Florida Fruit Trees Stressed Out From Wilma

By Robin Benedick, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Mar. 10–Hurricane Wilma’s latest victims: fruit.

The storm’s destructive winds last October has delayed blooming in some trees, said Carlos Balerdi, a Miami-Dade County extension agent. If they don’t hurry up and flower by mid-April, they aren’t likely to produce fruit this year.

“We’re not expecting a good crop of any of the fruit, maybe 10 or 20 percent of the lychees and maybe a third to half of the avocadoes and mangoes,” he said.

Even those in bloom are expected to drop fruit smaller in size and fewer in number. Some trees may be coping with stress by putting out a lot of blooms prematurely, agriculture experts said. Others simply aren’t flowering or are blooming less than normal.

“Homeowners shouldn’t expect too much from their fruit trees this year,” said Gene Joyner, a Palm Beach County extension agent. “But if you happen to get a good bloom and some fruit on your tree, you’re going to find your friends and neighbors are suddenly your very good buddies.”

It is not all grim on the greenery front. Signs of renewal can be found throughout the region, with new buds poking through damaged limbs.

“I’m seeing a real mixed bag out there, but overall, I think the trees are starting to get better,” said Pamela Crawford, a Lake Worth author, nursery owner and landscape designer. “As long as you start seeing things coming back and the plants look healthy, I wouldn’t worry if they are blooming or not.”

Trees and shrubs will fill out as temperatures heat up in the next month. South Florida’s tropical trees thrive best in warm weather, agriculture experts said, and now is an ideal time for planting.

Choose wind-tolerant trees such as gumbo-limbo, mango, live oak, tamarind, sapodilla, sabal palm and pygmy date palm. Shrubs that fared well during Wilma include crotons, variegated arboricola, copperleafs, crown of thorns and ixora.

Among damaged landscaping, no one type of tree or shrub has outperformed any other in recovering, but those which are regularly watered and fertilized are doing best, agriculture experts said.

It’s too early to tell how trees that were uprooted last fall and replanted will fare in the long run. They need six months to a year to re-establish their root systems and thrive.

“It’s going to be next year before plants get on their feet again,” Joyner said. “Feed them, and prune them and baby them through this growing season. And hopefully we won’t get a storm this fall.”

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