Barbados Cherry cold survival

[amh]

Does anyone in the Austin and San Antonio areas grow Barbados cherry in the ground? Did the plants survive the February cold?

[mulungu]

Hi, I grow Barbados Cherry in the ground, and I had a small one survive the February cold (8 F) with some damage.  It's recovering OK, and bloomed and fruited this fall.  The one I have is the one with the dry-ish pea-sized fruit, not the juicy cherry-sized acerolas.

[amh]

I have the large fruited type and can never get a straight answer on the hardiness. I think I'll make a few clones before I plant mine in the ground.

[Xenon]

The larger fruited type is tropical zone 10. Not hardy at all 

[Silas_Sancona]

5 hours ago, Xenon said:

The larger fruited type is tropical zone 10. Not hardy at all 

Mid 9b ( 27-28F-ish, w/ slight damage possible ) is what i have heard the most from people here / in San Diego.. Have also heard of them surviving lower than that. Regardless, have seen pictures of  good sized specimens in 9b yards around the valley / in CA.

[Xenon]

3 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Mid 9b ( 27-28F-ish, w/ slight damage possible ) is what i have heard the most from people here / in San Diego.. Have also heard of them surviving lower than that. Regardless, have seen pictures of  good sized specimens in 9b yards around the valley / in CA.

That makes it a functionally zone 10 plant for TX zones haha. Reports here place it as more tender than mango, probably around lime-tier. It doesn't seem to have the vigor to return from the ground and fruit in the second year like starfruit or guava. Safe to say it's a no go without extensive protection in rural central TX imo

 

[Silas_Sancona]

7 minutes ago, Xenon said:

That makes it a functionally zone 10 plant for TX zones haha. Reports here place it as more tender than mango, probably around lime-tier. It doesn't seem to have the vigor to return from the ground and fruit in the second year like starfruit or guava. Safe to say it's a no go without extensive protection in rural central TX imo

 

lol, Interesting.. I'd have thought these would fall more within the Tangerine / Guava zone of hardiness.. Goes to show how differently things can behave in different areas.   Agree, forget it in the ground where he is at.  Good thing is they're pretty easy and fruit well in containers.

[Austinpalm]

Is either variety more or less likely to make a small tree with 4-inch diameter trunk? Very attractive plant when flowering.

I had Barbados cherry in south Austin for several years.  The fruit were about the size of a dime.  It survived many mid-20 temps fine with very little damage.  !7F and 14F really knocked it back though.  It was kind of slow to recover but did.  Not sure how it handled this past winter as I no longer live there.  Am guessing it was cut to ground, perhaps killed outright.

[Silas_Sancona]

8 minutes ago, Austinpalm said:

Is either variety more or less likely to make a small tree with 4-inch diameter trunk? Very attractive plant when flowering.

I had Barbados cherry in south Austin for several years.  The fruit were about the size of a dime.  It survived many mid-20 temps fine with very little damage.  !7F and 14F really knocked it back though.  It was kind of slow to recover but did.  Not sure how it handled this past winter as I no longer live there.  Am guessing it was cut to ground, perhaps killed outright.

Don't think it matters. Have seen them trained to 8ft on stakes in 15gal in the past, and seen videos of  -what i'd guess- were 10ft tall specimens planted.. Sure they could be trained a bit taller over time w/ out much trouble.  Agree, even w/ out the fruit, they'd make a nice small tree.

[amh]

Thank you everyone for the input. I'll keep it in a pot for now and experiment with clones in the ground later.

[simmjz]

i live in zone 9b central fl west coast. temperatures down in the 20's for several days. my barbados cherry tree 8-10 ft tall is all brown. i may have to cut it back to ground and hope new growth will emerge. nothing on the internet to give info on cold hardiness or low temp tolerance ?

[SubTropicRay]

1 hour ago, simmjz said:

i live in zone 9b central fl west coast. temperatures down in the 20's for several days. my barbados cherry tree 8-10 ft tall is all brown. i may have to cut it back to ground and hope new growth will emerge. nothing on the internet to give info on cold hardiness or low temp tolerance ?

Don't cut anything yet.  As much as you hate to see it this way, give it another month and half before taking cuts.  We've surely got more cold coming (this weekend for example) and the outer, damaged limbs can protect the green stuff further down.