Strange weather - Will it get our blooms and fruit?

It was 14 in Worcester, MA

Im vacationing in Harbinger, NC, conflicting reports say 7b or 8b zone, im from west Michigan so idk for sure. Stayin at my brother in laws down here.

Their Nectarine & Plum is im bloom.

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It was 10 F when I woke up a bit after 5 am this morning. I was surprised that it was even lower than what’s predicted. Even lower than Worcester.

For sure, apricots were toasted long before this week. Could be pluots and J plum, too, but I am not sure. Too much snow and too cold to walk the backyard.

This is the time of the year that is great at my place to tree watch. Hope your weather warms up soon so you can enjoy your yard. About July-August our heat is overbearingly hot and humid. When our summer arrives it is hard to go outside for only a few minutes without being soaked in sweat. I mostly go out early and late during that time. When I was younger my thoughts were to have a southern and a northern home so I could move with the season. Grands change everything. Could not stand to be away from them very long. Get warm soon. Bill

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We got down to 18F here near philly. The old callery pears were at tight cluster stage and they got totally wiped out. But the eating pears are fortunately still at bud swell so hopefully undamaged. I was planning to graft to the callery this year so maybe this is a good thing - more energy for the grafts.

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42F this afternoon here…81F in Chicago… .yup… the pattern just repeats itself too over the next week. More low pressure to the south… probably more rain and cool for up here …ugh…spring.

I’m sorry for those who have lost most or all fruit. I reported 10 days ago that I’d lost all peaches and plums, but I have some wonderful news. I didn’t want to say anything until I was certain (Its still hard for me to tell sometimes) but I am going have some peaches after all. This is huge news for me and I couldn’t be more happy. Now, every single plum and pluot and apricot and 2 pear trees are 100% loss. Many of my peach trees were a total loss as well. But I am now sure that at least a few trees have SOME peaches that are alive. I took a hard hit and its depressing, but for me there is a whole world of difference in NO fruit at all and some fruit- even if its a little. And of course I should have some mulberries, persimmons, apples, cherries, grapes, and berries. I hope some of the rest of you who think you got wiped out also get a nice little surprise like I did!

BTW, I learned a few things of interest. First, I didn’t know plums were so much less hardy than peaches, but that seems to be the case. Even in cases where plum blooms were at the same stage as peach blooms, some peaches survived but no plums did. Also, the peaches that survived don’t always make sense. It wasn’t as simple as the tight buds made it and blooms or near-blooms didn’t. Yes, that was mostly the case. But I also had some trees there were in the exact same bloom stage as others, but some of those were wiped out and others had a decent number that survived. Even on the same trees, some limbs had many more survivors than on other limbs, even though the buds or blooms were at the same stage. Oh well…you know nature. It doesn’t always make sense. Could be microclimates, wind, exp[osure to sun to thaw faster in the am or anything else… Just interesting. What matters is that today for the first time I was able to see a few little tiny green fruitlets. A welcomed site for sure!

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I too lost all asian plum, apricot, pluot, and aprium. But my peach and nectarines are not a total loss. I think there was some damage but today I noticed that many blooms are starting to emerge. I don’t think I have any damage on pear, apple, or sweet cherry. And I have a court euro um grafts that aren’t even close to waking up.

One thing I’ve noticed is just how hardy cherries seem to be. Seems like cherry can take some cold temps.

I was wondering if the weather also affected the Pawpaw flower buds or are they so slow growing that there wasn’t any harm? Brady

Happy for you

Last year I was sure my apriums were all toast, but a dozen or so late blooms opened and I got fruits

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Welp, my peaches have gotten to stage where they flick off easily if they are damaged, and I have only found a couple that seem to have made it in the backyard. The contender peach is small and in the front yard, and was blooming straight into our worst swing of cold. I have not checked to see if any fruit are surviving on it. The plums I covered are already getting to be nickel sized, with only a little damage at the ends of the branches where the plastic was rubbing and breaking stuff in the wind.

We had the crazy weather here but my trees are way behind you guys.
Some plums look damaged, but not that bad. This week getting down to 33F again that is not bad, no flower color is showing and is probably 2 weeks away or longer before first pink.
The pluots are the most advanced, and have some damage to small cluster buds. Thye are loaded with buds though, and some look great.
Sorry to hear others got hit so hard, wow!

My flower buds are behind from last year, not ahead.

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Clouds, rain, fog…40F… more of the same up here.

What I’m wondering is what temperature will harm new leaves

I had 20F which fried new apple and peach leaves that were out on a few things (crabs and baby seedlings leafed out early).

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Did they regrow?

Ask me in a few weeks… I expect there will be some life at the bud bases but we will see. I have had pomegranates die to the ground when all the buds got fried.

The last 2 years cold temps fried the tips of my pluot leaves. It’s funny just the tips turn brown. They grow out fine and look ugly throughout the summer.

So far March has avg 33.7F here… Feb avg was 33.3F … We’ll add to that March avg…but the month will end up not much warmer then Feb.

Twin Cities talking weather heads said March was colder than normal.