Strange weather - Will it get our blooms and fruit?

I have my first apricot from an untrustworthy source in bloom and none of the peaches are very far behind in Raleigh. Let’s hope it’s actually spring, but that summer doesn’t come with a vengeance.

Slogged out thru the floodwaters yest to check the fruit trees, which are still a long way from bud break, glad to see

Plums are getting ready to bloom here. March is bad for brief but nasty hard frosts, thinking they will get zapped. Again. Sigh.

Our plums are in bloom so early here in NC, I am wondering if I could get lucky and have plums big enough to survive a frost if one comes.

I hate it when I see blooms long before I see pollinators out.

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I am 2 - 2 1/2 hours north of you in Virginia, same thing. We are 3 to 4 weeks early, even earlier than last year.

Accuweather lets you look month by month in their extended forcasts, including forcasting out a couple months (and then just showing averages from there). Of course the reliability is pretty low once you get out very far, but it is disheartening to see March to be forcast as mostly below average for us with a bunch of nights in the 20s. My currants are pushing leaves, peaches are showing pink, apple buds are swollen and several days of temps in the 60s and a few in the 70s before it gets colder again. Ugh.

If you are interested in seeing the averages for next month for you area, you select month at the top after inputting your area click on March, then scroll to the bottom to see a chart for the month that projects (or past months this winter). You can also look at previous months to compare to your historical averages.

We’re running into the same problem in Virginia. At this point I’ve written off my apricots. The only good news is that we are forecast to have cooler weather (50-34 degrees) in a week or so, which will hopefully keep everything else from waking up.

The NWS forecasts are not so negative:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov

You guys in VA get a bit cooler period for a week in March but the other weeks are normal or above. I’m normal or above all of March. The problem though is all it takes is one cold shot at the wrong time and things are fried.

Well, I sure hope we don’t get anymore hard freezes here in Georgia. Just take a peak at this bumper crop my huckleberry bushes are working on provided that the weather cooperates.

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A day or two of really cold weather is what I worry about at the moment. My apricots are pretty much in full bloom and it seems unlikely that we won’t get at least one cold shot before mid to late April. At the same time, with this wacky weather who knows. Maybe they will make it.

Kieffer pear waking up…

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My Hood pear is having its first bloom. Also J plums and some peaches, and the almond, of course. I don’t know why my mature apricot didn’t feel like blooming yet --didn’t set any buds?? Hey, hopefully it’s just late!

But the good news on the Hood pear is that this is when my neighbor’s huge old ornamental pears are in full bloom! I was wondering if I had a good pollinator for Hood being so early, and it seems I do :slight_smile:

If anyone else has that problem with Hood and wants cuttings of my neighbor’s tree sometime, I’m sure that’s no problem. I’m a little north for Hood!

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only one tree left that’s not leafing is my Flordaking peach…everything else has growth and is in bloom…

Valencia orange.

Leconte pear


Peach/nectarine seedling

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I’m starting to feel like I might actually make it this year … its a bit colder for the next week or two, but nothing in the 20’s, and then its forecast to be on the warm side in the long term.

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We are also expecting average or below average temps starting tomorrow. I don’t have many early bloomers. Flavor supreme and orange red are the only two I can see getting ready.
Hopefully next few weeks of cold weather will help. Expecting up to 65mph winds tomorrow. I can see a lot of twig/branch clean up in my future.

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We’ve got plumlets starting to form and only 32 for the weekend lows. With how wet it is, I am feeling pretty good about their chances.

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I think if my Apricot blooms survive this upcoming Sunday (sunny with a projected low of 29 degrees) I have a reasonable chance of actually getting a few this year. Otherwise, the rest of March looks like smooth sailing.

My neighbor also has an early blooming Callery pear that blooms just ahead of my Hood. I also have Kieffer and Golden Boy that matches almost perfect for cross pollination. Just an option but you could graft in a few of these scions and you would be assured of a good source in the event your neighbor decide to remove his tree.

Thanks! That sounds really good because I got Hood to be a multi-graft pear eventually.

First day of projected over night lows right at freezing is showing 38 now just before sunrise. I am getting weird about my trees and the weather. It’s been like 5 years now and I have still had less than a dozen total pieces of fruit so I am getting awfully itchy for more than individual plums and peaches fighting through the frost!

I am looking for the charts on frost damage; there’s probably one somewhere in this thread. I have peaches in full bloom and plums dropping petals. The forecast has several nights at 29 or 30, clear and windy. What temperature do I need to start swearing at? The MSU chart I found looks like 25ish post bloom?