In addition of an orange tree blight, I notice the freezing line went pretty deep into Florida. Just wondering if anyone witnessed the effects this past week? Bob Wilson
Locally in our Orlando resort, there has been much landscape devastation . They covered a lot of plant material at night, but it didn’t help much. Everything we see driving around looks bad. We’ll be visiting my brother in Naples, where it didn’t get so cold. As for area orange groves, there’s quite a bit of damage, but only time will tell the extent ‘Only control so much:’ Central Florida citrus growers assess damage after days of freezing temperatures
Paved paradise, put up a parking lot. some 40-50 years ago California Orange crop was 40% larger. ie - don't look for the West Coast to make a big dent if Florida starts shipping less (in the short run) due to weather. Our SoCal - Orange County Park & Ride was right next to some 20+ acres of Orange Groves in the 90s. It got bulldozed. The shopping center, Irvine Spectrum - needed expansion so now it's 80+ acres of 'commerce' ...... or whatever you want to call it.
An area article on the West's lousy ski year claimed that the Florida Panhandle has received more snow this year than has Salt Lake City.
Well - except for grain over production - so we can run our cars ah la ethanol - adulterated gasoline so that mileage ends up being worse (Sigh)
Having benchmarked Prius efficiency on: straight gas - retail most expensive 10% ethanol - cheapest per mile 50% ethanol - more expensive without cold weather triggering check engine light 85% ethanol - retail rate excessive over wholesale yet provides peak power and efficiency My Prius benchmarks revealed something other than "mileage ends up being worse." My benchmark consists of: +8% grade climb at maximum throttle ~1.1 miles up ~525 ft (up Old Dixie Highway South of the Tennessee River) The Prius uses the knock sensor to tune the spark advance. More spark advance, more HP and a faster hill climb which peaked on E85. The "check engine" light was because the spark advance was more than the hard coded Prius control laws allow. At one time, I looked at an after-market, timing system that would "spoof" the engine to allow maximum spark advance for E85 operation. But then I realized the problem with the wholesale and retail rates: gasoline ~= K * wholesale price ethanol ~= (K + ~20%) * wholesale price The cost of E85 is artificially high even though it performs better than straight gas. More power with lower coolant and exhaust temperatures. There is a reason high performance dragsters run a mostly alcohol fuel. Bob Wilson
Ethanol in machinery / small ICE & boat enginess IIRC is still such that it can do bad things; E-10 Alive: The corrosive damage ethanol gasoline does to your fuel pump | Equipment World Perhaps things are better now in more recent times? But yeah, running a tank of e85 through the system - it's not going to wipe things out real quick - any more than a diet of mashed potatoes, corn chips, cream cheese dip & a Coke - over the Super Bowl weekend. I still find non-ethanol fuel for the snow blower & have switched over to an electric mower / leaf blowe & string trimmer to avoid the risk.
It is the potential of long term damage to aluminum* and rubber/plastic parts ethanol can do to parts with using concentrations higher than recommended. Plain steel might also be at risk; which is why these blends aren't piped in petroleum lines. *Adding a bit of water to the fuel blend will protect aluminum. Those additives claiming to protect against ethanol likely are just that.
