Mild for us also with strong/severe storms weds.
The Arctic outbreak is looking more and more like a bust ā¦ 
Stupid weather modelsā¦
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Maybe not a fail, it still looks cold, but nothing like it was showing (which was off the charts cold)ā¦ An exampleā¦ here it was showing 850s of -20Cs and now its showing -10Csā¦ and who knows ā¦that may moderate moreā¦ From single digits, to teens, to mid 20Fs now (if not warmer)ā¦
NE still looks cold, but i wouldnāt believe anything these models say right nowā¦
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Our predictions for our island in RI is 40-50ās for the next two weeks.
Oh man Derbyā¦that sucks!
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Sorry Jason, those peach flowers looked frozen. This early warm up sure messed things up.
Tony
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Yikesā¦that is too bad. This spring has not been kind.
MrsG-
I want 70Fsā¦
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No kidding, you deserve 70ās if not more!!!
Hereās where we are now. Yesterday the forecast for the night of the 4th was 39. Today it was upped to 45. This is one block of weather that I wish everyone here could share. Well, as long as thereās no hail in those Tstorms.
10-Day Weather Forecast
Monday 03/28
82Ā° | 46Ā°
Clear
Clear
0% / 0 in
Tuesday 03/29
72Ā° | 45Ā°
Clear
Clear
0% / 0 in
Wednesday 03/30
73Ā° | 57Ā°
Clear
Clear
0% / 0 in
Thursday 03/31
79Ā° | 65Ā°
Thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
80% / 0.77 in
Friday 04/01
82Ā° | 56Ā°
Thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
90% / 0.51 in
Saturday 04/02
72Ā° | 45Ā°
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
10% / 0 in
Sunday 04/03
74Ā° | 46Ā°
Clear
Clear
0% / 0 in
Monday 04/04
72Ā° | 46Ā°
Clear
Clear
10% / 0 in
Tuesday 04/05
75Ā° | 46Ā°
Clear
Clear
0% / 0 in
Wednesday 04/06
74Ā° | 51Ā°
Partly Cloudy
Partly Cloudy
20% / 0 inI had some lights that may have saved a few blossoms, I will know soon. It was only supposed to get down to 29 here last night but as you can see it was a lot colder than that. Oh well , the pear blossoms looked good when uncovered them.
Derby,
Thatās how it looked in my orchard a zone north of you, 3 mornings ago, toast.
I think part of the answer in the future, with the warming trend, is to move toward to more frost tolerant peaches in MO (there are some which are more reliable - some older commercial varieties). Iāve looked at my past records and more than half the years the first peach bloom was after April 1. This year it was the earliest ever at March 10. Not much chance to make it through the spring frosts that early.
I know it doesnāt help emotions, or change the situation, but I sympathize w/ you. Waist of time to grow trees which get their fruit frosted off. I think frost is the biggest issue in my area. Relatively speaking, there are decent protection measures against pests in this area, but the only bullet proof protection against frost is to grow in tunnels/greenhouse, which is hard to generate commercial volume, without an enormous investment.
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Ooooofff!!!
Yes, well this is just an old peach tree in my yard. It is much worse for you Iām sure. I canāt imagine trying to grow commercially. I would love to hear your thoughts some time on varieties that bloom later. I planted a contender last year but it bloomed at the same time as my old peach.
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While bloom times are valuable, the real test to me in years like this is whether or not they will produce a crop in a sorry spring like this, which is not always correlated w/ bloom date. Perhaps I may learn more from this year (if anything fruits at the farm) but in a similar past year, Flat Wonderful, Garnet Beauty. Harrow Beauty, Redhaven, Allstar, Redskin produced good crops, despite various bloom dates. Some peaches are noted for flowers being frost tolerant. I can say my experience is Redskin blooms are certainly more frost tolerant than most. It is one of the earlier blooming varieties, but tolerates frosts surprisingly well.
A few others I have notes on, from reading or experience, are Glohaven, Gloria, Veteran, HW252 (and interestingly NJ252, different peach). There are a few others, but some cursory glances suggest those are some Iām looking toward for production in years like this.
Note Harrow Beauty didnāt produce well in very cold winters, http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/treefruit/documents/2012JAPS66133-144.pdf
but overall itās done well for me. Harrow Beauty is a very satisfying peach if is picked firm in a hot summer. Otherwise it gets mealy if allowed to soften on the tree in the extreme heat.
Again itās not the recorded latest blooming variety which is the touchstone. Some varieties (like Saturn) bloom very early, but have a very long blooming period. Others bloom later, but bloom very tight. Others seem to have ātoughā blooms. Ultimately, the trees which come through this mess with a crop of good tasting peaches are the acid test for me.
Overall, I think many of the older varieties tolerate frosts for one reason or another (either from later blooming, longer blooming, or tougher blooms) however these peaches tend to have the least solid red color, which tend to make them harder to sell. It will never go away that the easiest fruit to sell (initially) is the reddest. I think itās in the human DNA.
This is the focus on major breeding programs (double red fruit) but from my perspective, Iād rather have fruit w/ lots of yellow background (which tastes good) and is reliable more often than the high prized double red fruit which stands out like a proud Budweiser Clydesdale, but is really more hit and miss in terms of production.
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Jason,
Those donāt look good sorry to see that.
Reliance is good for us since we mostly cook with our peaches . It works well for me most years and overall think its named well.
Deby,
What an awful condition!
Hope some will survive.
Thanks for the detailed list. I took a screenshot of that and saved it. I really just thought it would be based on bloom dates. I am learning lots about blooms and frost tolerance this year. Just for the record I would eat a green peach if it tasted good. I ate some little green peaches off of a rootstock sucker that were no bigger than a walnut last summer and they were still better than those peaches that they sell at the grocery store.
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