Here is a closer look of two frames of Saturday night, both from the latest model run, where you can see the numbers a little better. There are still plenty of days for the models to change their minds, and for all I know meteorologists think it’s wrong for some specific reason, but still something to keep an eye on!
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If that should prove to be accurate, it be the coldest night of the year here.
Apricots (Tomcot) are at calyx red. Peaches at calyx green or calyx red. No swelling on apples at all.
The forecast low Sunday (now at 19° on my iPhone app) keeps dropping. I am concerned about some level of loss on the stone fruits, but probably not a lot.
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I am forecast 21F now and I am one stage earlier than you are… so still no issue for me.
All I can hope is this is the last scare. I have let my guard down too many times in the past and got burned on a late cold blast.
My container tree’s will be better to control. They are looking fine still being in the shop and figs in the garage. These 60 tree’s give me my most satisfaction anyway and in good spirits. Some years I have experienced 3 polar Vortex, one in the fall.
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weather.com is now predicting a low of 11F for us Saturday. accuweather.com is predicting 5F. I’m not too happy with either one of those…
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We are dropping to 15F thanks to global warming
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You guys have nothing on Kansas City. KC is forecast down to about 5 or 6 F.
Sometimes that’s about the low (i.e. low single digits) for the whole winter.
Here it is getting close to mid March and we see a low that is normal in Jan.
Peaches are some in bud swell, but the majority in green calyx. Looks to be a wipe out of peaches here this year.
Cyclical weather patterns suck.
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We should hit low 20’s with peaches at pink or early bloom but it looks like we may get ice or freezing rain about that time. Hope the freezing rain may help protect the blooms like overhead irrigation. Never had an ice storm when peaches were blooming so I’m not quite sure what to expect.
I quit looking at the charts of bloom progression and expected damage a few years ago because it created a lot of anxiety. My results never matched predicted damage anyway.
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No blooms open here yet… lots of bud swell, bits of green on raspberries, honeyberries…
The Nashville stations often get my low wrong by 3-6 degrees, (usually not as cold as they predicted) even though I put my zip in on their website. Hopefully most survives Friday and Saturday night and after that looks like another nice warm up… and I am sure peaches and apples will start blooming then (last year first blooms 3/17).
The cold spell that comes after that… will likely be the one that determines if I have peaches and apples this year.
The global warming part is when you reach 80 degrees in February and your trees bloom out 2 months ahead of time. It doesn’t mean that you still don’t get cold temps.
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Our forecast is similar in Virginia Shenandoah valley 6b. I thought we were still dormant but today I saw significant bud swelling of plums. A few peach buds even hinted at pink.
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Hi
I think i might give information 2 things which might help in frost protection relating to those messages which have been here. Let’s first say i haven’t used those so i can’t say in reality how well those might work, but based on information i have found on internet they might help or save some of those fruits in those frost situations. I have read those message so i think we are talking about fruit flower buds, not protecting entire tree from those frost. Also i think those methods might be take some time to do and take some money to buy them, also i think they might too much work on if you have a lot of trees to do say hundreds trees to protect from frost.
Based on those messages here, those might save some flowers to get some fruits as many messages show quite cold temperature for fruit flower so good idea might be thinking do you want to try save some flowers, to get some fruits or crops or no crops at all if frost kill all your flowers? You can also let mother nature to choose how many flower/fruit you get this year. So you might ask yourself do you want to try to save some flowers to get something fruit this year or no fruit at all? Do you want to try to get some fruits, if other option is no fruit at all this year? It might be quite a lot work to protect to protect all flowers, if you have a lot fruit trees growing. Do you think might it be worth to take some money or work to get some frost protection in order to get chance to get some fruits? You might think this yourself. I think those things need to done before freezing just if you think it. Now let’s start might first product which might give better protection for frost.
First is insulbright. Insulbright is insulating thermal lining which reflects hot and cold energy back to it source. If we think above image peach flowers, which we might to want to protect from frost, you might put insulbright around those flower buds so flower buds is inside insulbright. If you put it around say before freeze, if we think this way it inside insulbright is for example 0 c where flower bud, then temperature drop below freezing but if it goes right way insulbright reflect that cold freezing back to it’s source in other words back to space in this case. This gives idea image that inside it would be 0 c or something like this, much warmer than 19 F which one message forecast. I don’t know do you get exactly like this protection but even if it don’t give full protection in those frost, it might give something to protection from frost so inside insulbright might still be warmer, or much warmer than outside without it. Think about possibility to save fruit flower. This insulbright is made polyester and have reflective metalized polyester film on it. If you think how to use it, i think you can used it putting this polyester lining around flower bud, i think you might need to use some yarn to keep it in place so it don’t fall of if there is winds. Yarn around trunk where there is this polyester lining. If you think can you use tape, i guess you can but not sure how well tape take on wood, so yarn might. If you think where you can get this, i saw walmart has them on their internet site if you search google using words insul bright walmart, on their internet site you can check availability. It seems to cost 4,97$ for 45inchx 1 yard. What size are those peach flower and calyx red, i think this size might be enough for many peach flower protection, i think you can use scisccors to make them right size for your flower buds. I also found larger bolt size of it online.
Second thing which came mind is polyurethane foam. In more detail polyurethane foam closed cell. This is foam based which can be used as insulation, i think you can’t use it directly on flower buds because how you would open it after freeze if you spray this foam around flower buds, i think it is quite hard this foam after it has expanded. I have seen on internet video you can put it on bucket and after it expanded you can put it to around flower buds if you think branch or flower bud can handle the weight of it, i don’t know how much those weight as i have not used them, you can use yarn to keep it in place same way as above. Another way is use spray gun to branches, but as earlier mentioned you need to put something else on branches/flower buds first. My mind came bubble wrap around flower buds and then spray foam around bubble wrap, so foam doesn’t touch actual flower buds. You can use yarn to keep bubble wrap in place if you have winds which might drop it to ground, drop bubble wrap to ground - not wind dropping flower bud to ground in you case you think that just for clearifiction . You can see them if you search google polyurethane foam closed cell walmart. I think insulbright and this foam both provide insulation for frost protection which might help in this frost situation. Insulbright might be better of those but i guess you can put insulbright top of foam if want, but it might be little too much protection. It is up to you if you want try to those but remember those might be things which might save your crop and give some fruits this year if you use it, think this possibility if you could save even some flower buds so you could get some fruits.
At the last NAFEX conference, I learned about the possibility of gaining some frost protection by using foliar seaweed sprays. I told myself I would get ahead of this and get started. Perhaps a few degrees might make the difference. Have others heard of the same?
There are quite a few articles suggesting that this might be helpful.
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It might help with light freezes. Polar Vortex? If there is sap flowing the night before it’s going to be frozen. Regular cold fronts sap will go back down.
Beet juice might be better. In Europe they use this during winter to meld snow on highways. Here in my neckofthewoods they start using this too(AR).
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@Rosdonald … checked out my peach blossoms just now and these are some of my most advanced. Most others are not showing pink or swollen that much.
Still calling for 20-22 this weekend.
Forecast down to 9, everything all tight and dormant
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Now showing we’ll hit 20 degrees. Probably not a good thing for my apricot.
At that stage my peaches would be on holiday at 20F. It might kill a few but not enough to notice.
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My summer Prince peach is starting to drop a few petals. Sat night’sforecast is for 23F. I think that tree’s crop may be in trouble. Flame Prince has about 50% of flowers open. Early August Prince is just showing a little pink on some buds, and harvester is even further behind. Anyone looking for a good late bloomer for the SE would do well with harvester. It’s tastes great too. It’s semi cling but mostly free stone when dead ripe. I think I’m going to cover summer Prince with tarps and put my old Coleman catalytic heater under there.