St. Lucie Extension Staff Offers Cold Weather Tips for Plants

Cold weather is approaching St. Lucie County and surrounding areas this weekend, and it is important to take action to protect our trees and landscape plants. Be ready to move tender potted plants to warmer, sheltered areas. Plants in containers can be moved inside or placed close to the house inside porches or garages. Large containers that cannot be moved inside can be clumped together and mulch placed around the container can help protect the roots from extreme cold weather. Mulch can also be used in the landscape to reduce radiant heat loss from the soil and protect roots of plants that are in the ground.

Covering your plants can protect them from frost damage. Cloth sheets, quilts, or commercial frost cloth can be used. It is important to try to have the covering touch as little foliage as possible, and have the covering extend all the way to the ground, to trap any radiant heat from the soil. It is recommended to use cloth coverings instead of plastic, as plastic can trap moisture and add to injury if freezing occurs.

After a cold weather event leaves our area, it is essential to remove the covering from your plants to allow ventilation. It is also important to provide water to plants after a cold weather event. If there is frost damage, remove dead leaves once they turn brown, but it is very important to wait to do any heavy pruning on trees and landscape plants. It is recommended to wait to do any heavy pruning until closer to our Spring months. This ensures that our trees and landscape plants will have to best chance to survive any cold damage. Just like hurricane damage to our landscapes, it can take a while for plants and trees to show the injury and start recovering.