Baby, It's Cold Outside (Previously Posted)

As happens every so often here in Florida, cold weather slips in and plant protection becomes imperative. I have some small and two large mangos that are full of bloom and forming little green mangos that are especially cold sensitive. A couple of Jakfruit trees also require protection. Usually we just throw old blankets over them and hope for the best. Having grown more attached to these trees, we decided to design better protection for them. We designed a structure made of pvc piping that we had on hand. Our intention is to use these in future years on other cold sensitive plants as the protected ones grow. Four long pipes were buried in the ground about 1 foot deep. A top was constructed using pipe, elbows and tees. See photos 1 and 2. This has worked great and has proved to be extremely sturdy and durable. The plant we are protecting here is an alano sapodilla. This young plants are very tender and moderately expensive to replace. We also have a 250 watt flood light in the enclosure. The Haden mango and the jakfruit are pretty large trees and we needed much longer pvc piping than we had at home. After checking the price of pvc at our local Lowes and Home Depot, it became apparent we had to find another option. We also grow giant bamboo so we cut stalks to use as poles. See Photo 3. We made the top the same as the sapodilla enclosure with the pvc piping. The large bamboo poles were sunk 16 to 18 inches in the ground using a post hole digger. The poles were planted leaning in so that they were stressed to lean out when the top was applied. The top is not permanently attached to the bamboo poles. The Haden mango is 10 - 12 feet high. We will trim it every year to maintain this height. See Photo 4. If it grows much larger, we won't be able to cover it and fruit 20 feet in the air doesn't do us much good. The jakfruit is a seedling and is about 8 feet tall. See Photo 5. We will maintain it at the same height as the Haden mango.