Let's face it. Floridians are no experts when it comes to handling cold temps. We are even less prepared on how to protect our landscapes from cold temps. It just doesn't happen very often. With the exception of some north Florida counties maybe. So let's talk about it. It has been a much colder winter than we had last year. And we are getting a lot of questions on social media about how to tell if plants are being stressed from cold temperatures or by something else. So lets talk about it and down at the bottom, you will find a video I made showing you examples. I also spend a few minutes talking about the basics of microclimates and how they protect my plants from cold weather. How Cold Affects Plants Plants are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Cold weather can impact plants in several ways: • Cellular Damage: Water within plant cells can freeze when temperatures drop below the plant’s freezing tolerance. Ice crystals form in the cells, causing them to rupture. This damages the plant's structure and impairs its ability to function properly. • Reduced Metabolic Activity: Cold temperatures slow down the plant's metabolic processes, including photosynthesis and respiration. This can stress the plant and make it less able to take up water and nutrients. • Disruption of Water Transport: Frozen soil can limit a plant’s access to water, while cold air can reduce the plant's ability to transpire (release water vapor). This combined stress can lead to dehydration. • Delayed Growth: Cold temperatures can prevent plants from growing or maturing, which affects flowering and fruiting. This is especially detrimental for crops and ornamental plants. Types of Cold Damage There are several types of cold damage that plants may experience: • Frost Damage: Occurs when a plant is exposed to temperatures below freezing, causing water inside the plant cells to freeze. This typically affects above-ground parts, like leaves, flowers, and stems, resulting in wilting, browning, or blackening of the plant tissue. • Freeze Injury: A more severe form of frost damage, freeze injury can occur when the entire plant or parts of it, like roots or stems, freeze solid. This typically happens when the temperature drops rapidly or remains below freezing for an extended period. • Chilling Injury: This occurs when a plant is exposed to temperatures above freezing but still below the plant’s minimum temperature tolerance. Chilling injury is often subtler than frost damage, causing slow growth, leaf drop, or overall plant stress without immediately visible signs. Signs of Cold Damage The symptoms of cold damage can vary depending on the plant species and the extent of the exposure. Common signs include: • Blackened or Waterlogged Tissue: After frost or freeze exposure, plant tissues may appear blackened, mushy, or translucent. • Wilting or Curling Leaves: Cold-damaged leaves may wilt or curl, even in cooler temperatures. • Browning of Leaf Edges: A common symptom of frost injury, where the edges of leaves become brown or necrotic. • Branch Dieback: When stems or branches freeze, they may die back, causing the plant to look sparse or have broken branches. • Delayed Bud Break or Flowering: Cold injury can delay the onset of new growth in the spring, resulting in stunted or missing flowers and fruit. Preventing Cold Damage While some cold damage is inevitable in harsh climates, there are several strategies to reduce the risk of damage to your plants: • Choose Cold-Hardy Plants: Select plants that are suited to your climate zone and capable of withstanding local winter temperatures. • Proper Mulching: Mulch around the base of plants to insulate the soil and protect root systems from freezing temperatures. • Protecting Plants from Frost: Use row covers, blankets, or frost cloths to shield plants from frost during cold nights. Additionally, watering plants before a cold snap can help retain heat in the soil and reduce the chance of freezing. • Provide Windbreaks: Cold winds can exacerbate freezing temperatures. Planting windbreaks or using physical barriers can help shield sensitive plants from damaging winds. • Bring Pots Indoors: For potted plants, moving them inside or to a sheltered location during extreme cold spells can prevent damage. Dealing with Cold-Damaged Plants If your plants have been affected by cold damage, the first step is to assess the extent of the injury. Here’s how to handle it: • Pruning: Cut away damaged or dead tissue, especially if it’s blackened or mushy, to help the plant focus energy on healthy growth. • Watering and Fertilizing: After a cold event, ensure that plants are well-watered (without over-watering) and avoid fertilizing too soon, as it may encourage weak, vulnerable growth. • Patience: In some cases, plants can recover from cold damage over time. Allow them to rest during the cold season, and new growth may emerge in the spring.

Scale Insects are a gardening Foe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Scale Insects on Citrus Tree in Florida Scale insects are a diverse group of small, sap-feeding pests that can cause significant damage to plants in Florida landscapes. These insects are known for their protective coverings, which can make them difficult to detect and control. They affect a wide variety of ornamental plants, trees, and shrubs commonly found in Florida gardens, often leading to issues such as yellowing leaves, dieback, secondary mold infestation, and reduced plant vitality. Scale Insects are divided into 2 main categories - armored and soft bodied. Armored scale have, as you would imagine, a hard waxy covering that is also made up of previous cast skins. This "armor" protects the insect and a female's eggs, which are laid just under the armor. Adult armored scale generally do not move once they begin to feed. They are smaller than soft bodied scale. Lastly, they do not produce honeydew as a byproduct of their feeding on plant material. Soft scales are different in the ways already discussed. They do still have a waxy covering, but it can not be removed, and is generally the same color as the actual insect. Soft scale females can reproduce without males, making their population number jump significantly in single growing seasons. Because they create honeydew, host plants are more likely to contract molds and potentially diseases. Honeydew also invites ants to the plant and a symbiotic relationship is formed between the two insects. The ants provide protection from predators to the scale, while the scale's honeydew feeds the ants. Florida is home to numerous species of scale insects, but some of the most prevalent include: 1. Armored Scales • Species: Lepidosaphes spp., Fiorinia externa (Oleander scale), Hemiberlesia lataniae (Koch’s scale), Lepidosaphes beckii (Purple Scale), Lepidosaphes gloveri (Glover Scale), Pinnaspisas pidistrae (Fern Scale), Unaspis citri (Snow Scale), • Characteristics: Armored scales have a hard, protective shell that shields them from environmental factors and predators. Do not create honeydew. Generally, only first instars are mobile. • Host Plants: Common hosts include citrus, crape myrtle, and various palms. 2. Soft Scales • Species: Icerya purchasi (Cottony cushion scale), Saissetia oleae (Olive scale), Ceroplastes rusci (Fig Wax scale), Saissetia neglecta (Carribean Black Scale), Coccus hesperidum (Soft Brown Scale), Ceroplastes floridensis (Florida Wax Scale), Coccus viridis (Green Scale), Phalacrococcus howertoni (Croton-scale) • Characteristics: Soft scales lack the hard covering seen in armored scales and produce a sticky, sugary substance known as honeydew, which can encourage the growth of sooty mold. • Host Plants: Soft scales target a wide range of plants including ornamental trees, shrubs, and fruit crops like avocado and citrus. 3. Mealybugs Technically mealybugs are a form of scale. But their white waxy appearance tends to make them seem like their own category. I have a whole post on mealybugs you can see by CLICKING HERE. Scale insects feed by inserting their needle-like mouthparts into plant tissues and withdrawing sap. This can lead to several visible symptoms: • Yellowing or stippling of leaves (due to sap loss and chlorophyll degradation). • Leaf drop and premature defoliation. • Stunted growth and poor plant health. • Sooty mold growth on leaves and stems due to the honeydew excreted by soft scales. • Honeydew accumulation, which may attract ants. Severe infestations can lead to the death of affected plants, especially when left untreated for extended periods. Management Strategies 1. Cultural Practices • Pruning: Remove heavily infested branches and leaves to reduce the scale population. • Proper Plant Care: Ensure that plants are well-watered and fertilized to maintain their overall health, making them less susceptible to pests. • Monitoring: Regularly inspect plants for signs of scale insects, particularly the undersides of leaves and stems. 2. Biological Control • Predatory Insects: Natural enemies, such as ladybugs, mealybug destroyer larvae, lacewing larvae, and parasitic wasps (e.g., Encarsia species), can help control scale populations. • Nematodes: Soil-applied nematodes, like Steinernema spp., may target scale insect larvae in the soil. 3. Chemical Control • Insecticidal Soaps: These are effective against soft scales and mealybugs but must be applied directly to the insects for success. Insecticidal soaps work by breaking down the protective waxy coating of the pests. • Horticultural Oils: Oil-based treatments can smother both armored and soft scale insects, blocking their respiratory openings. • Rubbing Alcohol: We have been able to semi-successfully control soft bodied scale and mealybugs with direct application of rubbing alcohol to the insects. It is best done with a cotton ball or small paintbrush. In large infestations, this could prove to be overly time consuming. It also works only by direct contact. Any insects missed will survive the treatment. • Systemic Insecticides: Products containing imidacloprid or other systemic insecticides can be effective in controlling scale insects, particularly for trees and shrubs. 4. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)IPM focuses on combining various methods—biological, cultural, and chemical—to keep pest populations below damaging levels. Regular monitoring is crucial to determine the most appropriate action at the right time. Preventing scale insect infestations requires vigilance in plant selection from nurseries. Ensuring the introduction of pest-free plants, especially in nurseries and garden centers, can significantly reduce the risk of scale insect establishment. Furthermore, promoting biodiversity by planting a variety of species can limit the impact of a single pest. Higher biodiversity attracts more insects to the garden. This may seem like a bad thing. But, beneficial predators will be attracted to the garden to help take care of the unwanted gardening foes. This is free pest management. In the future, research into more targeted biological control agents, like parasitoid wasps or entomopathogenic fungi, offers hope for more sustainable management practices. Additionally, developing resistant plant varieties could be another step toward reducing the prevalence of scale insects in Florida landscapes. Resources: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/CH195 https://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/lso/entomol/ncstate/scaleint.htm

We are excited to release a Plant List for Florida Food Forests and Foodscapes. This list is still a work in progress and there may be plants that are not currently on the list. The purpose of this presentation is to help beginners learn about plants they may have never heard of. It also helps lay out the way food forests are designed by briefly discussing the layers of a food forest. The plant list is accessible by opening the link to our google drive where a pdf document of the presentation is available. Please protect our work by not distributing this plant list without our permission. Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y6xEtpu8WLnyliXVU1I-y2hgmcKMjpWQ?usp=sharing If you have any suggestions for our plant list, please comment on this thread or send an email to us at fol.landscapes@gmail.com . Thank you in advance for your input! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us in the same methods mentioned above. Happy growing!