Great to hear!! Especially about loquat!
I had done the whole deal - a hodgepodge of lights on a thermostat, bubble wrap, and reemay. Peeled back it all yesterday to take a look…everything looked green, not limp, not brown, and not scorched. Even 6 mo old loquat seedlings and 1 yr old fuzzy kiwis looked ok. I left protection on for last night but by Wed I think I can remove.
I can’t say snow cover helped me since it dropped to 7F before the big snow. It’s sure good to know that up here in the colder part of maritime NW, a running elec meter and a pile of bubble wrap goes a long way!
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One thing I forgot to mention as a potential helper is Wilt Proof. I have not used it myself and it does have mixed reviews on A…, mostly concerning past dated bottles being sold and clogging spraying apparatuses. Has anyone tried it?
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I used it. Not sure if it did anything as I didn’t set a control. I just sprayed it on everything and some things did okay and some didn’t. This was 6 or 7 years ago. Would be interesting to test side by side and see how it does.
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3" snow last night - low of 29… I see Seattle just got rain.
Curious if you got snow or rain.
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Thank you for this detailed report! I’ll have to wait at least another week before I can give my full assessment, but one of my neighbors sent a few photos today. It looks like 100% dieback to ground level on the seedling avocados (as expected), but a couple appear to show green at ground level, so hopefully they can make it to spring and regrow from the roots. Here’s a seedling of Mexicola Grande:
This 1.5 year old seedling of the International District loquat tree seems totally unfazed:
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Here in Battle Ground it has been raining like crazy, and mild. Five inches in a few days. Good weather for garden and orchard chores between rains. Not in mud but other places. Only bud swell Im noticing in my garden so far is Lilacs, not my fruit trees yet.
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That loquat looks great. Wishing you luck on the other stuff.
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Just got back as the light was fading this evening, so couldn’t do as much of a survey as I wanted, but I walked around quickly and snapped a few photos. Will need to do a more thorough check on things in the morning.
Some types of plants that I thought might be harmed seem entirely unfazed (loquat, ubajay, luma, feijoa, Chilean guava for the most part). All three species of so-called hardy banana look totally dead.
As for the avocados, I’m happy to see that it looks like the hardy ones that are in the ground were protected enough by the snow that they have a few inches of life above ground level, but are basically totally dead above that. Here are a few:
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So sad to see those brown leaves but better this year than after 5 years of doting care. Maybe we’re good for another 30!
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Finished inspecting the yard and it’s mostly good news. Almost every avocado seems alive at least an inch above the soil line, and a number of other “zone pushing” species seem ok even on parts that weren’t under the snow.
For example, my two Myrcianthes pungens seedlings seem almost untouched:
Feijoa looks totally fine even on the newest growth:
My Jubaea chilensis seedling also seems virtually untouched:
Some avocados even seem to have leaves that survived almost unscathed due to snow cover:
First-year Joey (avocado) graft looks like most of the stems survived fine, despite being on Hass seedling rootstock:
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After cold temps, feijoa leaves may lose their slight gloss and can take several weeks to drop, while remaining totally green.
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Now that the season is further along I am seeing the full extent of damage.
Loquat is still largely looking fine. Not much damage.
Of my many Luma Apiculata cultivars, 2 look fine but several look to be dead to the snow line when the cold hit.
All of my seedling Ugni Molinae are cut down to below the snow line. They died to the roots. There is life in the roots. What is interesting is Flambeau is by far the least damaged. Several other named cultivars like Villarica Strawberry, Burbank, Jim Gerdemann all survived with less damage than the seedlings but still lost most of the top growth. My seedlings were well established 3’ tall and wide with 1/2" caliper branches and those branches are toast so 7 degrees will smoke the average established Ugni.
One big surprise was in my pomegranates. I had a 6 year old Granada that has good caliper wood. 1" +. It died to the ground. What surprised me was I also have a young 2 year old Haku-Botan that’s wood survived all the way to the tiny tips. This one is known for fruiting in the PNW and I wonder if part of its secret is in the cold hardiness as well as early fruiting.
Butia Odorata Jelly Palm’s “trunk” appears to be fine. All small fronds are toast but as you approach the center, it looks fine.
Luma Chequen did better than many of the other Luma Apiculata right next to them.
Feijoa look to all be mostly defoliating where there was no snow cover. They all still have a healthy green cambium but are going to struggle to regain the lost leaves.
Don’t think I lost anything entirely but I will certainly lose a crop from many of these and will need a few mild winters to regain the biomass lost.
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Feijoa subject to teen temps should leaf out normally by June.
Of more interest would be a bloom this year if the plant(s) had bloomed previously.
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last year we had our 1 gal potted hass avacado seedlings outside to test the hardiness they were roughly 2 ft tall in the summer and had died back to 6-12 inches similar to your in ground trees and spring they leaf out.
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Update on my previous observations:
Loquat took a long time to show damage but is now dropping leaves. Still some of the trunk is alive but much of the top growth is toast.
All of my Luma are a mixed bag. Some microclimates that I thought would do well are fully dead to the snow line but there are a few that have little damage. One is a cultivar Nahuel Haupe Hardy that shows almost no damage but was also in one of the most protected sites.
Still all of my Ugni’s appear dead to the lowest branches except Flambeau and Villarica Strawberry. They are both looking fine.
All of my pomegranates lost all top growth except Haku-Botan that is leafing out to the tip of the tiny growth. Very surprised! They are all coming back from the base but will have a lot of recovery to do.
Butia Odorata has slowly gone black. Don’t think there is any life left.
Luma Chequen still looks decent. Where it lost leaves it is replacing and will look fine. Not much woody damage but may be microclimate.
All Feijoa lost 75+% of the leaves but all show new growth and not much woody damage. Pretty good at 7 degrees!
Opuntia cacanapa Ellisiana is doing fine. Some small pads have browning on the edges but larger pads are showing new growth.
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I might have a slightly warmer microclimate.
Loquats got severely damaged here – but not by cold. Rabbits and rats destroyed several young trees by girdling them. The older trees were partway girdled. I am not sure if they will survive long term. They are definitely leafing out. Seattle area has a horrible rabbit problem.
My pomegranates were killed to the ground but are coming back. I see no point in growing them here as we dont have enough heat units. Even if we did, poms ripen in fall when it is rainy here. They will split and rot in our climate.
Feijoas are the bright spot amidst the winter carnage. Rabbits leave them alone. They also seem to have shaken off the cold with minimal damage. A few varieties even thrive in our cold. Nikita seems to be a winner with tons of growth. Arhart and Abbadabba are other notable mentions and have even started flower buds inspite of the terrible cold. But I doubt we will see fruit at the rate our spring is proceeding.
The New Zealand varieties (other than Arhart) are quite a ways behind.
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Good to hear your loquats were not damaged by cold - but so sad about the girdling! What a heartbreak.
In your ‘slightly warmer microclimate’ what was your low for this winter? Based on your low, I’ll know how much protection to give my more northerly inground trees. From @swincher 's pictures of Int’l District tree, it seems they withstood Seattle’s low without damage.
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Unfortunately I wasn’t home during the late Fall early winter period this year to measure anything.
Loquats I believe will take 10F quite easily. I think they are hardier than figs actually.
But the problem is they are evergreen and quite attractive to critters in winter.
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