragously testing the edges.The Glades took a bigger pop than I thought with numerous farms taking major hits to vegetables and corn.Only the items closest to Lake O seemed Ok.I did not notice any damage to the big Royals or other Palms.

What you look for is what is looking

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Same scenerio. Everytime my area gets a radiational cooling event where low temperatures fall around 30 degrees and slightly below (usually with frost), the same palms get foliage damaged. Those on high ground (in town) make out fine. Those within a block or two (depending on how low the temperature gets) make out fine.

I personally had foliage damaging freezes in February of 2006 (27 degrees) and February of 2007 (28 degrees). Last winter my low was 32 degrees and nothing was damaged. Last Thursday my low was 23.5 in open yard and 28 degrees under canopy.

I always use the same thermometers in the same locations for the best consistency. The 27 degree freeze I had hurt foliage bad, plus the heavy frost probably exacerbated it. The 28 degree freeze was noticably less damaging, but damaging never the less. The 23.5 degree freeze, hands down was the most damaging. Of course, the 22 degree freeze I had back on Jan. 5, 2001 was a total foliage killer. All the above freezes were radiational except for last winter's advection event of 32 degrees.

Here's some more cold damage (or not cold damaged) photos.

The first photo shows a small royal palm on the left, with foxtail to the right, and pygmy date to the far right. These palms are in my subdivsion and about 5 blocks from the lake. No lake effect here.

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This royal palm is also in my subdivision but about 1-1/2 to 2 blocks from the lake. A marked difference. I think I saw slight foliage damage on some lower fronds. Of course, I've already posted photos of undamaged royals near the lake (again, water is everything here).

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Below is small royal palm growing in town, at 70 feet higher elevation at my place. I could detect no cold damage. Both of my royals were foliage damaged.

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When I moved here in 1997 I had no idea I would get into the palm growing and tropical plants hobby. I never really gave it a thought that the low temperatures here varied so much. I mean, just last Thursday morning it was 15 degrees just eight miles south of me (Archbold Biological Station), yet around the lakes and on high ground was in the mid 30s. And to think I had the opportunity back then to by a 6 acre lakefront piece of land for $76K and passed it up! I passed it up because it was a defunct orange grove that would have had to be cleared. I didn't want all the hassle. I also could have bought a nice 5 acre parcel on high ground situated in between two lakes, one lake 3400 acres, the other 3500 acres. I would have been on high ground with warm water lakes as buffers north and south of me.

I would consider moving now (locally, but to a warmer location) and starting all over again, but the wife says we ain't going anywhere.

Oh well, everything (damaged palms and shrubs, etc.,) will come back as they mostly always do. Then maybe I will get 2-3 years of pleasure out of my palms, etc., before the next killer freeze comes.

One thing, though, I'm going to aquire many more cold hardy species of palms. I really shouldn't have so many zone 10a/b palms anyway.

Mad about palms

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Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when people in Tampa were having to chop down Royal Palms and yet here in Houston, we have some that haven't even had leaf burn in years.

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Walt, I think you need to move actross town :-)

Thanks for the pics.

Jason, no, the wife says we aren't moving, period. She said if I can't stand losing palms and plants to the freezes ever few years, then I shouldn't be growing them. Of course, when the cold weather comes it is I that must lug all her potted flowers, orchids, staghorn ferns, etc., etc. and load up the garage and also our Florida room right off the lania! But that's what one does for love.

Mad about palms

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Walt, thanks for the additional pictures. I also didn't realize there was such a variation in the Lake Placid area. I'm amazed at the difference across just a few blocks.

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Hey Christian, I noticed a lot of strange things too that just don't go along with what you'd think you would see as far as freeze damage. Palms were turned to chocolate all of over the Apollo Beach, Ruskin and Gibsonton areas that are no more than a few blocks from Tampa Bay, Rivers or Estuaries...Yet areas much farther inland had the same palms escape unscathed. Yet other places inland even had P. roeb. turned to chocolate brown. I have even seen some brazillian pepper patches here in Ruskin blackened and defoliated! I have come to the conclusion that during these radiational freezes, there is often no rhyme or reason why one area gets hit harder than another. Sure, larger bodies of water definitely help but you damn well better be on its shores, at least around here. Elevation is supposed to help but it didn't seem to help me much. My house is at an elevation of about 35 feet. I know that doesn't sound like much but surrounding areas in ruskin are about 1 to 5 feet above sea level. One thing that definitely hurts me is that my community is that it is in a completely rural, agricultural area with no heat island effect, surrouned by treeless crop fields and cow pastures that get really, really cold on radiational nights. Plus it is a new community that has no established canopy trees whatsoever. Canopy was the only that seemed to help in this area irregardless of water or elevation. Canopy is parmount to growing marginal palms and plants in this part of Florida. I am sooo glad that I did not remove my little oaks a year ago, they have to grow more before I even try to plant more zone 10 stuff in my yard. Tampa Scott, I agree with you to a certain extent. I am kinda getting tired of looking at burned palms every year for half the year at a time. I may not go so far as to cut anything down that was badly cosmetically damaged, but anything that pushes a deformed frond or appears to be stunted is coming out and a Z9 or lower palm will be going in its place. My my royal seemed to take 27F well, even a young one was not completely defoliated. I am happy for this so far. None of my foxtails seem to have been completely defoliated like I have been seeing around town either. I think everything will make it except maybe the spindle in question, it just wasn't a healthy palm to begin with this year, it had pushed a deformed frond or 2 last year prior to resuming normal growth. I'll have to wait and see though. I think the coconut has a chance, it actually seems to have a little green left here and there which might be able to do a little functional photosynthesis. I take back what I said in a previous post, about 90% of the cocos in the southern hillsborough county area, whether trunking or not, look to be 100% turned to chocolate, sad really...I guess it just took a little longer for it to show on the larger palms... I am still surprised at the damage I have seen in areas of town that had temps around 29F and 30F, I will say that I did not seem to have as much frost as other people reported, and on that 27F morning here, it never did reach the dew point...only made it to 88% humidity on my weather station. The pond in the back steamed like crazy that morning and I will say that the steam coated everything in the back with ice more so than frost, it was different than frost. I am thinking a lot of the damage I am seeing in the back came from the steam off the pond forming ice on the foliage. The front, away from the pond has very little to no damage on the foxtails there. Again, it was definitely cold in the front, perhaps even colder than the back where the 27F was measured but I don't think frost ever formed in the front on the palms except for maybe a little on a couple of the more exposed and lower hyophorbe fronds. Sorry for the long post, I just have been finding the pattern of damage interesting from this one. Much easier to predict damage from advective freezes than from radiational freezes.

Parrish, FL

Zone 9B

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The majority of the public plantings in South Tampa look remarkably good. Of all the palms widely planted, the upper tips of exposed Dypsis lutescens seem to have been damaged the most. Adonidia, Royals and Coconuts look very good considering what could have been. Foxtails look unphased despite the heavy frost on Wednesday morning.

Tampa, Interbay Peninsula, Florida, USA

subtropical USDA Zone 10A

Bokeelia, Pine Island, Florida, USA

subtropical USDA Zone 10B

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As I have already posted this was no big deal at all in the Orlando metro area, for example my exposed unprotected carpies have no damage whatsoever, and I am in the suberbs. I recorded the lowest temp. of 28F in my yard but the damage looks like about 30F overall, not bad at all. It's interesting to see that much of inland Dade county got colder than Orlando exec. airport (which I would assume represents the temperatures of immediate metro Orlando).

-Michael

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Leaf of C.obtusa after the freeze of 29f and frost and this was said to be hardy in my area.

Edited by Tampa Scott
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Scott,

C. obtusa is trunk hardy for our area. What good is a defoliated trunk right?! Others in this category include Elaeis, Attalea, Borassus and Hyphaene. How did this palm do in last years advective freeze? The frost is more to blame here than the temps. C. mitis takes a beating in heavy frost too and there are tons of big specimens in our area. I wouldn't give up on this one yet. If Busch Gardens can grow them as landscape center pieces, you definitely can.

Ray

Tampa, Interbay Peninsula, Florida, USA

subtropical USDA Zone 10A

Bokeelia, Pine Island, Florida, USA

subtropical USDA Zone 10B

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I've seen some odd damage around Orlando; one yard has Adonidia almost totally brown and a few houses away they are green. Same with Dypsis lutescens. Or you see a yard with a mongo tree with no damage and a few houses away the Strelitzia nicolai even has burn.

Several of the big coconuts and royals I see on my drive to work look fine, some slight damage but thats all. I saw those big royals and the coconut out by Sea World at the Hilton and they looked fine, coconut had a little yellowing but the royals were green. Many of the foxtails around here are undamaged or only slight burn. I was at my mom's house yesterday and in her front there is a 6ft 'Golden Malayan' coconut and a 7ft Aiphanes horrida next to each other. The coconut has about 40% burn and the Aiphanes nothing.

I was also over in Tampa yesterday, downtown to meet my brother who was at McDill AFB for reserve training. Saw some royals on Dale Mawbry that looked fine. But on I-4 just east of the I-75 intersection saw foxtails that were totally brown.

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Scott-

All of what you have said above is why my sig says "9b/10a"......where you and I are is really a fringe area IMO and events like this seem to back that up. The west got the good side of this one, but next time it could be reversed.

My father said it best yesterday (as he was semi-disgusted about some damage he took to some palms in his yard)....."This is the area of Florida we live in,so we have to expect things like this to happen". Simple and succinct!

Dick, I have received damage like this 5 out of my 11 winters here. The palms do recover and look half way good only to have another cold event.

As you see on my removal list, most will flower and die after seeding, so I will feel better to remove them now. The Royal still looked bad from the freeze of last winter, only to be reduced to a green spear again this week. Scott

I think I understand where Scott is coming from?

He has stated that he consistantly get 3-5 degrees colder where he is at than even Larry. Larry usually gets colder than Ray on most cold events.And Ray gets colder than the St.Pete contingent. As Larry stated correctly, we live in a fringe area for alot of marginal crownshafted tropical palms.

So the question becomes do you want to plant palms that get some damage durning these events ,and look like crap for 9 months to a year,but survive. Everyone has to answer that question for themselves.

History tells us that for any given location in central Florida,whether slightly warmer than another location,with the exception of St.Pete, will have freezing temps at least every 2-3 years. So do you want to look at ratty freeze damaged palms for 12 months of that 2-3 year period,just to say you have it growing in your yard? Or maybe some people don't mind looking at freeze dried palm fronds as long as it survives? I think I am coming to the conclusion that I would rather have nice healthy green more cold hardy palms year round,even if they aren't rare,at least they look good! I could deal with the damaged look if I didn't know that in a couple of years or even next year, after they replaced the crown and got nice and healthy and green,that it was only a matter of time before they would be damaged again and look like crap for another year, but that is maybe just me. We live where we live, as Larrys' dad said, and unfortunately freezes come regularly to central Florida!

And this doesn't even factor in the fact that a freeze of 1989 proportions will hit us once again eventually,and every crown shafted palm won't get bi or tri yearly damage, but will be killed outright! Actually I could live with that (killed outright) if the palms in question didn't look like crap a third or more, of the time between events like 1989!

Sorry for the downer post of the day!

Scott

Titusville, FL

1/2 mile from the Indian River

USDA Zone COLD

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In northern California, I have always been an advocate of growing cold hardy palms. In the first place, that's all I can grow because I can expect frost or a freeze every winter. I think the highest low I've ever had during winter was 28F and normally I can expect around 25 as a low, and sometimes lower. Probably the only crownshafted palm that might grow here is Archontophoenix, but I know they would be damaged every winter or else killed, so I've never tried.

Even with my limitations there are many cold hardy palms that grow here and they look good winter after winter with no damage. Actually there are a lot more I would like to try but I've run out of room. When I first moved to Walnut Creek, I planted a lot of bananas for instant gratification. They survived the winters, but looked ratty for over half the year, so I quit growing them.

I have a few palms that are zone pushers, but I plant them in the back of my garden so I don't have to look at them from my living area in case they are damaged, Parajubaea cocoides for example. There are a lot palms that will take my low winter temps. but there is not enough mean temp. for them to grow, and that includes all of the Arengas, and fishtail type palms. Sabals do well in my climate but they are slow, but most of them would grow well in Central and N. Fla. with your summer heat and generally warm winters. There are many palms that would grow well in Florida that would take the occasional freezes you get that I can't grow because of our cool nights, even in the summer. There are so many species you could grow in Central and North Florida that would breeze through the mid 20's with no damage.

I suppose if I lived in Central Fla. I would push the zones too. Who could resist a Foxtail or a Vetchia, or a Coconut? In the meanwhile, I would make sure I had a base of cold hardy palms in case the tropical ones got killed off.

Dick

Richard Douglas

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I learned years ago not to plant tender palms as part of one's permanent landscaping. Many palms take two full years to regrow their crown of fronds when totally defoliated. I see no pleasure in looking at a ragged palm for so long, even though you can cut off all the dead fronds and have a semi crown of fronds after six months or so, depending on species.

Further, depending on how much cold damage a palm gets, they may never grow normally again. I've had almost innumerous zone 10b palms get severely cold damaged, and while they didn't die, they never grew at a normal rate again. In fact, at best they grew about 1/4 their normal speed. Many hanged on for years, only to eventually die.

Since I have a 5.60 acre parcel, I plant my most tender palms out of sight of my main yard and house. That way if they get zapped I don't have to look at them as much.

However, some years ago I made exceptions and planted adonidias, a royal, and some A. cunninghamina near the house. They weren't a big problem as since they were relatively small I would bundle the fronds, wrap with heating cables or string lights, and then wrap the entire palm with flannel sheets and finall a PVC tarp. This method protected them from the coldest freezes and heaviest frosts. Howver, now they are too large to wrap, and all got freeze damage last Thursday morning. So, I will now have to look at them until they grow new fronds.

I forgot to add that I did plant a coconut palm close to the house and it got zapped good this past Thursday. However, it still has lots of green in it as I did train a 30K BTU forced air heater on it (and it ran out of kerosene for who knows how long, until I made a check and discovered it and refilled the heater, but the damage had been done). Lucky for me the heater ran for as long as it did as my open yard dropped to 23.5 degrees. Had I not had that heater running my coconut would have surely been as brown as fresh toast.

Mad about palms

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Pine Island here I come!!

Tampa, Interbay Peninsula, Florida, USA

subtropical USDA Zone 10A

Bokeelia, Pine Island, Florida, USA

subtropical USDA Zone 10B

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Scott,

C. obtusa is trunk hardy for our area. What good is a defoliated trunk right?! Others in this category include Elaeis, Attalea, Borassus and Hyphaene. How did this palm do in last years advective freeze? The frost is more to blame here than the temps. C. mitis takes a beating in heavy frost too and there are tons of big specimens in our area. I wouldn't give up on this one yet. If Busch Gardens can grow them as landscape center pieces, you definitely can.

Ray

Ray, The damage was the same last year( 28.3 low no frost) on the C. obtusa. And what is really freaky my 5 Adonidias and a Coconut show no damage, but they do have overhead canopy. W.bifurcata 10% damage in the open. Scott

Edited by Tampa Scott
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I decided years ago, it ain't worth it. If they can't make it.....then quit trying. I got tired of protecting things near dusk, rain coming down, wind blowing. To hell with it. There is a positive side. If a palm goes to plant heaven, then it gives more sunlight to the ones left, or room to plant something else more practical. If one must grow the exotics, they can be in a container which can be drug inside.

Dick

Richard Douglas

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Here in Rockledge, everything is fine, the coconut palms, Dypis, Andonia, etc. has no more than 10% to 15% leaf burn. Foxtails Royals, and ficus hardly a scratch on them! Further north however, it is a different story. In Port St. John, where I am sure the temperature dipped to at least 28F (by my estimation) most of the tropicals look absolutly fried! Even Pygmy date palms there suffered freeze damage of about 20 to 30%, and the Brazilian pepper trees look burnt or dead! I will ask questions and do some research to just how cold it got there and the progress of my Thrinax morrissii, Thrinax radiata, Royal, my many ficuses, and whatever else I can report.

Brevard County, Fl

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Some of the vagaries of damage in the same area might also have to do with the overall health of the palm. Well taken care of palms will put up with more cold than palms that are already stressed. Therefore, a burned foxtail and a green one a few blocks away might just be more than just cold at work.

Coastal San Diego, California

Z10b

Dry summer subtropical/Mediterranean

warm summer/mild winter

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I made more freeze observations today and have concluded that in my environs, high ground locations must have been the warmest locations Thursday morning. Again, I was in town today (Lake Placid, Florida) and really couldn't find any freeze damage.

I took the below photos today, on the east side of town, just where the east slope of the Lake Wales Ridge begins. It is near hear where the colder air drains eastward to my subdivision. It almost had to have been 8-10 degrees warmer up on the hill in town than at my place, based on the extent of foliage damage at my place and the lack of foliage damage in town.

This traveller's palm had no leaf damage that I could see. This tree is in the open. Yet, I had white bird of paradise in a sheltered location that got burned and my traveller's palm was fried, all but the top and newest leaf.

Shefflera trees were not burned, as shown below as well as flame vines. In my subdivision sheffleras were totally defoliated and flame vines melted to mush.

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2188165350042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

2438487600042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

2403168760042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

Mad about palms

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Ray, I want to check my thermometer against yours someday. I set the remote sensor right next to the main unit, and after an hour of equilibration, the outdoor temp was consistenly 0.9-1.0 degree lower than the indoor temp. And the indoor temp reads the same as my thermostat, which I purposely calibrated to read 4f lower than actual (based on factory presets) so that it wouldn't come on during the day in the summer unless it gets over 94. Still had lots of frost and even ice in spots though.

A coworker of mine lives on an island right at the mouth of the Manatee river into Tampa Bay, where coconuts that her grandfather planted in the 50s thrive, and she said her kids saw frost there Thursday morning.

Already wunderground is predicting a low of 34 here again this Friday night. I've seen this before and have a sick feeling that forecast will go down further :rolleyes: We are all at our wit's end and need a break!

Zone 10B, starting 07/01/2013

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Already wunderground is predicting a low of 34 here again this Friday night. I've seen this before and have a sick feeling that forecast will go down further :rolleyes: We are all at our wit's end and need a break!

EHH? Okay, guess it's time to turn on wx-radio - this morning it wasn't saying anything about no stinkin' 30's, just some wind and rain.

We did some staking this evening, as we've lost plants to wind here. So yeah, wind in January is no surprise. But more 30's? Ack :angry:

We dodged the bullet last week, only 37 & 38 here. I hope our luck holds.

sick of winter, this month can't be over fast enough

St. Pete

Zone - a wacked-out place between 9b & 10

Elevation = 44' - not that it does any good

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This traveller's palm had no leaf damage that I could see. This tree is in the open.

2621372110042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

2188165350042496162S600x600Q85.jpg

Walt-

IMO and based on how my Travellers have behaved when hit with cold, that Travellers likely didnt even see 35F.

Any of mine that are exposed, have several times now shown damage at a slightly above freezing (~34F) on the highest leaves. Ive always assumed this is due to radiational heat loss from the leaves to the sky, thus allowing the actual leaf surface to drop below freezing, even if the air around it is above freezing.

Larry 

Palm Harbor, FL 10a / Ft Myers, FL 10b

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Ray, The damage was the same last year( 28.3 low no frost) on the C. obtusa. And what is really freaky my 5 Adonidias and a Coconut show no damage, but they do have overhead canopy. W.bifurcata 10% damage in the open. Scott

Scott-

If its any consolation you you, the C. no you gave me last year seems to be fine. Its a bit more yellow than in summer (which I expect), but other than that looks good.

Larry 

Palm Harbor, FL 10a / Ft Myers, FL 10b

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He has stated that he consistantly get 3-5 degrees colder where he is at than even Larry. Larry usually gets colder than Ray on most cold events.And Ray gets colder than the St.Pete contingent.

Yes....I that is general pecking order (although I dont think my area is quite 3-5F warmer than Citrus Park where Scott lives, but maybe only 2-3F). Ray's area seems to run 2-4F warmer than my area, and the very specific area of downtown St Pete where the reporting station is located is many times 8-10F warmer than my area. (Areas just a mile or less away from this station most times report temps only a few degrees warmer than my area).

One can pretty much look at a map and guess temps as they generally seem to follow an obvious pattern. If looking at a map doesnt work, just a quick drive in the car will show it visually. The Zone 10 palms/plants all get bigger and obviously older in the warmer areas.

However, (trying to make the glass seem half full!) isnt there a certain satisfaction in having palms that are on the "fringe"? In having a yard that doesnt look like everyone elses? This is how I look at it, knowing full well that when a big nasty windy one comes along, I could get hammered.

Larry 

Palm Harbor, FL 10a / Ft Myers, FL 10b

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Ray, I want to check my thermometer against yours someday. I set the remote sensor right next to the main unit, and after an hour of equilibration, the outdoor temp was consistenly 0.9-1.0 degree lower than the indoor temp. And the indoor temp reads the same as my thermostat, which I purposely calibrated to read 4f lower than actual (based on factory presets) so that it wouldn't come on during the day in the summer unless it gets over 94. Still had lots of frost and even ice in spots though.

Brian-

Have you put the sensor in an ice bath to see if it reads ~32F?

Larry 

Palm Harbor, FL 10a / Ft Myers, FL 10b

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Pine Island here I come!!

Ill set my shack next to yours :mrlooney:

Larry 

Palm Harbor, FL 10a / Ft Myers, FL 10b

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Already wunderground is predicting a low of 34 here again this Friday night. I've seen this before and have a sick feeling that forecast will go down further :rolleyes: We are all at our wit's end and need a break!

If it makes you feel better, statistically, we are in decent shape!

ESPRIN50.JPG

Larry 

Palm Harbor, FL 10a / Ft Myers, FL 10b

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