Tigerlaff

OK so I just got home and did a damage assessment. My low was 29F and we were below 32F for 6 hours. I protected nothing that was in the ground and I'm shocked at the things with zero damage. Tropicals like bougainvillea, cordyline/ti plant/tropical passionfruit/hibiscus took no damage. The only damage is on banana leaves and passionfruit leaves that are at least 20 feet off the ground and exposed to open sky. Everything else is untouched. Absolutely best case scenario for me.

Nice, will be curious to see what kind of temps you can maintain. Here's my current readout.

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I've got two small feijoa trees to protect. I was thinking of just putting a trash can over them tonight. Is that enough? I'm in Prairieville. Showing a low of 33.

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Absolutely no need to protect feijoa at that temp. They are tanks and won't drop a single leaf.

There is only one way to get rid of guava mealybugs. Imidacloprid. I find the granules work best. Use 3x the label amount. The morphology of the tree makes non-systemic pesticides useless. Just trust me on this one, I've tried it all. Do not waste one second on any of the stupid home remedies you see online. (just mix one part dish soap with lemon juice and water....).

LINK

It can be very hard to figure out what is causing plant symptoms. My strategy is "fix everything" and you usually end up hitting whatever the issue was. I would do the following if this were my tree:

1) give it some osmocote plus time release granular fertilizer. This is the easiest fertilizer on earth and trees thrive with it. Follow label instructions and you will feed it slowly and completely for months. No overdose risk.

2) give it a single deep watering of distilled water. This flushes out anything bad that might be in your tap water. Also flushes out fertilizer salts, which can build up. After this watering give it a good while before watering again. Let the soil get to a point where it's barely even moist and not wet. Mangos are not thirsty trees.

3) give it a foliar feed with a good foliar spray that includes chelated iron. Those leaves should be dark green, not yellowing. A foliar feed can often fix this.

4) test your soil pH. Mangos do best in a mildly acidic soil that includes peat. My tap water is pH 9, which is incredibly basic. I have to account for that with my soil mix and amendments.

5) double and triple check your soil permeability and composition. The number one most important thing you can possibly do for these trees is to have a mix that drains fast. That usually fixes all other problems in my experience. But if you already have a good sandy mix and the water goes right through it, then this probably isn't it.

It's about that time...

Woody made him rehire Baker too.

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Watch out man, he's about to call you a cuck despite the fact that he had to divorce his wife after catching her with another man.

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Thank you for nuking this guy :lol:

Nope, no nectaplums yet. Planted it in July. Growing fast though so it may be able to hold a couple next year.

OK all the 10 day forecasts are now predicting temps in the mid 30s on the Northshore for next Tuesday morning 11/11. Unless you are on the south shore or down da bayou, this is your 7-day warning to prepare all tropicals and subtropicals for frost and freeze protection.

Frost protection is different from freeze protection. Frost occurs when the air in one area cools much faster than the air around it. A tiny area reaches 32F or lower and the ice that develops injures sensitive plants. Frost can occur at 37F with the right conditions (clear skies, calm or no wind, high humidity). The easiest way to avoid frost is to move everything under a covered area like a patio, garage, or under a tarp. I am doing frost protection anytime I see temps below 40F because my yard can easily be 3-4 degrees lower (or higher) than the forecast based on my direct measurements. My forecast for last night was 44F. We hit 41F.

Freeze protection is when air temperature hits 32F or lower. At that point you are best off just protecting and even heating everything sensitive. I don't take risks here. I've got years of work into some of these potted trees. I'm not rolling the dice because the forecast said 36F but a pocket of colder 29F air settled on my backyard. It happens all the time. You aren't going to find a mango tree at your local nursery to replace one you lose.

"Winter" is unfortunately here early in south Louisiana. November 2024 had temps in the 90s. Take this week to get your plan together and take the weekend to set it up and test it.