If a storm is given a name,then it’s probably fairly big.The latest one is Selene. Brady
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I don’t think the wind helps necessarily, With some types of freezes it does because it stops cold air from settling but I’ve seen destructive freezes that were very windy- top to bottom it can be homogeneously cold and the wind makes trying to cover things with tarps extremely difficult and less effective.
Wind helps during a radiation freezes. That’s under high pressure when wind dies and skies clear. That’s when they run the wind machines. Or even in some areas sprinklers
An advective freeze includes high winds. The air is mixed and damagingly cold. Not much helps in those conditions besides a greenhouse or other massive effort.
I’m sure you know that!!
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Well, actually I’d forgotten the terminology and was too lazy to look it up- but I thought I did an OK job of describing it- for a feeble minded old man. The worse damage I’ve ever gotten from a freeze was the advective kind, so I guess I should commit that to memory… what was I saying?.
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Our weather is fluctuating from temps in mid to high 20’s to the 80’s in the last week. Figured I’d show those not familiar with Kansas a couple of photos from today. I’m still hopeful we will get some fruit this year but you can see by these crab apple blooms from my families house that are still covered in snow I’m sweating it.
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Fruitnut,
You called it right again the small apricots are visible now
The other fruit is all over the place in terms of buds to blooming or past bloom but no fruit set.
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Kinda soon to be sure but hopefully they’re still viable. Most of my apricots are falling off unfrozen…strange.
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I’ve seen trees in this weird weather drop small fruit before but I wondered in my case if it was lack of pollination when it happened. I’ve not seen any pollinator insects and that has me concerned. The apricots at least got to the next stage but I’m not counting my apricots yet.
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Well, we got frozen this morning. I was out at the farm orchard early. One of the weather stations 4 miles south registered 21F. Another 4 miles N and 4 miles east measure 30F at the same time. I drove out.
There was no wind and frost was deep. 1/8" frost everywhere, including blooms. I recorded temps at 25F. I’m screwed.
We are at 95% peach bloom (or more), so it will kill everything. My location at the house only reached 30F, so those few meaningless 30 peach trees will survive.
I thought about starting a huge bon fire at the farm (I have the wood fuel) but none of the local weather forecasters suggested it would get that cold. Indeed, in the city it was considerably warmer. In fact most of the area around the city was warmer, my area close to ground zero was the coldest.
Sadly, this looks like the last severe freeze of this season for this area.
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Olpea, you know we all feel terrible for you and I just hope you will be surprised- I got that low 2 seasons ago around bloom and slightly after and still got a good stonefruit crop, just not from everything.
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Really sorry to hear that! It’s hard to take after so much effort and hope. I’m sure your customers will be disappointed.
Unfortunately you may just be the beginning. This could turn into 2012.
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Oh my gosh, Olpea, I am so sorry to hear that. All that hard work for you. Please keep us posted as to the outcome.
Patty S.
I’m sorry Olpea it’s been a strange year here in Kansas. The temperature has been all over the place. Reliance is still in the late bud early bloom state here but flat wonderful and contender are already open.
Thanks Alan,
Invariably, you’re always a friend in time of need. I thought about taking some pics, but too disgusted. It was looking so good up to this point, despite some cooler weather we’ve had.
I’m not thinking that clear right now, but I definitely think there is an advantage to later blooming peaches like Madison in this area, even though there are so few of those varieties. I noticed the late blooming older varieties were only about 50% open.
Sweet corn and tomatoes are really the reliable staples for this area.
I think for those commercial folks who can afford it, airblast heaters are a good answer.
Thanks Fruitnut, Hoosier, Clark.
Appreciate you. Just a severe piece of bad news.
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It depends, somehow. One year, in my own orchard, a hard late frost knocked off all the late bloomers and only the earlier ones had fruit- the small fruit was actually tougher than the flowers. In a couple days you can cut through the earliest varieties and see if the cavity is brown on most of the fruit.
When I’ve had late frost damage on 2 occasions a lot of peaches held on the tree, got to be the size of a large plum and then proceeded to rot. The problem was keeping the rot from spreading. If your crop makes it you might want to thin less than usual.
I am very sorry to hear that Olpea. Most of us grow fruit as a fun hobby and do not loose much sleep during crop losses, you grow peaches to put food on the table and we can never relate to the pain a crop loss causes you and your family. Another reminder how cruel life can be at times.
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Yeah Olpea, like the others I feel terrible for you. It’s especially sad when it happens to someone that makes their living off of selling crop. Like Alan said maybe you’ll end up getting more fruit than you expect. Take care.
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Olpea. Something good has to come out of this, somehow. xxoo Mrs. G
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That really sucks. Conditions must have been just right for it to drop like that. Hopefully its not as bad as it looks initially. I still think we have one more cold shot after the 1st before its all done (maybe)…
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