Has anyone ever tried ground flooding for frost protection? I live in a high altitude frost pocket that averages around 2-3 radiative frost events in the spring usually the night after a late snow storm. I have tried wrapping the trees in the past, with not much success, but they have gotten too big now. I let the trees grow because I noticed the neglected trees in the neighbor hood are the only ones that consistently produce. It kind of makes sense with a radiative freeze/frost pocket because their branches are higher off of the ground and the upper branches provide some additional cover.
I only have 3 trees peach/plum that I need to protect. I plan on trimming the lawn down to the dirt to collect as much solar heat as possible and at night placing a drip hose under the trees set to a trickle. I don’t want to use sprinklers because I have read if you cause too much evaporation it can actually cause additional chilling. The climate here is usually very dry and the ground drains quickly so I am not too concerned about over watering or mold issues. It would be nice to get a good crop for once, I usually only get 2-4 peaches per year. The fact that I get any peaches at all makes me believe even a slight increase in temp should help out a lot. Last I wonder if It would help to place tarps around perimeter of the trees even though they are too big to fully cover?
A little drip isn’t going to change anything much. Wet bare soil should help a little. So I’d be inclined more to wetting the whole area and keeping it bare.
The only thing that’s worked for me is covering the tree completely and placing an adequate heat source inside.
That’s the idea “wetting the whole area” I figured that a drip hose on a low trickle would equate to hundreds of gallons of water running throughout the night. I didn’t make myself clear but I am going to spiral the drip hose out so it does cover the area underneath the trees. I tried wrapping but failed because I don’t think I used enough wattage, but like I said earlier it is too late for that now. It wont be long now even though my trees are still dormant we had our first frost free night last night.