27 won’t hurt common tree fruit, whether in bloom or after set.
I sure hope you’re right. My orchard is in a fairly good location and I wouldn’t think a few hours at those temps would hurt anything either, but if I’m not mistaken, PSU puts out information from time to time suggesting what percentage of blooms or set fruit are damaged at various temps and I was under the belief that 27 for any length of time would kill a percentage (no idea if that percentage is 10% or 50%). I respect your thoughts on the subject and pray that you’re right because I hate losing fruit, we don’t have very reliable spring weather here and good fruit seasons are the exception.
I don’t know at what point some thinning occurs, but believe me, 27 has not been some critical number in the 25 years I’ve been cropping fruit in the northeast. Trees flower in April, often before the second week- frosts that hard are not at all uncommon this time of the year. It’s when temps dive below 25 that things get dicey.
It would be great to lose 50% of flowers for most trees in my orchard this year.
I agree, if I lost 50% of the flowers, I wouldn’t be remotely concerned. In fact, if 50% of most of those trees’ blossoms set fruit, I’d still be radically thinning most of them. Thanks for the insight, it makes me feel a bit better about the upcoming weather.
Trough locks in pretty good in the NE… pattern continues… This is day 8-10…
Fairbanks, AK or Fargo, ND will be looking nice.
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Most of my apricots didn’t set any fruit. I went around spraying today and the two Montrose trees (opposite sides of the yard) have 98% of my apricots. One of them (a relatively young tree on the North side of house) is overloaded to the point of needing thinning. The other (mature tree along SW facing rocks) has a light crop (1-3 per decent sized branch, could probably take 2x as much before needing to thin). The other varieties grafted to the 2nd tree, including Tomcot, have nothing. The only other apricot fruit I saw was a single one on a Tomcot branch on an OrangeRed tree.
My Zard graft from last spring was too small to flower, though it did produce enough wood for me to make a couple bark grafts.
For asian plums/pluots, it is pretty variable. I’ll be able to tell better later, but I don’t see any fruit on Flavor Supreme, Mariposa, or Nadia, even though I thought that there were some live flowers on each of them. I guess when you see a lot of outright killed flowers, the remaining “live” ones could still be damaged/non-viable. Some others, like Geo Pride, Lavina and Laroda look to have full loads and need thinning, with Flavor Grenade somewhere in the middle.
Bob I did almost the same as you - I had some plum flowers but got zero Japanese plums in the end. I have some Hoyt Montrose and Zard but only singles or doubles of a few other varieties on that stray late bloom.
I probably will get zero cots in the end due to the curc ganging up on the few that were there. I envy you Imidan sprayers sometimes, I need to be vigilant from mid-April to end of May with Surround.
Today I realized that the Asian pear crop in the area is mostly kaput. Almost no sites are showing a good crop of most J. plums varieties either- as I already suggested. I was at one site yesterday, near the Hudson River, with a full crop of Hargrand apricots, while another Har type was blank next to it. In areas nearby and actually closer to the river I saw mostly blanks, including another Hargrand. I think the loaded HG benefited from a somewhat shady spot.
I’ve seen some dead apricots also, including a Tomcot at a site where 5 other varieties survived- one Hargrand there has been thriving there for about 15 years, had crop for 11 straight seasons until the last two. I think J. plums were reliable pretty much everywhere during that span as well, although I remember a couple of crop failures before that of even Shiro, which is mostly showing fruit this year and bore it the last.
I think I must have a good site. All my pears look to be in good shape, though the 1st year set on Magness wasn’t particularly dense (I’ll be happy with any, after 6 years).
I guess I’m pretty lucky on the J Plums. Aside from the 3 I listed above (which are all next to each other on the South side of the house (~15’ away), probably speeding up bloom), most of the rest have at least some crop, including some grafts from last year.
Today, I noticed that Satsuma and Toka also have decent crops (maybe just enough that I don’t need to thin). I suppose it is possible that these could still fall off. But, they are big enough that I have a few PC bites…
Good to know. I had a HG a few years ago which died one spring. Maybe I should graft it back.
What I’m pretty excited about is that all my muscadines (4 varieties) made it through with minimal damage. I see a bit of tip-dieback on some vines, but all of them actually reach the top bar. This year, they won’t be struggling to come back from near the base (which I mulch for the winter). I see tiny flowers forming as well!
Are you sure you are looking at set fruit? Plums can have lots of flowers and small fruit that never fattens up.
I think I am, but I’ll know better in a few weeks. There are a range of sizes from tiny (which will probably fall off) to maybe baby fingernail sized (the ones with PC bites). I’ll take a pic tomorrow morning.
Here’s the small (2nd year from Burnt Ridge) Montrose tree.
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Not the cots- they’re obvious by now, I mean plums.
Your post prompted me to go looking at my plums and pears.
Pears, both A and E. set well esp. Harrow Sweet and 20 th Cenutry. I had to trim off so many flowers on both trees. KG has fewer blooms than other years but still a decent crop. They are setting fruit now. Some smaller ones turned yellow but there are plenty pears left.
Plums: E plums set plenty. J. plums, I thought I would lost all J.plums during the 2-3 days of 9 F in early March. To my surprise, half of Satsuma flower buds have survived so Shiro has something to cross pollinate with. There are fruit set but too early to tell how many.
I also grafted about 10 varieties of J plums and pluots on Shiro. A few of them flowered this year. I saw fruit started to set but too soon to know how many or if any will hang on. So far, I’ve seen fruitlets of Beauty, Elephant Heart, Laroda, Lavina and Purple Heart. Also, two of the three pluots set fruit, Flavor King and Flavor Granade.
By the end of next week, I would be more confident how many of these will survive. So far, the production is way above expectation.
I know, but I was showing off a bit 
I probably shouldn’t- as Scott pointed out, there is a lot of time between now and when they can be picked.
I decided to move up the time-table and take one tonight. I shoved my phone into the middle of the Geo Pride pluot and randomly took a pic of a PC on a fruitlet. Of course, the PC was on the largest one in the pic- they know which ones are going to set 
I did just spray yesterday (I’m trying the Harvestman spray program- Spectracide & Immunox), so hopefully it wouldn’t have survived anyway. But my shoe made doubly sure.
If you didn’t spot him, he is on the upper right of the large fruit in the center, just past my first finger. In the background, you see a bunch of smaller and intermediate-sized fruit. Some of them could hold, but even if only the big ones do, I still have a decent amount.
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I have not sprayed for curculio here. I think i’ve seen 1 curc hit so far. Probably put a spray on tomorrow as the nights are set to warm some.
Our nights are still around 40 and I see damage already. I’m not sure when they are supposed to come out, but they are probably shivering and cursing their way through my yard. Most of the damage is on the large Montrose, but various plums also have some.
Well, literature said they emerge when temp hits high 60 or around 70. Your PC seems to be the cold hardy type. I was about to say that the only good thing low low temp is that this little devil won’t be active yet. Well you had a picture to prove that they start early.
You don’t do Surround anymore?
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I have a handful of plums this year. About as many as were on my Superior tree last year, but spread between Superior and Alderman. I think they got hit hard by our 5F low after the early warmth in Feb. I’m surprised that anything set at all, because the reproductive parts of the flowers were clearly nuked on most of the Superior. My plums also bloomed about a week before the wild ones in the field next to me, so they weren’t any help.
So we are suffering a dearth of plums here in the midwest, too.
No, I used up the last of it last year and decided not to get more. I’m giving Alan’s program (see below) a try. He’s close to me geographically and I like the idea of just two sprays- keeping up with Surround is a lot, especially since it is so messy.
But, I may need to do a 3rd spray anyways- I started getting a lot of PC damage, but my last apples haven’t reached petal fall. And that doesn’t even include Court Pendu Plat, which is about to start flowering soon…So I ended up spraying what I could and skipping some trees and/or sections of trees. I figure that after the 2" of rain we get this weekend, it would be a good idea to spray again anyway. So maybe it will turn into a 2.5 spray program.
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My latest “understanding” of PC activity is that they feed on the fruit while it’s cool and start laying eggs when it warms. On damaged fruit, are you seeing any signs of interior tunneling yet? I haven’t, although I’ve not investigated thoroughly. I started spray rounds Weds.
Bob, you could mention that you also decided to try my program because you saw the results in my orchard 2 years ago. That might help inspire others in our area to try it.
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