We're in Georgia, just seven miles from the most northern border of Florida.

All six of the citrus trees (in the ground) have dried, curled leaves. I'll expect most of the leaves will drop and there will be some dieback. The last time this happened (to the only tree that wasn't protected), all the leaves fell off and after removing the dead wood, the tree came back with much vigor.

I've protected the lower portion of the trunks and some of the more exposed larger limbs joining the trunks with layers of burlap ... also covered the ground surrounding the trunks.

After our first freeze I picked the fruit off the trees. Some of the fruit, especially the Meyer lemons, had some soft areas; I don't know if that was because the fruit was past its prime stage or because of the freeze.

If these citrus survive this freeze, they can be called real keepers. (Our first frost was Nov. 27th)

brass tacks is right! if the trees manage to survive the freeze, they'll probably come back stronger than ever! I live in S.E. Tx. and have 2 trees that made it through the "big freeze" of '89,(wiped out much of the citrus in east Tx.) I thought they were goners, but as stubborn as I am, I let them alone and they both came back stronger than ever. One (rio red grapefruit) has been putting between 275-350 lbs. of fruit ever since! It took a hit last week, and has similiar damage described by brass tacks, but I think it'll be o.k. GOOD LUCK!
Jerry

brass tacks and jerrytx: How cold were you? Down near 20F or into the teens? Thanks for the reports I find them very interesting even thou all my citrus right now has a well heated greenhouse.

The Fruitnut

Thanks for the refocus fruitnut. Icant wait to find out how my inground satsumas have done. I'm actually traveling in washinton state were it has been pretty warm for winter while at home its ice cold! Ill report as soon as I can. Scape.

Thanks for the refocus fruitnut. Icant wait to find out how my inground satsumas have done. I'm actually traveling in washinton state were it has been pretty warm for winter while at home its ice cold! Ill report as soon as I can. Scape.

fruitnut,
I don't think our temps have gone below 20. Below 28 is when it gets very serious. What is perhaps even more unusual is that the nite temps have remained below freezing for days at a time, below 28. We've had freezing temps before, maybe for two nites in a row, but not more. Back when we were making the decisions about which varieties of citrus we would put in the ground, being able to withstand cold was a consideration -- we'll see.

Back home now. Not much damage to my satsumas in the ground. The frost cloth had been blown off so they must have been mostly unprotected for the cold spell. It looks like there will be some leaf loss but no branch damage at all. I have no idea what effect the leaf loss will have on next years crop but the trees will survive no problem. I think the low was about 19 degrees and it stayed below around freezing or less for several days. Scape

My yard got down to 15 on the coldest night. Two nights in the 20s, two in the teens. In ground I have Rio Red Grapefruit, Cara Cara and N33-E Navel Oranges, Kishu Mandarin, Meiwa Kumquat, and Miho Satsuma. All were covered, but no heat source.
When the covers were removed, the trunks and branches do not appear split. The leaves however show discolored areas of off-green and have a crinkled appearance. I expect to lose the leaves until Spring warming, but time will tell. Strangely, the grapefruit still on tree did not freeze. Perhaps the very thick rind protected the pulp.

I am about 7 miles south of SC....and have had no damage to orlando tangelo, valencia, satsuma, pink marsh grapefruit, or honey murcott. Slight damage to a few meyer lemon leaves and about 25% damage to KEY LIME leaves. No protection...nada. I am surprised myself.

The freeze here was down to 17 degrees and my biggest loss will be my ten foot tall tangelo tree. (It was planted in 1998 and was frozen all the way back to the graft in 2000 when we had 20 degree weather 3-4 days straight).
After the big freeze two weeks ago, all the leaves curled up, turned brown and dropped off. I just hope that the limbs can be spared because that was my pride & joy. It was too large to be feasibly covered. I have about 15 more small citrus trees that were protected in a homemade greenhouse. I live in south central Texas about 90 miles south of San Antonio.

I had thirty trees covered and three uncovered.
Two covers tore and left several trees to show
their metal.

My only heating was from thirty gal garbage
cans of water set between the trees. Since it
went down to 19 about a mile away, I was thrilled
that most damage was to the 1 foot at the ends.
Freezing that much water releases a lot of heat.

Of the three uncovered the worst damage was to a
Chandler about 12 ft tall with about 55% of the
leaves grey. Next was a rio red seedling about the
same hieght but it only had about 5% on the leaves
curled. Third was a 7 ft brown select satsuma
which seems to have been undamaged.

We usually get some twig die back with this
much leaf loss. I'll know more in two months
when they sould start blossoming.

My 135 tree satsuma grove sustained some damage from the 15F we had but I expect them to make a full recovery. Most of the damage is from limb breakage caused by the misting system I have installed over every tree. I have several other satsuma trees scattered around the farm and they were not protected and seem to be in great shape. A sanbokan lemon sustained some damage but appears to be in good shape, A seedling meiwa kumquat shows no damage at all. This freeze seemed to be less damaging than some others in the past and this one lasted 2 weeks.. We had below freezing night time temps every night for the first 14 days of 2010!

Make that 75% LEAF LOSS FROM THE KEY LIME! Everything else unscathed...but did have some frozen meyer lemons.