Mark
I really empathize with you. I lost all of my stone fruit last year,
and I know exactly how you feel. It really sucks.
Did you try spraying with KDL?
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Olpea,
So sorry to hear about what that weather has done to your peach trees. Hang in there.
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Olpea, my stomach dropped when I read your post. I might fret about frosts and freezes with my own fruit, but my first concern is always with the commercial growers. For the rest of us to lose something we enjoy doesn’t come near to the personal impact for you guys.
I can only hope that it turns out for you like it did for the growers here last year when a freeze hit on 03/29. Many of them thought they’d been wiped out, but only the earliest ripening peaches were severely impacted. Turned out to be a great year for the rest of their peach crop, with harvests extending beyond their usual dates. I hope you fare far better than you are expecting, as well.
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I’m really sorry to hear that Olpea.
The MSU chart says first bloom is 10% kill at 26F / 90% at 21F, hopefully you will get some from the trees that just bloomed.
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I thought about that too Ray. I had sprayed some KDL a couple times earlier, but it never got cold enough to test to see if it helped any.
Last night I looked at lots forecasts on line for the area and caught the forecast of two local weathermen on the news. The coldest forecast was a low 27F. Most were around 30F, so I thought I was fine. I got up this morning at 5:30 and the temp at the house showed 31. I thought I was fine.
It wasn’t till I started checking some weather stations around the farm on the internet a little after 7:00 that I knew it was bad. Farm is 7 miles from my house.
I had the same decision to make monday, when we had a widespread
frost alert issued by the NWS. I spent the weekend talking to Dell
Christianson at KDL, who was also kind enough to monitor my weather with me. That’s what you call real service. On his recommendation, I sprayed monday, and luckily our forecasted tuesday morning frost missed me. But I think the KDL gave me some extra protection, and I’m very glad I sprayed.
I followed our 3 local TV weathermen, who were all over the place. The main
thing that I learned through all of this is to rely strictly on the NWS. They even pin pointed the forecast to my neighborhood.
Have you ever used a bonfire to provide heat to your orchard in the past? Does something like that work well? I’ve read of smudge pots before, but never large fires.
Mark.
Hang in there. I praying that 1/2 of those peach flowers will pull through for you base on Scott MSU report.
Tony
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Ray,
The NWS here predicted 29F for that morning low. They were in line w/ everyone else.
I don’t know for sure warmwx, but the wood is located in the bottom corner of the orchard. People who deliver wood chips also dump logs there. I think maybe some heat would have risen and crept up the hill. I know one guy who told me he’s burned round bales to heat his orchard. I only have about 400 peach trees, so it’s not a large area to protect.
I’ve read that smoldering smoke will keep the frost off the flowers. Supposedly that’s sort of the mechanism of those diesel heated airblast units. The warm smoke just sort of lays around the trees.
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Sorry to hear of your crop loss Olpea. I grow and sell peaches as well, but here in Maine we know from the start that fruit set is a gamble at best. The one advantage that we do seem to have compared to states in the Plains and Midwest recently is that we don’t get high temps in Feb and March like many of you do so the trees don’t truly wake-up until April. Good luck to you!
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Mark, The NWS forecast was much more detailed and applied
directly to my neighborhood. I found it to be much more useful,
than the local TV weather guys.
For me the unusual warm weather followed by more normal cold weather has caused a potential problem with pollination. Some flowering trees and shrubs are two to three weeks ahead of schedule. My pluots are flowering but there is no sign of bees or any other bugs anywhere on my property.
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I guess you better get out there and do some hand pollinating.
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Just got to this thread. Actually felt a pain in the pit of my stomach as I was reading.
I know it won’t put a single new peach on the trees but my thoughts are with you.
Mike
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Right, that’s the plan for Monday.
This year it will just be touch and go on the grafting, fruits etc. We just have to take some chances because next thing you know it will be 90 degrees. This is a picture from this morning of the same location as the original.
A few more pictures from today.
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Clark,
Hopefully, the snow will insulate those flowers. How low was the temp?
Tony
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Mid to high 20’s but it rained and snowed on them at the same time and it’s in the 30’s now so it’s anyone’s guess.
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Sounds like a blessing- the specifics of the weather did probably help protect the flowers- they don’t look burned yet.
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