All Activity

We still have to get through tonight …

7:30PM 02/01/2026

Updates in addition to everything else Soaking - Butia Thawing - weevil infested palmetto (like 5 pounds of seeds from the giant inflourecense) and Sabal Minor from Bonita Lakes park Germinating - needle palm, Bald Head Island, and Tallifero(sp?), Poblano Peppers, 2 varieties of kiwi. More mangos (we've been getting Kent variety) - I think I figured out what was killing them off. I threw a bunch of moldy ones in the yard. Also spend some time wiping everything down with neem oil. Need to hang more lights. Started sorting seedlings by variety instead of just cramming everything where it fit. Got more philodendrons to chop and prop. Trying to pamper the exotic papayas and get them through their super fragile state. Got a few philos that won't get cut because they're going to @Hollywood Palms as soon as it warms up.

Pictures of coconut palms shown previously prepared for last night's freeze. With a ladder a couple of steps short we got 3 loops of 5 watt/ft heating wire over the top out of 50 ft total and a couple of moving blankets but not sure we covered everything, would have felt safer with jimbean's setup but hope it was enough: The small Archontophoenix cunninghamiana in the foreground also got covered The smaller 3 coconut trees got 15 ft of heating wire each, maybe not enough for the largest, plus a blanket and a tarp: The smallest one also got a sheet zip-tied to cover the fronds.

I have some seeds soaking now. I built another bench so I need to fill it up. Got some Tallifero (sp? The cold hardy blue Georgia Sabal minor) and Bald Head Island seeds in baggies too. Thanks to the homie @N8ALLRIGHT for sending them. I don't know if they needed it but I cracked a couple of the needle palm seeds and I'm gonna throw the rest of the Butia seeds from @Scott W on the mat too, and then go through my other Sabal seeds. They're thawing after freezing the weevils.

Key West got down to 53 deg according to weather bug... That blows my mind! Never seen it that cold in the Keys! That's like Waikiki Beach getting down to 53 deg on the beach! (which is admittedly a bit closer to the equator, but not by much) JD

I see 37 for miami beach and 39 for Virginia Key. Of course PBIA in urban south florida had a freeze at 31.. don't see Jensen Beach on that map. Fort Pierce airport and Orlando at mid 20s and Miami FTL both at 35 were dead on what was forecasted. A very good weather forecast on this event.

Thanks for all these screenshots to document this freeze 😀👍

I'm not referring to the "major event" that occured about 6-7 days ago that was advective in nature and heavily dependent on the trajectory of the air mass and cloud cover (and wintry precipitation which didn't happen). Only the last 3-4 nights which have all been pretty calm/light or windless with a high parked near us giving us "stable cold". The thing that hit Florida barely grazed us so again it's just more radiational freeze where UHI and water moderation to shine. The advective event earlier pretty much negated UHI and heavily depressed water moderation.

Describing the weather on your Sunday afternoon / First day of February / Day 28 of the LAST month of winter 25 -26?? Late 80s / early 90s band Cameo said it best: " A surprise package on a bright, clear, sunny day.. Nothin but 80s around town at 4:20PM MST ..W/ a few neighbrhood spots getting real close to 90F as the afternoon wraps up.. Managed to squeeze out an 85F in the hood around 3. As i'd anticipated, PHX ( At Sky Harbour ) broke their daily high record.. Will be interesting to see if the low tomorrow morning is also within record territory, esp. if any clouds move in over night to trap heat.. Tucson lookin about as niice as well.. Upper 60s /low 70s around the Border towns south of the Old Pueblo, ..which is quite nice this time of year down there.. Little cooler today compared to yesterday when checking in on many areas of S.Cal. About the same up in / around the South Bay / Monterey Bay region. Another bump up expected for many areas out there at some point this week.. Current forecast is hung on 80F w/ some clouds around tomorrow but, ..i really think it will end up warmer ..esp. if any cloud cover present thru the day is the high, thin stuff and patchy / accounts for less than 50% coverage at any given time through the day.. We shall see. 'Next shot at the mid / < Upper??? > 80s returns by " Hump " Day ( Wednesday ) 'Eeegardless, Enjoy the week ahead / Don't even think about whining about the " heat " 'Siide Note for 2-day: Some stats for January across the region: Interesting that our " Mean Temp " was higher than Yuma last month.

Went down to around 32F to 33F last night. I left for work at 5:30 this morning and it was 37, mostly cloudy and windy here. Drop mostly happened a little before sunrise I guess. Still breezy here tonight but mostly clear. NWS is saying 31 with frost tonight. I expect to see a lot of 29s and 28s in my area tonight.

Feb 1 2026. 2am 31F, 6am 27F, 10am 32F. Super windy Advective freeze and long duration. Any water in yard froze. 40 foot tall coconut above fronds are fried. In a well protected spot. But never watered or fertilized. Fronds show damage. Does it recover? Prob not. 2nd photo of super tall coconut that’s survived a long time.

How cold did Jensen Beach and Miami Beach get?

Hpa 850, navgem,det op models .....can you translate that for the average Joe please 😂. I'm just glad that my palms are doing fine.

Cocos nucifera in Malta update 1st February 2026 (and a start of a flowering pineapple)

I took a major hit in my yard. South Merritt Island, north of Pineda. Hoping to see some recovery as a lot of the tropical palm fronds got fried. Most of my croton and copperleaf are limp and those are the first to show damage.

The fronds took a major hit. I'd be surprised if the Obi Island palm grows out this one. I'll update in a few weeks if it does.

This is exciting to see ... pure Jubaea has an almost mythological status in Florida, alongside Dypsis decipiens (especially tempting, given its excellent cold hardiness as a crownshaft palm) and a lot of beautiful higher-elevation or higher-latitude South Pacific/South America species, like Hedyscepe. Few palms are as stately and impressive as Jubaea when mature, as I've seen back in coastal California (CIDP's just aren't the same ...) @edbrown_III has successfully grown a trunking specimen of the related and coconut-y Jubeaopsis for a while in Jacksonville, but I have not had luck with germinating it from RPS seeds. I had grown a number of Jubaea from seed, keeping them in a heavily sand/perlite mixture in pots with lots of fungicide. Unfortunately, I sold most of them off before college (a particularly strong one I kept was sorely lost in an accident). I hope to get another batch going soon, as I think panhandle Florida and the broader Southeastern US could work for these with well-drained (preferably, amended with perlite) soil and on a mound. I believe there are healthy ones in parts of South Texas, around San Antonio. Genetic variability will be interesting to see. Dracaena draco (+ cinnabari) is another elusive favorite of mine. Plenty of stately, mature ones in California and the Mediterranean thriving off neglect, but finicky in Florida.

Really spectacular!!

Could not have put this into a more perfect context.. FYI, as you may have heard, Screw worms are trying to make a comeback atm across Mexico.. While having them around to take out X 100's+ -amount of palms right now sucks ______ = insert your own word there.. these Weevils have been present in both Mexico / Baja, and Cen. America for ...quite some time ..and there are plenty of vulnerable -to -this - specific -weevil palm species /genera still around down there.. Plenty of Yucca, Agave, and Cacti still around ..all of whom can attract attention from specific- to- them Snout Weevil sps / genera / other insect " pests ".. Nature will find the right balance in controlling SAPW, where ever their range expands to next over time ...That is if overly- fearful of letting nature do it's thing humans don't kill all the bug eaters ..and themselves.. first..

Looks like a juvenile leaf to me, it should green up with a bit of age. Perhaps it’s getting over the shock of being acclimated and repotted, fear not in a few years time it should look like a healthy plant.

One tree you can’t go past for spectacular new growth, the browneopsis ucayliana! Only seedlings at the moment but that’s where life begins from seedlings, from little things big things grow.

My covers worked so far even with the wind and an attempt at a windbreak that mostly actually worked. All I needed to do was some adjusting and it's set for tonight. Winds are dying down so I expect I will need all the covers perfect.