Record Cold

[pogrmman]

Y’all may already know this, but here in Texas were set to get record cold next week. Like worst cold in over 30 years. The NWS is actually forecasting Austin to dip into the single digits — which would only be the 7th time ever, the first since 1989, and the first time below 15°F since 1990. To make matters worse, it’s been so warm this winter that spring has started — my neighbor’s peach is in full bloom, early stuff like agarita and elbow bush is in full bloom, and my big pomegranate has opened buds on about 1/2 its canopy.

Is there any way to help my pomegranates through this? The big one is indeed large — the main trunk is easily 6-8” thick (if not bigger) and the tree is 18’ tall and wide. Idk if I can do much for one that big...

I have cuttings of both as backups, but I’d hate to lose them.

The “fun” started today with 33° and all-day freezing rain instead of 37° and cold rain like they’d forecast. Fortunately, it’s just normal Austin cold for the next couple days, but Sunday/Monday/Tuesday is going to be insanely rough — we may threaten the record all-time February low of 8°, we may threaten the hours below freezing record, and we may threaten the coldest high record (20°).

C01C268F-AA92-41A5-9DBA-7E9D40A30D51.jpeg (127.34 KiB) Viewed 11069 times

My big pomegranate, coated in ice.

[pombazaar]

In my area when we have late frosts we turn the sprinkler on overnight and point them at the trees to prevent frost damage. Doing this also helps save anything breaking bud. This should work well for the low 30s and into the high 20s but won't help with lows of 8F. What I would do is wrap the base and main branches with some blankets and rope and hope for the best. You have an old tree with some real good size to it and deep roots, that's a huge plus. My 2 year old wonderful survived a whole winter outside in Michigan in ground but of course died to root. A few days of single digits lows I don't believe will cause permanent damage. Your buds along with any new green growth will for sure die though.

[pogrmman]

In my area when we have late frosts we turn the sprinkler on overnight and point them at the trees to prevent frost damage. Doing this also helps save anything breaking bud. This should work well for the low 30s and into the high 20s but won't help with lows of 8F. What I would do is wrap the base and main branches with some blankets and rope and hope for the best. You have an old tree with some real good size to it and deep roots, that's a huge plus. My 2 year old wonderful survived a whole winter outside in Michigan in ground but of course died to root. A few days of single digits lows I don't believe will cause permanent damage. Your buds along with any new green growth will for sure die though.

Thank you for the suggestions. Hopefully, it looks like we’re only going to have a single night below 10°, but who knows at this point — this kind of thing is nearly unprecedented here. The biggest reason I’m worried is the 2-3 preceding weeks of 70-80° temperatures. I’m definitely going to try wrapping up the trunk. Thankfully pomegranates grow pretty fast, especially with a giant root system like this one has...

[pombazaar]

I'm really hoping your tree pulls through! Let us know how it does

[pogrmman]

I'm really hoping your tree pulls through! Let us know how it does

I’m hoping it does! I’ll update probably this weekend or later in the spring as we warm up. I’m much more optimistic now because we didn’t get quite as cold as forecast. Sunday night was colder than expected at 9°F, but last night was thankfully much warmer than expected: 9°F (again) instead of the forecast 3°F.

Plus, we got 6.5" to 7" (most snow in 72 years!) of snow that drifted up around trunks and stuff, so I think that will help.

[greenfig]

I keep checking the weather map and TX really stands out. Stay safe!
I got a few requests from people there not to send any cuttings since they would be doa .
Good luck!

[alanmercieca]

If they could even be delivered!

[greenfig]

True !

[pogrmman]

Yep. The roads definitely are impassible. This whole thing started with 1/2” of freezing rain, followed by us going below freezing, then 6.5" of snow (3rd biggest snowfall ever), then 3/4” of freezing rain, then 1/2” of snow. All somewhere where any measurable snowfall is about a once every 3 year event and where more than an inch is about a once a decade event. I haven’t been able to leave the house since last Thursday night because my neighborhood is very hilly.

The past few years have been insane with snow — we had a solid snowfall December 2017, a light snowfall February 2020, and now a big storm January 2021, a gigantic storm last Sunday night, and a light snowfall yesterday. I’ve never seen snow on the ground here for more than 24 hours and this year I’ve had a solid snowpack for 4 days now. I don’t remember ever having so many snow events so close together.

[pogrmman]

Sad news: I think my big pomegranate was killed to the ground :/ No living cambium anywhere on the trunk. It’s gonna be a lot of work taking it out...

I’m kind of surprised because I’ve always considered pomegranate to be more cold hardy than figs, and my figs only had dieback on small branches <1" in diameter or so. Even the fig I planted as a tiny cutting last June wasn’t taken back to the ground (it was wrapped in a few towels). None of my figs have trunks anywhere close to my big pomegranate.

My little tiny Red Silk pomegranate with only a 1/2" trunk wasn’t taken back to the ground either, but it too was fully dormant (and wrapped with a few towels, not that that did much in this freeze).

I think it’s probably because the pomegranate was actively waking up and pushing new growth, but the figs were entirely dormant.