Yes variety is part of the equation. Olpea has posted about his varieties and many places rate winter hardiness. When the term winter hardiness is used it signifies flower bud tolerance to cold when dormant in winter.
I had peaches last year after -12F⌠i actually have some every yearâŚi think most of the buds still get friedâŚthere are just so many that even a light load results in a few dozen.
2 years ago when we had no peaches it was -25 to -30 for multiple days in mid-late February. Last season we probably got down to about -15 but it didnât last long.
Yeah, -15 is usually fine here as well. You were lucky that you were cold enough to keep the buds hard. Most New England growers lost their peach crop even though temps only got to -12F.
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Thanks for clarifying, my peach was mislabeled from the nursery so I donât know what zone it is recommended for but it must be a little more sensitive than others that are grown locally
Does anyone know what besides cold could kill the buds on peaches near or before dormancy? It seems like the last two years I have examined branches after leaf drop and some of the triple flowers+leaf buds had black flower buds.
As Fruitnut mentions, in the winter of 2013/14 it got down to somewhere around -9F (I thought it got colder than that). There was significant bud loss because of that low on many varieties. Others were completely untouched by the cold.
The winter of 2010/11, it got down to -8 and there was not flower bud loss that year.
I think just about everyone here agrees that (as Mike points out) there are so many variables, itâs tough to nail down specific temperatures for specific flower bud damage.
It does seem like (from this thread) in naturally colder climates the peach trees tend to be able to tolerate a few degrees colder temps for winter hardiness.
Here is an even more detailed blog post on supercooling vs freezing in plant tissues. Ha! The old HTML file name is brr.html.
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1996/3-1-1996/brr.html
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Are we talking actual temperature here or wind chill? Last few days we had night temps in teens but wind chill -9.
Itâs actual not wind chill. Wind chill is for warm blooded animals that are trying to maintain a temperature well above ambient. Plant tissue can be warmed by the sun or cool by radiational losses but is mostly already near air temperature. So wind doesnât cool wood and flower buds and insulation doesnât help much to keep plants warm.
There are cases where wind has some effect. Wind can have a warming effect on a still night when radiation losses are cooling the buds. Or wind could cool buds exposed to sunlight.
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The wind can desiccate some sensitive plants, like western blackberries, Seems to be the main cause of loss of canes for me. Iâm testing it a little this year, leaving them exposed and only protected by wilt stop.If they die, the coldness at least in part was responsible. I usually cover as much as possible with leaves and/or straw. I left it off this year. Next year Iâll leave off the wilt stop and cover with leaves.
This year I used both, we got down to -16, and almost all canes made it. I lost one or two. Iâm still loaded to the gills with blackberries!
One peach tree produced no fruit. The 4 in 1 pluot tree lost 95%. My other peach and nectarine trees produced very well. If the one peach tree fails again, Iâll remove it.
Do you think the loss on the pluot was winter kill or spring frost?
Yeah good point, spring frost. The tree seems to take the cold OK. Thanks for pointing that out.I noticed Indian Free bloomed later than the other peaches and nectarines. Itâs fruit buds were fine.
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Most of my reading/research has seen the -15 for peaches is about all they can take. The -20 is more for apple trees. Late frosts are probably worse on fruit production if the peach tree blooms out in my area. We always seem to get that âone last frostâ that gets the blossoms.
As far as extreme cold damage on peaches, it all depends on their state of dormancy. Last year -12F was enough to destroy all the blossoms on many varieties here because of mild weather preceding it, even though the trees had no obvious signs of coming out of dormancy, beyond the flower buds being more swollen than usual (I think). Theyâd had that appearance all winter.
It was at -16 last year, but here the winter was far from mild, not even close. I got fruit on all trees but one.
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Reading this thread and Iâm alternately encouraged⌠and discouraged.
I believe here in western Iowa we had some pretty normal cold weather in advance of the bottom falling out, and my indoor/outdoor thermometer has the low temp (so far) recorded at 13.2 below zero.
Well after reading the thread I think Iâm okay, given the obvious state of dormancy in the lead-up to that low temp, but then it got up into the 40âs for awhile.
And now weâve had that recent ice event, which looks to be followed by the next few days forecast in the high 40âs, near 50.
It wouldnât be uncommon to get really, really cold again in February too.
So Iâm helpless to do much more than be hopefulâŚ
As long as it becomes colder slowly, that we donât go from 40 to -10F we should be OK.
These warm temps are sticking around. So far this winter has been warm for sure. Here anyway.
This is what my peach buds looked like after the 2015 Christmas heat wave.
The buds were noticeably swollen more than they usually are for winter. The chill hour accumulation for prior 2 months was 800-1100 hours depending on model used. Problem is, I donât really know when the trees were fully dormant enough to start accumulating hours.
Then there were 2 Polar Vortex plunges as indicated in the chart below. The one in April even clobbered early blooming native trees and shrubs.
Needless to say, there wasnât much of chance in upstate NY last year.
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HmmmâŚi swear i had peaches after -22F⌠I could dig up some pics for proof. I believe it was Reliance. I do know i had what i think were Redhaven and the only peaches i got off those were low branches that were covered by snow. This is dead of winter cold âŚno heatwaves around these parts. So many variables go into this stuff. I seem to have the most luck on trees that are shaded all winter.
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