Anybody else out there fearing way to early bud break?
Im about 5 weeks early right now and temps are in the 50’-60’s. Not good i fear.
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Ours are about right on time. Usually second weekend in March. Two years ago we had a freeze and wiped out our blueberries and satsumas. Last year it was the peaches.
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My first blooms on apples is may 1st plums a little sooner, could happen before weeks end this year.
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I’ve got plums blooming right now and Asian pears not too far behind. Honestly I’ve all but given up on plums. I’m grafting over to hardier peaches to buy a little more time. I’ve taken out my peaches planted on the coldest end of the orchard that always freeze and have never borne any fruit and I’m replacing with apples.
I’m going to try my sprayers again this year but who wants to spray every time it’s a less than 28 night for a month and a half. I’m looking at it like mother nature doing her own thinning. That helps with sleepless nights.
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My peaches are definitely ahead of schedule, but not quite as much as I’d initially feared. So long as we don’t get a severe cold snap in the next two-three weeks, I think they’ll make it.
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Plums in full bloom here in Western North Carolina again. The previous two years they bloomed in mid to late February. This year they waited until early March. Either way they would have to survive killing freezes all the way until mid or even late April - that is extremely unlikely here in the mountains.
A photo of the
temp outside this morning…
I am just considering them attractive ornamental trees now similar to the dogwoods and Japanese Cherries.
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WAY early here
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Our sole plum flowered and moved on last week. The crab has hit full stride. The apples are just leafing good.
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“First pink” on peaches here last year was on February the 22nd. This year March the 3rd so a bit over a week later.
I keep a “fruit journal” each year (https://keep.google.com for the win) with weather related entries so far:
- 3/11 - At or below freezing for 4 hours, low of 26.
With a similar entry to be added for today, once it reached 32F. Probably gonna indicate ~9 hours below freezing with the low around 27F. Sigh…
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My early plum AU Rosa has finished blooming now and I am seeing the start of little plum fruit swells.
AU Producer is just finishing blooms… Shiro has been blooming a while and still has a few fresh blossoms open.
Last week I did some hand pollination between AU Rosa and Producer and Shiro.
My crab apple blooms early and long… it is getting near bloom now. Probably later this week. My Early Mcintosh apple is showing bud swell now (FG2). Others (FG4 mostly) still quite dormant.
Pears are pushing new growth… blackberries raspberries , goumi , clove currents ,elderberry, blueberry… all buddding, small leaves starting.
Have some strawberry fruit set and developing already. They are normally my first ripe fruit… late April.
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We’ve had a fairly warm winter, so things that require fewer chilling hours are ahead of schedule. Budbreak in our vineyard blocks that typically come out of dormancy earliest has started. Last year, they didn’t break dormancy until the end of March.
On the other hand, we received 400 fewer chilling units than last year, and higher chill things like cherries are on schedule, if not behind.
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Started top working this 20 year old
Sweet cherry tree 4 years ago, Now have 19 varieties of plum all setting blossoms this year. Last year many blossomed but only Obilnaya produced fruit. This year I am hoping to see a few more, should be plenty of cross pollination!
Dennis
Kent, Wa
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Wow what a pretty tree, you have got to post a pic in full out bloom. 
.
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The first cold snap is coming next week. I’d be concerned in the Midwest and OH Valley (maybe TN valley?) especially after this week’s warmth.
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Here’s an example of how long a graft takes to heal under less than optimal temps:
On 2/4/24 I took a dead tree down damaging several plums, tied up and splinted some limbs, but one with a Spring satin graft broke off. So I regrafted it to another mature tree where it could have a good chance of survival. Due to the cold spells expected, I covered it for about 4 weeks with a clear plastic bag to insulate it and to keep the graft healing going as fast a possible. It did survive but the below pics illustrate the delay in bud development due to the graft taking some time to heal.
Pic of the broken off 2023 graft that I regrafted: Blossom buds and growth buds just beginning to swell, about 2-3 weeks later than the graft below!
Pic of another 2023 Spring Satin graft that was not hindered on a young P americanna rootstock
During the months Feb thru March there have been only a few nights dipping below freezing. Many daily highs fluctuated between mid 40s to mid 50s, so the average temps were well below the Optimal callousing temperature for plums of 62F. Yet this whip and tongue graft has taken.
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Wow; the Pink Lady just leap frogged my Anna and Dorsett Gold trees. Flowering well. Guess I need to move it out with them.
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Pluot, pluerries, Nadia cherry plum and bubblegum plum are already wanting to send up green and are looking like they are about to leaf out already. Some apricot and Peacotum look like they want to send out flowers soon. In past years I don’t remember seeing green much before April or May except one year. Last year I don’t remember seeing green in a lot of plants until about June.
Sweet treat and Nadia blew up today.
Sugar twist, candy heart, and the pluots probably need a couple more days.
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Apricots started blooming 2 weeks ago, then plums, and now peaches. Pear buds are swelled and looking to break soon. Seems like normal-ish time frame.
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Mid-Missouri zone 6b. Our Sweet Heart apricot and Nankin cherry bloomed on March 4 and 5. That is 3 weeks (21 days) ahead of last year (March 24) and 2022 (March 26).
The on March 8, trhe Methley plum and Santa Rosa plum bloomed. They are 2 1/2 weeks early.
Today, March 12, the Aurora Honeyberry bloomed.
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