Hello Everyone, I mistakenly left a six foot, multi-trunk ficus tree outside during a recent freeze. We dragged the tree inside on the second night (completely forgot about it the first night) and left it inside until the overnight temperatures got above 40f again. Needless to say, it's not looking very good. The leaves are all light green/tan now, still hanging on, but to the point where I was ready to do a sever pruning and hope for the best next spring. This tree was given to us last summer, so it hasn't been raised outdoors. My question is will it recover or is it gone? My wife wants me to drag it back inside for the balance of the winter, but I'm not sure it survived the mid twenty's temperature. I could prune it back to a reasonable size and move it indoors for the winter, but would that be wasting our time? Any insight would be appreciated. Jack Roseburg, Oregon
Time will tell, the length of exposure to frost, the roots if not frozen briefly, and the bark is solid and not slippery, it may send out new shoots. Kept indoors until April may be worth the wait... it can take the frosts in Indio/Palm Springs..
It may surprise you. I've rescued F. benjamina and F. elastica from neighbors after frosts. I'm betting you have F. benjamina because that's the most common. The leaves are the length of a finger, and width of two fingers more or less, with a pronounced slender point at the end. It's also more likely to be sold with multiple trunks, including braided trunks. You will lose all the leaves; it will be messy. You can prune now or later, but you've probably lost a lot of the slender twigs, too. As K Baron says, if the bark is slippery you've lost it, at least in that section. I've had them freeze almost to the ground, but still had solid bark an inch or two above the soil surface. That also means the roots closest to the pot rim may have perished. So if you like to grow sad cases back to health, this will be an interesting project.
Thanks guys, I think I have a game plan now. I've prunned it back and cleaned up all the leaves, now I'll wait to see if I get lucky. I'll add some SoilSoup to the planter this spring and we're planning on re-potting it this winter with a good soil mix. Time will tell. Sorry I didn't thank you both for your comments sooner, left town for a bit and just got back. Thanks again, Jack
The recent or rather current deep freeze on the Florida panhandle is not new, but very unsettling for most... at 49 degrees latitude...we were warmer here in Vancouver than most of Florida all week! Sure hope our citrus and veggies don't skyrocket in price...
