One of my favorite things about Florida is our year-round warm weather. However, when we occasionally get cold weather that falls below freezing, we need to prepare our tropical loving plants. Certain varieties of palm trees, avocadoes, mangoes, cacao, and other tropical fruiting trees can be very sensitive to cold temperatures. It is important to protect your plants from the cold. Here are some tips to prepare for an approaching cold front:

Before the Freeze:

Cover your Plants:

• Use non-plastic covering. Frost cloths can be found at hardware stores and garden centers, alternatives can be large blankets, bedsheets, or burlap.
• Do not “lollipop” young trees, essentially covering the leaves and branches and tying it off at the upper trunk.
• The covering should drape over the plant and reach the ground and anchored with bricks or other weights to hold the covering to the ground.
• Place mulches around perennials to protect the roots and trap soil heat.
• For palm trees, the most important part to protect is the young spear leaf that comes from the center of the palm. wrap the palm leaves together and wrap in frost cloth. For more on cold weather and palms see Cold Damage on Palms EDIS publication.

Irrigation:

• Watering just before the cold front will actually help protect your plants. Wet soil will absorb more heat during the day and radiate it during the night.

Container Gardens:

• If you have container gardens it is best to relocate them to somewhere sheltered. Inside a garage, lanai, or along fences, buildings, temporary coverings, and adjacent plantings that can all serve as windbreaks and protect plants from cold winds.

  

Raised Beds:

• If you have raised garden beds you can lay your frost cloth over your garden beds and secure them with bricks or other heavy material. A more advanced method of frost protection is creating floating row covers using wire support hoops. This is a commercial agriculture technique that can be implemented in the home garden with a bit of work. You can learn more about floating row covers here.

After the Freeze:

Watering:

• Watering your plants after a freeze will help thaw the soil if frozen and provides water to your plants that may be lost due to transpiration.

Pruning:

• Leaves that are dying and turning brown can be pruned. Be careful not to remove any live branches or over-prune the plant. If the plant needs severe pruning, wait until after new growth appears.

Cold Injury:

Some cold injury isn’t immediate or obvious. Some cold damage symptoms are a lack of spring bud break leading to reduced fruit quantity. Additional damage could appear in discolorations, overall weak appearance, and more.

Contact the Plant Clinic:

If your plants experience cold damage and you’d like a consultation, you can contact your local Extension Office for assistance. Find your local office here.

Located in Orange County? Check out our Plant Clinic! Our primary Residential Plant Clinic is located at the UF/IFAS Extension Orange County office. Additionally, we have a secondary location in Apopka and host monthly “Pop-Up Plant Clinics” at various Orange County Library System branches throughout the county. Check out our schedule here.

• UF/IFAS Extension Orange County Office

  • • 6021 S. Conway Rd. Orlando, FL 32812
    • M-TH, 10-5 pm
    • By Phone: 407-254-9200
    • By Email: orangecomgv@ifas.ufl.edu 

  

  UF/IFAS Mid-Florida Research & Education Center

  • • 2725 S. Binion Rd., Apopka, FL 32703
    • Tuesdays from 9-12 pm

Co-written by: Clarissa Chairez, Master Gardener Volunteer Coordinator and Jody Breaud, Master Gardener Volunteer 

Source: Winter Plant Protection – Solutions for Your Life – University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences – UF/IFAS

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