All this talk about orange groves reminds me of a funny story.That would be quite an undertaking. A mature orange tree is 12 to 15 feet tall with a spread of 10 or more feet. My grandfathers grove was about 100 acres. It would take a lot of plastic and a lot of propping up and would take forever to put up.
These cold snaps come in out of the blue and you don't have much time to prepare. Neighbors and friends had to pitch in to protect them. The most efficient way back in his time was to fire them up and make a lot of smoke (sumdge) as this offered the best protection.
Back in the late 1970s when I was in college I'd met a young woman on spring break in Ft. Lauderdale who lived in West Palm Beach. So a couple months later, me and a good friend from my home town who was as country as they come decided to drive down and visit her.
As we got into Florida we started seeing these huge billboards - always planted in Orange Groves - that had an image of a gun and the words "TWENTY YEARS TO LIFE." It was part of a big law and order campaign to stamp out violent crime by handgun.
After we passed about five of the signs my buddy, who'd been hitting the Jim Beam hard, says to me, "Dang, I was going to suggest we pull over and pilfer a few oranges, but I see they take that real serious down here."
So, your orange groves might have been saved from a couple Kentucky kids by a misunderstanding Sawnee.