And here comes the freeze

Mine was money well spent. The plains has way more freeze damage than most areas east of here. The problem is we warm up way more and sooner than they do. But get no break on the late freezes.

I’ve had sweet corn up for three weeks. In Illinois we didn’t plant until May.

I wait till June here, although I have not grown any in 3 years. I have had those Pineberries in the bed I grew corn. I planned to remove them and grow again, but the berries are too good! I replaced most now with runners.

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I gotta bring my younger potted figs and other fragile plants into the basement for a couple nights.

Ray, did you purchase the KDL from the manufacturer? When I placed my KDL order, was transferred to someone telling me how to apply the product and was told it should be mixed with either their product System Cal, which is a calcium foliar spray, or vinegar. Apparently KDL works for some folks but not for others. I think I remember reading an old GW thread where Olpea mentioned that he tried KDL and saw no improvement in frost protection.

Like you all my stone fruit trees are in full bloom and the forecast is for a low of 33 Sunday and Monday. Unfortunately my trees are in somewhat of a frost pocket, I am considering burning wood in metal barrels placed near some of the trees.

I’m tempted to drag in my 15 gallon potted nectarines for the weekend. maybe set the grow lights up for the time being.

Great. Now they are saying sat, Sunday and Monday morning will be 30-32. Guess I’ll cover tomorrow afternoon and just leave it on.

I bought it directly from Agripro, which makes KDL in mInnesota.
I had a long talk with the KDL “expert” in minnesota today, and he told
me the same thing. But you can use household vinegar instead of System Cal. KDL is a high alkaline product and will burn the blooms without the deacifier. He told me to call him back tomorrow, to let him know my situation. He gave me lots of tips in using the product and in frost protection. He told me to water my trees really good, which I’ve been doing all day, and will again tomorrow. To check the PH of my water and I also bought PH testing strips today. It appears that getting the right PH in the mix is very important. He also told me to use a fine mist spray and to not saturate the blooms, and to not respray, if I have left over mix. I would have
done all of these wrong things, and would have burned the blooms. He was extremely helpful. His name is Larry Schafer.

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If you’re planning on covering trees that are in bloom, without some kind
of heat source under the cover, you’re wasting your time. I did that last
year, and still lost everything.

I’m stringing some C9 Christmas lights. Hopefully that will help.

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Now the weather says it will get down to 24 on Monday night… I guess I am going to spend some time trying to cover everything up and hope for the best. I just hope nothing dies.

I’ve been trying to find the same info. I have Superior and Alderman hybrid plums and am wondering how hardy their buds are to spring cold.

The buds are swelling here on my plums (Superior shown). And Zestar! (flowering group 1) is at silver tip. I sort of wonder how such an early-blooming apple came out of the Minnesota apple program…

I didn’t know the south and southern plains were so hard on spring blooms until I came to this board… I thought we had it bad here in IA. It doesn’t help that my back yard is in a local depression on the landscape.

Gutter clips came in handy. I may just take the lights down after Christmas and put them straight out in the orchard. LOL

p

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Ray,

Chris is right I did not seen any results w/ the KDL. However, I still have some KDL and am considering doing a small side by side trial with the same variety (i.e. spray 1/2 the trees and the other 1/2 unsprayed) if the forecast continues to show potential damage.

I sprayed the whole backyard orchard when I used it before, so had nothing to compare it to any control, although I didn’t notice any improvement beyond what would be expected from the Michigan hardiness charts for fruit buds/flowers. I did follow the instructions, but the instructions said nothing about vinegar or pH.

Can you tell me what the manufacturer recommended to you in terms of the amount of vinegar, or the pH of the solution? Do they want the spray solution neutral?

I caught this post—seems to have some good info:

http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/nafex/2012-March/046370.html

Also this from a few years back:
"Iowa may have lost about 40% of its primary winegrape production, according to Mike White, a viticulturist with Iowa State University. He said growers who waited the longest to prune experienced the least amount of damage. A few growers had success by spraying at around one gallon per acre with the foliar fertilizer KDL. White said there’s “pretty good evidence” that the product can protect by 3°-4°F.

Read more at: http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=100413
Copyright © Wines & Vines

I’ve never used it but it looks interesting if it does work…even a little.

Thanks Warm,

It looks like they recommend KDL be used w/ an equal amount of vinegar (i.e. 3 oz. of vinegar/gal and 3 oz. of KDL/gallon).

Bob Purvis has been a strong advocate of KDL for a long time. He was the one who got me to try it years ago. I talked w/ him a couple years ago about it again. He hasn’t done any controlled tests either (just sprays his whole orchard). It’s just that he said he noticed frost protection over what would be normally be expected from the frost charts, and I didn’t notice any improvement.

Chris Doll discussed this in the IL fruit newsletter in 2010 when we discussed it on another fruit forum. He said he had tried three such cryoprotectant products for his peaches and saw no improvement, which confirmed what I saw.

However, I’d like to give it a bit better observation. It’s looking like temps could get cold enough (unfortunately) to give the product an informal “side by side” comparison. If it did provide some noticeable protection, it would be well worth the $20/acre.

Warm do you mind posting an up-dated version of your fabulous map. In RI this sun. and mon are supposed to cool down to the 30’s. Would love to see it for real on a map. Thanks.

I’m in exactly the same boat as you Levers, and here it is a predicted low of 21 Monday night…our lows are in the 20’s for I think 3 or 4 days in a row.

I have been thinking the exact same thing. No greenhouses in my future for long term fruit tree growing. No way I could ever justify the amortized cost of that. I’m purely a function over form guy (I have to be), so if it doesn’t make economic sense…it gets scrapped.

You and me both my friend…you and me both.

What stage of bloom?

Here the Lakes protected us a little. We expect the same cold stretch but low is only 26 and I’m at first pink with stone fruit, I should be good with at the worst 10% bud kill, at best no damage. Strange as you are at least a couple hundred miles south of me! The great lakes make a huge difference!

I haven’t looked since the day before yesterday Drew…it’s always dark when I get home. It was looking VERY close to bloom then. Temps have been much cooler the last few days, but still warm enough to keep things moving along. The plums go so quickly. I did look at the pears and they seem to have sensed the shift and are in a holding pattern. Peach is at first pink. Apples are always the smart, well behaved ones, they are still fully dormant, or very nearly so.

The peaches and plums will both get whacked. question is…how badly. I’m trying to think like you…like it will just be a good thinning (that they always need anyway), but I’m not so sure it will work out that way.

Thanks for the info, yeah at 21 you should get about 15-20% bud kill. Not that bad.
My sweet cherry here is like your apples, very dormant still. Which is good as they are more sensitive once buds begin to grow! Some bud swell, but very hardy at that stage, less hardy at other stages. My tree is young with few flower buds anyway…