North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Regarding frost protection for California... I'm from Florida so I know what 
you are dealing with is different from say Tennessee, where I am now.  Most 
of the time Florida will have a simple convection frost, not too cold.  The 
warmth from the ground will keep everything above freezing under a cloth, 
and there is no danger of the cloth itself freezing the leaves underneath. 
Even when that happens here, it's only the few leaves actually touching the 
cloth, not that big a deal.  Your soil is not likely to get so cold in most 
freezes that you have to worry about the cloth freezing.  Plastic is another 
matter altogether, it will freeze whatever it touches.
   The trouble with Florida, and here for that matter, is when you get a 
front that blows in and keeps on blowing as the temp drops below freezing. 
That makes it very hard to protect anything above about a foot tall, and it 
means far more damage than the temps alone, because of leaf dessication. 
Donna