2023 "Ice-Mageddon" Hits Texas!

Texas just survived a SECOND polar vortex last week! Wow, this one was ICY! Lasted about 3 days, we had no power for 28 hours, & there's still a few locations in my community that are still without power. Power Line & Tree/Landscape Crews have been working nonstop for over a week now trying to clean up. Driving down our road looked like a war zone with all the fallen limbs & even trees! Pine trees & cedars took the brunt of this round. As you can see in the pix, pine needles iced up - some had ice that was 1.5" inch thick! We also experienced "thunder sleeting" & about 2" rain on top of the ice which then froze over. Power went out around 9:56pm, & was out for 28 hours while temps were between 28-32 degrees.

Temps in my growing rooms were around 40 degrees over 2 days. With no power, I loaded a small group of what was left of my collection (tested INSV negatives), put them in plastic storage bins near our fireplace. They spent several days there. Just put them back on my growing shelves where I will now have to wait a few days more to see if they were damaged.

This years' double polar vortexes have played havoc on my plants. Guess there is another silver lining of having to deal with INSV this year. My collection count was dramatically reduced in mid-December, so there were only a handful of plants that I had to manage. Temps were up over 70 degrees for a couple of days & now are back down in the low 50s. Texas weather is really unpredictable! If you live here in the state, take care of yourselves!