Why will spraying fruit trees with water before a frost help toprotect the fruit from freezing?
As the water freezes, it loses heat to the cold air, but at the same time, it loses heat to the leaves, stems and fruit of the tree too, so it actually warms up the tree a small amount as well. Once the ice is frozen on the tree, it also acts as an insulator to prevent more cold from getting to the tree itself. Water is a great insulator. It takes alot of heat or cold to change the temperature of the water even one degree. This can only help if the tree is at this cold temperature for a few hours. If it goes on for several hours, the tree and fruit will definitely freeze into the plant’s tissues as well. This is why you would NOT be able to do this while growing an orange tree in Buffalo, New York…just spray it every time there’s a snowstorm and it’ll be fine…unfortunately, there’s so much snow and ice that the tree would be overwhelmed and freeze through it’s tissues.
