My perspective is that I don’t grow them anymore. I grow BrandyBoy. I tried a new one called BigBrandy this summer. What a let down taste wise.
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Oh sorry, I misunderstood. Your caution about not all Brandy hybrids being equal is valuable indeed.
Also Genuwine tomato another Brandywine hybrid. It was not as good as BrandyBoy. I’m sure we will be seeing more every year.
I’m very late to this thread. I’ve been meaning to read it for a week now, but the thread got away from me. So many posts, to try to catch up was daunting. Finally, after a half hour today while it’s snowing, I’m up to speed.
My question is, after all this bad weather, where exactly do fruit crops stand with you folks in the NE (survival-wise) at this point in the game?
Alan,
I think I can answer that question. At one point I did consider spraying all the trees with diluted paint to slow bloom, based on Michele Warmund’s research. But even for my small stand of 400 trees, I figured it would take a minimum of 100 gal of paint (couple thousand bucks in paint cost) plus it would have completely coated my tractor and sprayer with white paint, and clogged up the air filters. Then of course I would have come away looking like an albino because I spray w/ open cab. 
Perhaps the paint could be applied with a spray wand, which is probably was probably the original thought, but that would take a lot of time for a lot of trees, which would weigh heavily on the cost/benefit. Especially since crop lost from frost damage doesn’t occur every year here. That said, I wish I would have made myself an albino last fall! 
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My living room is a bit like that. Here’s a pic from yesterday during the snowstorm. Someday I want a full heated greenhouse so that it is never really winter…
In the pic you can’t even see the tomato plants. They’re currently under the long light which is being supported by the frame on the left of the pool table.
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Yes, you need a greenhouse, or else enclose your deck in glass. Or move to Hawaii.
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Tippy, I will have some extra staff- tomatoes, peppers, May be eggplant , cucumbers. Let me know if you want them. I was going to throw extra away while they small, but I am sure can grow them for you, I hate to kill them.
That is wonderful. I would take whatever you don’t want. You are a very accomplished veggie gardener. Thank you very much.
By the way, Weather Underground says it feels like -3 right now. And this is March 12. Crazy.
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Yeah, just been outside with my dogs. It is brutal, even for them!
So I’ve been monitoring the temps in my orchard via weather.com (I don’t live where my trees are) and I’m right on the temperature edge of getting some plums vs. losing them all again. But I was hopeful because the lows on weather.com were around 20 or 21 and I figured I might be ok so get some small amount of fruit on my plum trees.
Imagine my surprise when I checked the 10 day forecast this morning…
Wednesday - low of 15
Thursday - low of 11
Friday - low of 9
So now I’m thinking it’s going to be another year total devastation on my plums and possibly the same on my peaches. On the bright side, think about how much free time I’ll have by not having to thin any peaches or plums!!! ;-(
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Bart,
Have you check weather from Weather Underground. It reports from weather stations. In my towns, there are so many people who have weather stations. I chose the one nearest to me, like less than a mile so I assume it’d be more accurate for my specific area.
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Thanks for the tip!
WU looks about the same as weather.com for this current cold snap, but I now realize that the weather later in the week will be the killer. I’ll keep checking though.
I have half a mind to drive out there today to check the status of my peach buds to see if there’s any hope that they’re undeveloped enough to handle real low temps
Bart,
In early 2014, we had a few cold blast in Jan that temp went down to a single digit and the trees were fully dormant.
It’s one of the snowiest winter in memory, too. A few more cold blast with the last one on 3/14-15 of that year.
I had three peaches: PF 24 C (planted 2010), PF 1 (planted 2011) and Autumn Star (2012?.
Flower bud damage: PF -24 C 20%, PF 1 50-60% and Autumn Star 80-90% (it’s the youngest tree).
This year is worst because it’s warm in Jan and very warm in Feb causing buds to push. I would not be surprised if I have a total crop loss.
I had lots of free time last year with no apples to bag - but then I didn’t have any apples
That was my situation last year. Zero plums, peaches, pears, apples and kiwi. Not a single fruit.
It was awful having to by fruit at the farmers market like a fool!
Bart,
Sorry to hear that. Last year, I only lost nect/peaches, J plum. This year I expect to lose those early bloomers like nects/peaches, J plum, pluots. I have hope for A and E pears, E plum and apples. So far, they seem rather dormant.
But I would not be surprised and these repeated cold blasts following the warm spells last month do all of them in.
Last year, even the U Pick farms did not have a lot of crops of apples and none of peaches.
I’ve never seen dormant peach flower buds damaged in temps above the negative single digits. You are talking about very normal lows at normal times in zones not on the fringes of commercial peach production- actually well above normal lows. I vaguely remember a couple of very hard late frosts that year, however. I also have no idea how you can calculate flower bud damage at that rate of accuracy, so maybe you know something I don’t.
I remain quite hopeful that peaches and nects are not yet significantly damaged, and buds I’ve opened don’t show the tell-tale sign of the strand of a pistol turning brown from last weeks event that we repeated this weekend. I also don’t detect any increasing swelling of peach buds- just J. plums and cots. I hope you don’t know something I don’t- that’s for sure.
Alan,
You made looked up my notes again. There were several cold blasts. I only counted when it was in a single digit.
My notes showed a few such cold in Jan. Then, on Feb 2 and 3, Feb 17, Feb 25-28, March 3-6, and March 13-14.
Those late cold blasts in late Feb and March could be what did them in. Anyway, my records may not be totally accurate but it was good enough.
For me this has not been the case. More trouble than it was worth. yes harvest increased, but early production is slow compared to when temps are better. I prefer to start them later, I will start peppers this week, and tomatoes in 2 weeks.
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