Ficus Frost Recovery (Glendale: how much, home, maintenance)

[new2colo]

A neighbor down the street has ficus tree that was severely burned and damaged in the extreme freeze we had back in January. I have noticed that many ficus Valleywide, outside of a few select areas and microclimates, have barren crowns or bare twigs exposed all over, indicating similar damage. Will these trees recover on their own? Do they still need to pruned back? It is an eyesore to come home and see this tree that looks half dead every day. Aside from the fact that the climate in 90 percent of the Valley is obviously too cold to suit this tree, will trees in this condition look healthy again if we go without a heavy freeze for the rest of the winter?

[stevek64]

Originally Posted by new2colo

A neighbor down the street has ficus tree that was severely burned and damaged in the extreme freeze we had back in January. I have noticed that many ficus Valleywide, outside of a few select areas and microclimates, have barren crowns or bare twigs exposed all over, indicating similar damage. Will these trees recover on their own? Do they still need to pruned back? It is an eyesore to come home and see this tree that looks half dead every day. Aside from the fact that the climate in 90 percent of the Valley is obviously too cold to suit this tree, will trees in this condition look healthy again if we go without a heavy freeze for the rest of the winter?

I agree on the eyesore thing. We had a ficus tree and as much as I think they are a nice/thick "evergreen" shade tree, I got sick of seeing it die back in a frost and having to prune it when the warm weather set in to figure out how much I had to cut it back so I cut it down a few years ago. As you say, I've also often seen people who leave all the dead branches on/never cut them back and I think it just plain looks bad. Some HOA's don't even allow Ficus trees to be planted in a community. There are so many other nice/low fuss evergreen/low water/low maintenance shade trees that can grow around the valley that I think are better choices in that regard vs a Ficus.

So yes, most Ficus trees will recover after a frost though they may need to be pruned back if the frost is bad enough. It's recommended/the method I followed is to wait until the warm weather sets in for a while and see what grows/doesn't. If it's May and there are still bare branches, they need to be cut back. You can also attempt to snap the bare branches...if it's brittle/snaps easily, it's dead. You can also take a cutting if it's a bigger branch and look to see if it's green inside(good) or dry and brown(not good). But in both cases, wait until all chances of further frosts are over and warm weather has set in to see if there's growth out of the bare branches.

[observer53]

I've seen some pruned, and some just allowed to grow back. Depends on the individual plant/tree and how much damage. DO NOT prune, at all, until the end of February. The dead part protects the live part from more frost damage.

[Desertspiritsteve]

Most of the trees will recover. I covered my ficus nitida once when we had the coldsnap the beginning of this month. I bought a roll of one and a half ounce (Per square yard) frost blanket (size 25 feet by 100 feet) from Agricultural solutions LLC online. The monster roll was almost $180. shipped to me. I cut it in half to a manageable size of 25 by 50 feet. It is so light weight it was easy to get over the tree and clip together on the sides with a bunch of Harbor Freight plastic clamps. I have 3 500W quartz halogen work lamps underneath. I weigh down the perimeter of the tent with bricks and blocks. I have enough space that there is plenty of room for other frost sensitive plants like potted hibiscus, roses and flowers. This tree has such incredible dense dark green shade that it's worth the effort. The national weather service is pretty good at predicting coldsnaps on the way. You can leave things covered for a couple of weeks if you need to.

to the OP: Take some pictures of the recovering tree(s) in to Whitfill Nursery at 8th. St. and Glendale and they can tell you what to do. Post of some pictures here. Baker Nursery at 36th. St. and Osborn can give you good advice, too. Whitfill has two giant old trees right out front by Glendale. I stopped to see how their trees were doing and they said they keep lights strung around in them, and they put smudge pots underneath. Where the heck to you get a smudge pot?

[wit-nit]

Smudge pots are illegal because of pollution problems.
Yes Ficus trees are frost sensitive, primarily the outer fringes. Use a frost blanket along with lamps if possible to protect them. In the case of frost damage do not trim or prune them until all danger of frost is over for the season. The best time to prune them is March. At that time you should what damage (brown/dead) has been done, then prune back to green bark where new growth will return. You can tell where the green begins by scraping your fingernaill along the branch untill you see green under the outer skin. No color or yellow color is the dead area.
Established trees under most conditions will thrive. Fertilize at that time with an all purpose tree fertilizer and water deeply.