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2022-December Freeze (SC zone 8A)


Turtlesteve

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December 2022.  We had 5 nights in a row at or below lows of 20F.  The worst night (2nd night) we hit 12F with a high of 33 the following day and a low of 15F the next night.  It was also extremely windy the night before it hit 12F so there was little mercy or benefit to having favorable microclimates.

I still don’t know what will survive in many cases so will update as things progress:

Unprotected plants:

Butia Odorata:  7 large palms (one trunking and the rest near trunking size).  One large palm completely defoliated, two with spear damage, the rest look perfect.  The one that defoliated is still alive.  About 15 smaller Butia (3 gallon to 15 gallon size, well established in the ground).  Of these, all but  two have spear pulled and some have started to rot.  I have hit them all with fungicide but I suspect I will lose some.  

chamaerops humilis:  5 gallon ish size.  90% burned, spear pulled, probably dead.  Mature palms around town all showing 50-75% burn with spears damaged or dead.  Most overrated cold hardy palm in this area.

“Super mule” hybrids.  Supposedly (JxB)F2 x S?  Two large but not trunking palms.  Both 100% defoliated.  Cannot tell if alive or not.

Phoenix dactylifera.  One small palm (3 gallon) confirmed dead.  Larger palm (15 gallon ish) is defoliated, spear rot, probably dead.

Nannorrhops / Mazari palm.  I don’t know if they are arabica or richtiana.  Two palms about 3 gallon size.  50% defoliation, spears intact.

Sabal palmetto.  No damage.

Sabal rosei.  No damage.

Sabal mexicana.  Minor leaf burn

Sabal causiarum?  Multiple types.  Two large but not trunking palms with very minor burn on leaf tips.  It’s possible these are causiarum x palmetto but not sure.  Smaller plants, suspected to be dominguensis, burned down to ground level.

Sabal uresana.  Blue form has 75-90% leaf burn but spears are intact.  Green form has about 50% leaf burn.

Sabal minor, multiple varieties.  No damage.

Needle palm.  No damage.

All cycads - 90-100% defoliated.  Some may have more severe damage but it’s not showing yet.  This includes Cycas revoluta, taitungensis, panzihuaensis, Ceratozamia latifolia, kuesteriana, hildae, Macrozamia moorei, communis, and Zamia pumila.

Eucalyptus cineraea and damplyreana defoliated and may be killed to the ground.

Eucalyptus neglecta has minor burn to young leaves only.

Olive tree 100% leaf drop.

Citrus.  Fortunately all dormant.  Larger satsumas (6’ tall or more) dropped leaves but look OK so far. Smaller satsuma type citrus and any less hardy citrus took major damage or were killed to the ground.  
 

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Now for protected plants.  In all cases these plants had no supplemental heat, but had single layer covers thrown over them (such as nursery pots, buckets, old awnings, whatever I could find until I ran out of stuff).  This turned out to be woefully inadequate but I was unprepared as our hvac died a few days before this all happened.

Livistona mariae x decora.  100% defoliated.  Leaves cut back and no evidence of movement yet.

Livistona nitida.  100% defoliated, immediate spear pull, leaves collapsed.  I’m pretty sure it’s dead.

Livistona chinensis.  100% burn, no spear pull.

Dypsis decipiens.  This is the big shocker so far.  Probably 30% leaf burn but with all spears intact and green.

Cycas guizhouensis.  100% burn despite being protected.

Serenoa repens (blue form).  Some were protected and some not.  All spears have pulled on all palms.  One small palm (2-3 gallon) is dead.

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Forgot one:  

Washingtonia x filibusta, unprotected, about 5-7 gallon size.  100% defoliated, spear pull, no movement.  Likely dead.  

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One more:

Jubaea chilensis.  20” strap leaves, in ground for going on two years.  Protected with an overturned pot.  No damage evident.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Looking really bad now.

Livistona mariae x decora and nitida confirmed dead.  Washintonia x filibusta dead.  Most serenoa repens dead.  Phoenix dactylifera all dead.  Small chamaerops dead.  Most small Butia odorata are dead, and fungicide on the pulled spears didn't save them.  A couple in the 3-5 gallon size range might survive, and strap leafed Butia are fine (being that the growth points were well underground).  Mature or near mature Butia are fine, the one that defoliated is pushing growth.   One "super mule" might live, the other seems dead.  a non-trunking windmill palm has now spear pulled and is getting fungicide tomorrow.

But, the Dypsis decipiens lives on.

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11 hours ago, Turtlesteve said:

But, the Dypsis decipiens lives on.

At least some good news from an otherwise dreadful winter.

Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/18/2023 at 8:17 PM, Turtlesteve said:

Looking really bad now.

Livistona mariae x decora and nitida confirmed dead.  Washintonia x filibusta dead.  Most serenoa repens dead.  Phoenix dactylifera all dead.  Small chamaerops dead.  Most small Butia odorata are dead, and fungicide on the pulled spears didn't save them.  A couple in the 3-5 gallon size range might survive, and strap leafed Butia are fine (being that the growth points were well underground).  Mature or near mature Butia are fine, the one that defoliated is pushing growth.   One "super mule" might live, the other seems dead.  a non-trunking windmill palm has now spear pulled and is getting fungicide tomorrow.

But, the Dypsis decipiens lives on.

What was the final tally now that it’s warming up? 

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On 4/4/2023 at 8:26 PM, RJ said:

What was the final tally now that it’s warming up? 

Still can't get a final tally as some palms are very borderline.  I'll probably be able to do a final count in May or so.  The protected Livistona mariae x decora that I was so certain was dead, is actually barely alive for now.   Livistona chinensis has not spear pulled but shows no signs of life.  One green chamaerops is alive (I previously thought was dead).  Small Butia odorata are mixed, a couple dead dead but many I thought were goners are trying to recover.  As for mature Butia, they took damage that took time to show, but they're all alive.  A couple spears rotted, and some completely defoliated.  Only one was completely undamaged, so that's the one I am getting seeds from in the future.  I had about 5 serenoa repens (silver form) and only one of them seems to have pushed growth.  I suspect the others are dead but it's too soon to tell.  The one surviving super mule has pushed out more than 3" so I suspect it will live.  The Dypsis is pushing good growth and had no further damage show up.

Some cycad losses as well.  I lost a Ceratozama kuesteriana and a C. latifrons (but the latter was struggling anyways).  A second C. kuesteriana is questionable.  Ceratozamia hildae is fine.  I also have a good size Cycas taitungensis that has missed the normal flush time, but feels firm, so may be OK.  Macrozamia communis and M. moorei - can't tell yet.  Cycas guizhouensis are fine and are flushing (but I protected them since they were recently planted).  Cycas panzihuaensis are all fine and were unprotected.  C. revoluta it's too soon to tell, as they don't normally flush early in the year.  

Quercus insignis was killed to the ground but is sprouting back from the roots.  Satsumas and several cold hardy citrus hybrids are mostly OK, with minor dieback.  I had significant damage on Bambusa multiplex but it will live.  Several varieties of Opuntia cactus I had been growing for years were killed as well.  Olive tree completely defoliated with some dieback, but looks like it will recover.

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Hi fellas, 

I just got back Stateside for some time and I was pretty shocked at the damage done from that stupid December freeze. This is the first time (with my own eyes) where I've seen Butias more than halfway defoliated. 

One of my large palmettos at my parents house suffered some very minor tip burn- but it's out in the open. 

I had a decent sized mule I put int the ground the previous spring in one of the best microclimates my parents have and it got completely fried. 

Good news is my two Washingtonias made it through- albeit 100% defoliated. I was really anxious to see if they were alive because my mom kept saying she didn't see any green. Luckily by the time I arrived, it was certainly pushing growth 😅

Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack the thread Steve but yeah, this past December was no joke.

So Steve, just that hybrid red Livistona is carrying through? Any other Livistonas besides your Chinensis? I'm really curious to try out Decoras and Nitidas again. I put in a juvenile Nitida where my now deceased Mule used to be. 

 

And dypsis decipiens still alive?! Now that is really exciting.  If you ever get time, I'd love to see a picture of it. Might have to put the "super" title on that decipiens rather than the mules having it. 

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  • 6 months later...

Hello,

Could you give us more informations about cycads recovery or not ? I am very interested to learn more about your Macrozamia communis and M. moorei.

Sincerely.

Jean-Michel Dupuyoo

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok.  I’ll try to catch all of the questions:

Livistona - only the chinensis survived.  All of them looked like crap until mid summer but they lived.  The other livistona species died even being completely covered during the freeze.

The Dypsis is doing fantastic.  I grabbed a pic today.  The only sign of the December freeze is the half burned leaf in the lower left.  

IMG_3554.thumb.jpeg.20ca75192ac9bb7116a3f20a0d84c3cc.jpeg
 

The one super mule that lived is recovering but it’s still weak / stunted.  It took until summer to push a good spear.  I do not think it would survive another severe freeze this winter.  All the large Butia lived but I lost several small ones.  Some i had written off for dead pushed spears in June or July.  

Macrozamia moorei and communis survived but were 100% defoliated.  The caudices were buried so that helped.  They are not thriving for me but I gave one to a friend nearby with sandy soil (I have more clay) and his seems happier.  Two Dioon edule are alive but they might as well be dead for as much as they hate my clay soil.  Cycas did well overall, but I did lose a couple of panzihuaensis and revoluta to rot, from a very wet spring that complicated recovery.  I also lost a ceratozamia kuesteriana to cold and three Ceratozamia latifolia due to rot.  Cycas guizhouensis did very well and recovered fast, this species may become my new favorite.  

Steve

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The Dypsis at worst damage extent.  The Dyckia hybrid in front of it was killed.

IMG_1483.thumb.jpeg.916f9b1108b686ef7d308aa0330ee70d.jpeg
 

And carnage everywhere else:

IMG_1448.thumb.jpeg.1e14399a9363c174be9c72ae43c326f6.jpeg

IMG_1453.thumb.jpeg.1ee4ea416b96c73e02221f47415e5235.jpeg

IMG_1452.thumb.jpeg.35257610e2924e91e87231e51b634dac.jpeg

IMG_1450.thumb.jpeg.1e301938292f7851fe9bb867a981ee85.jpeg

IMG_1481.thumb.jpeg.e34c6ee658397f618fb7e0eff24018e5.jpeg

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  • 2 months later...

Sad about the lingering carnage. No time to harden off after 50's and rain the day before. I'm a little surprised by the non-trunking Pindos at 12°.

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