2017: Bummer year for fruit?

Well this year is sure a challenge. The winter was mild and spring came early.
All downhill after that. Here in SE WI spring was cold, windy and too much rain!
MIghty challenging planting anything as the ground would not dry out. As of today (June 2nd) only 1/2 of my garden has even been tilled and planted.

The orchard is a disaster. My fruit trees bloomed heavily but got hit with a hard frost. The Stanley plum and Summercrisp pears were wiped out. Bartlett pear lost about 40% of the fruit that was already set but the remaining fruits are definitely damaged and not looking good. Time will tell if they amount to anything.

My early blooming apples (Red Delicious, McIntosh, Haralson & Albemarle Pippen) came thru with good fruit set. The later bloomers (Cortland, Honeycrisp, NW Greening, Northern Spy) were in full bloom when the frost came. Very few fruits on those trees this year. Trying to keep the orchard sprayed has been extremely difficult with so many days windy, rain or both! Worst spring I have had since moving here 21 years ago.

Luckily the tart cherry crop and the peach crop seem to be untouched by the frost. The black raspberries are loaded with flower buds so all is not a loss.

Anyone else get wiped out by spring frosts this year?

Not this year, but the exact thing happened to me last year. The good news, is my berry crop was very large last year, and seemingly impervious to frost! Best berries I ever ate!

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Yeah a had a couple bad years, but this year is good for me. Ironic as I’m fairly close to you, luckily not close enough! Two years ago every fruit tree lost every single flower bud. This year even my marginally hardy blackberry cultivars are doing good. (boysenberry, tayberry, etc.)

We were hit pretty hard down here in 7B as well. Blueberries and guavas are about the only things we are going to enjoy.

Got frosted pretty bad in Kansas on my pears and lost 90% + of the crop. The apples are not impressive I think we lost 70%. The black berries and cherries look ok so fortunately not all is lost. Fruit Diversification is the key to success in a Kansas. It was my turn I have not had a pear crop like this in years.

Michigan was spared and I expect bumper (with a P) crops for pears, peaches and apples. i took a passing look at the Asian pears and found no fruits last week (I was in a hurry), tomorrow i am there to bag apples, I will take a second look. Perhaps there was a combination of date and temperature that was OK for all but not the AP. IIRC last frost was around April 25.

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I am in the same boat almost a 100% loss of apples and pears this year. I was tricked by Mother Nature, she let everything bloom in abundance and then wiped it away. I have learned this year more than any that just because you see all those beautiful blooms dont get too excited! Took another slap to the face this week as my strawberries got buried under 3" of snow at the end of April some in bloom some just about to bloom. The snow melted and I was surprised at how well the blossoms looked for the rest of the bloom period. Only to find this week that there are actually very few berries and the ones that did set are tiny. Still hoping the blackberries will come through, though I only know the number of blossoms is down from last year. I do have the odd apple here and there, with a couple on trees I have yet to taste so possibly with a little luck I will get them to maturity!

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Cherries look like garbage. 10+ inches of rain since bloom did a lot of them in. Might still be enough for a small crop…

1! Flavor Supreme pluot… almost no fruit set on that tree…very few pluots overall…think poor pollination maybe to blame…0o Lavina and Hesse both look full…but the plums are pretty sparse… I think pruning hard last summer is partially to blame for some of that.

Peaches/nectarines all need heavy thinning…apples look full. blueberries look fine.

Cold/frost/freezes no issues…its all been the heavy rains in April?may… its been dry the last week or so for the most part. Cool nights/warm days.

TurkeyCreekTrees,
Im sorry to read about your misfortune. I was hoping I was alone.
Warmwx,
Those must have been sweet cherries. Sorry to hear that!

All I lost was the greater part of my apriums - everything else is flourishing
Sorry

Here in California, anything that was flowering in February or March was screwed. Too much rain. That means most of the stone fruits and about half the apples. Very little fruit on those trees. Hey, it happens!

I’m from central michigan, and definitely got hit with frosts,two nights in a row in april. Pears okay,but apples, peaches hit hard.