It seems weird that we here in Maine have had better luck with peaches lately than many South & West of here.
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No, though fun to learn of another Va peach orchard. Our local ones are Chiles and Henley’s.
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It’s interesting that Henley’s is growing varieties that I would not consider for Virginia.
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They grow low spray too. Now I’ve only gotten their peaches as a bulk box so don’t know what varieties I ate. But they grow some nice low spray apples – look a bit fly specked but taste great.
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I put an incandescent lamp under a tarp with the tree, It is hot enough to help.
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I put two orange bench work lamps under one of the trees I covered - a Reliance peach. Lost everything. I do not remember the lows - could be that my temps were lower than your temps thus the reasons why your lamp worked and mine did not.
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I played that game last year if you remember and posted several pictures here. While I thought at the time it was going to work it unfortunately didnt.
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It is not easy either. Plus even if it did work, do you want to do this year after year? no good answers here. It seemed to work for me but it was such a headache I’m not doing it again. Luckily most years i don’t have the issues, only once in awhile. I guess maybe look at the wild plums as an option to at least get some stone fruit.
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This Feburary my trees broke dormancy and were at bud swell when the temps dropped to 9 degrees. I lost about 10% of my peach blossoms and about 20% of my plums, except my flavor king which was the farthest along and lost probably 70% of the blossoms. My point is you still have hope!
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Saw today that the wild plum I transplanted last year has started to bloom. Not all are out, but most are. Bad timing, as it’s supposed to be 28 tonight and 25 tomorrow night. Hope it makes it, I’d like to able to sample some this year.
I checked my Coralstar peach, and just about all the fruit buds are either full open or close to it. So, it’s not looking good for that, or the Redhaven, which has quite a few open blooms also.
Right now, close to midnight, it’s still 46, but that will drop quickly. We might get a but of snow tonight, but the cold has me more worried.
Oh well, at least the apples and pears are all mostly asleep, so we might get lucky with some of those.
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26 now with light snow. My loving and harko had a nice flowering. Doubtful any will survive now. Sucks.
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Looking at your latest forecast, it looks like they’ve moderated it up a bt. I’m seeing 25f for your area.
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They are expecting the temperature will drop down to 17 again tonight. Could be a tough year for growing fruit again like last year.
Expected low tonight in Toronto Canada: 25 degrees.
Expected low just north of Nashville, TN: 25 degrees.
What on earth is going on? That just “ain’t” right!
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28 f to 29 f now the low tonight. Snowing now. Pears in full bloom, peaches some in bloom, some near petal fall, split. Thoughts, how much damage will my fruit get?
This has certainly been posted before and you are likely aware of it. But just in case you aren’t and for the benefit of new folks who may not have seen it, here is an awesome chart that helps answer the question you just asked about how much damage you may expect. Most of my fruit is at shuck split and my temp is supposed to get down to 25 or 26 depending on forecast- meaning I’ll likely experience 90% loss.
The only good thing I can say about freeze events like this is that it helps remind me why I only wait to raise fruit as a hobby and not for money. It’s one thing for me to loose the opportunity to have fun growing and eating fruit for a year or not being able to give it to my friends, family, and co-workers. But what if I had borrowed money to buy expensive equipment and land and chemicals and labor and now my payments were coming due and I was going to have zero income? Lots of people will be in that situation and I’m truly sorry for them.
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We are down to 18 degrees this morning. luckily, nothing blooming yet
Many of the pears are dropping prematurely. I’m fixing pond dams asap and rapidly working during this extreme drought in areas that are normally inaccessible. Once the ponds are repaired I can once again go back to praying for rain. Those very dark red areas are us in the hardest hit areas. Pear crop overall is still ok so I’m very blessed. https://www.drought.gov/drought/states/kansas
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Bluberries, pear, strawberries, paw paw and peach are in full bloom right now at my place. Satsuma and apple starting to show some life too. They are forecasting a couple of nights around 25F next week. Not good.
Old thread, and same old story. I could just cry. All my stone fruits are either in bloom or very, very close to it, and they are calling for a low of 14 degrees on Monday night (by which time all my stone fruits will be in bloom). MAN does this get old!!! In the last 5 years I have had either a full loss of stone fruit or a partial loss 4 years!!! Last year was pretty minor but 3 of 5 years have either been total or sever freeze damage.
I’m starting to understand why so many people grow apples! haha. Most of my apple trees don’t even have swollen buds yet-still sound asleep.
One of the best things about this web site is knowing and communicating with hundreds of other growers who are going through exactly the same thing. When I’m at work and tell someone 'The low Monday of 14 degrees will probably kill all my fruit crop this year" they just mumble something about that being a shame and go on about their business. No one but you men and women really understand what it’s like to work hard almost year round, spend a fortune on trees and sprays and equipment, wait with great anticipation all winter long wondering what some newly producing tree will taste like and looking forward to other fresh fruits, only to have it all ruined by a cold night or two. Man, these are the days I start to think I should have kept fishing as my main hobby!!! ha
EDIT: By the way, if you think the first week of March is very early for my location in Tennessee to already have stone fruits in full bloom, you are 100% right. It’s the earliest that most my trees have EVER bloomed in the 6 years I’ve been growing fruit. We had enough cold in Nov and Dec for them to get their chill hours done early, and we had a nice warm spell about 3 weeks ago that woke them all up and lied to them about winter being over and it being spring. Mother nature should be ashamed of herself! 
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