Yikes, I wish you luck with those lows. Fortunately there is nothing below 40 at night in the 10-day forecast for me and by April 15 we are usually past all frosts, but it ain’t over until it’s over.
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Hi CT Duck Hunter,
I looked at your profile -
Contender, Red Haven, PF 19-007, Allstar, Reliance, Spring Snow, Julyprince, Baby Crawford, Intrepid, PF-9A007
How do these peach varieties produce for you? Hope your peaches make it through 27F, might be a blessing if it thins the peaches some.
Thanks,
Spud
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Lets hope the wind keeps ripping through here it adds protection. Freezing rain etc is all bad but snow on the blossom is not necessarily bad. The things like apricots that are open it looks bad for them.
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@SpudDaddy I have around 25 peach trees and they are all 3 years and younger. Wish I could tell you more. I have pretty much based all my peach decisions on what @Olpea grows and reports on because there are no peach tree growers really close to me to ask for advice that I am aware of. My state spends all their research money on corn, wheat, and soybeans so there is very little research on fruit trees. There is some older research but nothing with some of these new varieties. The best new research on fruit trees in Kansas comes from @clarkinks and @39thparallel
I sure hope so too Clark, looks like your low is around 30 and mine is 27 right now. I’m thinking about wrapping a couple of my trees with frost blankets from my asparagus patch so I can maybe try a few of these varieties.
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@Olpea is the real local peach expert and knows a lot about spraying programs in our area. There were some peach varieties developed at the Missouri fruit experiment station which I tried grafting a two years ago. Loring is the most notable and is still grown commercially. Contender, Red haven and Reliance do well here. Bell of Georgia and Saturn are some of my best producers so far.
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@olpea is hands down the best at growing peaches. In my area reliance, contender, and flat wonderful can be grown. All other peaches i tried died eg. Bell of Georgia.
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This freeze coming up is a bad deal. We’ve been watching the forecasts closely. I’ve found those freeze charts more optimistic when everything is bloomed out. In other words, if peaches are completely bloomed out about 30F will start to kill blooms. 28F will kill just about all of them. If there are still some closed, then those will survive fairly cold temps.
We are in full bloom in my locale, with a few blooms at petal fall. It was about 31F this morning. Who knows what it will be tomorrow morning, but temp forecasts are lower.
We’ve been pruning for the last week or so. I wish these weather forecasters would have been a little more accurate (they weren’t calling for a freeze at all). If we had known it was going to freeze, we would have started leaving more wood.
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Full bloom here too. NWS called for 32 last night and 27 tonight. It got down to 27 here last night, and now calling for 26 tonight. I’m pretty sure mine are toast!
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There are some which look at least partially closed up on that tree. Maybe some will survive. And maybe you’ll have a little better results than I have with temperatures. That tree looks unpruned. Unpruned trees have a tad bit hardier blooms, than recently pruned trees, or so I once read.
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Here is what my peaches looked like yesterday…
Apricot
Here is what my temp looked like at about 7am. I kept checking and rechecking… surely that doesn’t say 26!!!
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My Juliet cherries are in full bloom. My Carmine Jewels are only a couple days behind. The good news is that there still doesn’t appear to be any cold weather predicted.
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The downside in Kansas to Japanese plums, apricots, peaches, and nectarines is this weather. Gets them and some of my pears right in the critical bloom stage. Couldnt have caught them at a worse time. Lets hope we get lucky but the odds are against us. Now carmine jewell cherries , montmorency, northstar sour cherries will not be open its to early and that is one of the best things about carmine jewell.
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Interesting. Mine are running just the opposite with CJ a few days ahead of my Juliets. Are yours getting the same amount of sun? It is possible my CJs get a little more sun than the Juliets so maybe that is doing it.
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@zendog
I know some of my pears flip flop on which ones bloom first from year to year. Its something im trying to understand myself for years now. Maybe @Ozymandias will have an answer but it sounds like a good new thread topic if you decide to start a discussion on it. Maybe next year i can help with juliet and carmine jewell blooms but not yet juliet is still new to me.
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They get pretty close to the same amount. I have one place where I have a Juliet right next to a CJ. The Juliet is small, not sure if that makes much difference.
I will look more closely today.
Yes, mine are really quite close. CJ has every bud open and is just now dropping a few petals on the earliest blooms and Juliet is mostly in full bloom with a few buds not fully open. My Juliets are a few years younger than the CJs so that might have some impact. Last year CJ ripened around a week earlier. I’ll see if that holds.
I have read this thread and am convinced this is the cherry I need. Will any Prunus species do OK near a black walnut tree? I am trying to fill space that is marginal for other species.
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no idea about the black walnut question, but carmine jewel is a nice cherry, Id like it a lot more if I could find a cheap effective automated pitter…
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She’s doing a good job here with them slightly frozen.
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once i get enough production from my 6 trees, I’m going to invest in the pitter sold on HB USAs site. looks well made.
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