Amazing! Good to hear. I wouldn't do final assessment for about two weeks.....but your experiment looks like it paid off well. Great work and thanks for posting!!

Harry

Awesome Bluepalm!! Looks great...Congrats!! Thanks for the update!

Wow Bluepalm,
that is a scary photo but the after affects so far are spectacular.

please keep us updated,
-Ethan

I'm absolutely astounded......brilliant strategy (apparently) if nothing more than a branch and a few
leaves depart. So it looks like what they do on citrus works for you, Blue Palm........you've added yet another strategy to below freezing challenges to mangos....

mangodoggie

I have seen pictures of professional citrus growers doing this on another forum. Never even thought that it could work for mangoes. Congratulations! And a brave move by you. And maybe I will think about giving it a try too :)

bluepalm, here are the pictures of Stan McKenzie's citrus under ice from another forum. Hope you enjoy them :)

Here is a link that might be useful: pictures of citrus under ice

Hi Ashleysf, would love to see them but I can't see any photos :o( Says only registered users can view these links. Maybe its just my computer?

Daring experiment. Job well done Blue Palm!

Wow - that is awesome! Thanks for posting the results. What kind of sprinkler did you use? Did you have to use a special high-volume sort? I'm curious if my normal lawn sprinklers could achieve this sort of effect (not that I'm sure I'm brave enough to try)?

Hi Sun...that's my problem too...I'm not brave enough to try it, but also I'm in a watering restrictions here (HOA) will turn me in and a very hefty fine for running my Sprinklers for 9 hours straight,lol!! I believe Blue Palm said he ran it from 12am to 9 in the morning? Also, I'm sure my sprinkler system isn't strong enough to handle the job!

Great results though...very impressive! Especially compared to my "severe damages"!

I would think just some kind of a portable lawn sprinkler put in a fixed position facing the tree(s) that attaches to a hose, turned on low and just allowed enough volume to sort of sprinkle lightly over it......and I think if Blue Palm had gotten up in the middle of the night/early morning, s/he would have been able to turn it off as I would think it only needs the thinnest coating of ice.....

of course this method is only good for a single tree or a few of them planted together....

Or perhaps another way to save some water (all this would have to tested out ahead of time if possible) so you're not running it all night, would be to put a portable timer (battery operated - I've seen them at Lowes/HD) that you could thread the hose on to and that gets attached to the hose bib and have it come on when below freezing period begins and then let it run for only 1-3 hours or so - seems like that would lay down a nice sheet of ice?

Just thinking out loud here...

mangodog

here are the pictures from the citrus forum

Wow...that's truly amazing!! Thanks Mango kush for posting those pics directly.

yes, Pug, other worldly....my own question would be Why so MUCH water? The weight of the ice on the last photo looks back breaking? Stalagtite City!

(but then again, maybe it needs an abundance of water to make it work...)

mangomange

Thanks mango_kush for providing the direct link to this citrus gower's pics. I was still trying to figure out how to post it directly as it can be seen only by members of the other forum. BTW/ Stan grows citrus under ice in South Carolina.

Nice pics of the citrus grove.

Yeah, Pug, I doubt I could get away with watering all night either - I'm under water restrictions too. And I think to get this method to work you do need to keep the water running the whole time the temp is below freezing. Has to do with the physics of freezing water giving off energy in the form of heat. I will have to read that other link bluepalm posted on the technique more carefully after seeing the great results!

Maybe those with watering restrictions could set up misters in the trees instead of using an actual sprinkler? I would think that would use a lot less water and would be more concentrated on the tree.

How the ice protects the plants is as follows:
"utilization of irrigation can protect from cold damage. Irrigation may also be used in combination with tree wraps. There are two types of irrigation methods used in cold protection of citrus. They are overhead and microsprinkler irrigation. Overhead irrigation is the use of a sprinkler which sprays water over the tops of citrus. Micro Irrigation is the use of low- volume misting sprinklers installed at ground level on short risers. These systems should put out 10 to 50 gallons/hour. Irrigation works by using the heat of fusion. Heat of fusion is the heat given off when water freezes to ice. This process protects the trees by transferring the created heat to the citrus tree. This heat is only transferred on the inside of the ice. Parts of the tree exposed to the exterior of the ice are subject to cold damage. Once Irrigation has begun during freezing temperatures, it must be continued until temperatures have risen."
Below is the link to the article

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to original: Winter protection of citrus

Regarding covering the mango trees in ice, to be truly free, one has to let go. : )

I used oscillating sprinklers I bought at Lowes that were for "large lawns." I had to put each on top of an overturned trash can (to get the water up higher) and held them down with 1/4 bags of pea gravel on the base. It took about 20 minutes to get the set-up just right to give me the maximum amount of coverage (I had to adjust the water pressure because I was running 2 at a time). From what I've read, it is not good to run the sprinklers for just "a little bit" to let ice form on the tree. The sprinklers need to be started before the temps hit freezing and run continuously until the temps go above freezing.

BluePalm:

I'm very interested to know what you did this cold spell with the "iced" mango. Did it continue to look good after the thaw or was there some leaf loss or other change prior to this last cold wave hitting? Thanks.

Harry

The mangos looked a little piqued after the first cold spell. I didn't run the sprinklers this time around...it wasn't forecast to be too cold for too long (below freezing, but not below 28-29 for very long), and I noticed the first time I iced them that the parts of the mango trees that got misted and then froze got severely damaged, but those parts of the trees that had a constant stream of water did fine...and the first night of this freeze had 15-20 mph winds so it would have screwed up the coverage my sprinklers (I was afraid that the stream of water wouldn't be steady with the gusting winds).

I was once told its the initial freeze that puts them into shock and when they are most vulnerable, after they become dormant and are more likely to survive

Thanks for the info on the kind of sprinklers you used. Interesting point about the wind messing up the sprinkler coverage. Several of the freezing days I've had have had a lot of wind. That combined with water restrictions means I won't be able to use this method, but I'm very interested in following your progress!

BluePalm:

Here we are in the middle of summer, sweltering. I just had a flash in my head about this ice experiment and was wondering how the tree is doing now. Any chance for an update?? Thanks in advance. Of course, pics will always be appreciated.

Harry

Hi Harry. The tree lost all of its previous years growth. I'm not sure if the ice did any good, other than keep the tree alive...my low was 25.9, and it was a hard-freeze winter. On my Dot and Glenn tree, where the ice formed I had less tree damage, but on the Edward it did not seem to matter. Here is a picture of the tree today. You can see the main trunk end (it is black from pruning seal):

in my experience, mango trees can survive one or two nights at 28 degrees without protection, maybe even a little less. I had a nam doc mai in the ground. Citrus can go much lower depending on variety.

Thanks for the update Blue Palm. I'm glad to see that your tree lived. That seems like a pretty good accomplishment, even if it did lose a season's worth of growth.