It’s 40F with wind out of the north at 35 mph. Supposed to be 24-26 overnight. So I’ve lined out the supplies: heaters/lights, tarps/blankets, cords, and bricks to hold everything in place. Too windy right now. I’m hoping the wind will die down by 11 pm. They might slide by tonight but we are 7 weeks from ave last freeze so might as well get into the routine and see if everything works.
These are what I’m hoping to fruit: Honey Fire and Honey Lite nectarines and Valley Sweet peach.
Good luck! Hope you can keep Ma nature at bay.
Thank you for the support!
My trees look ugly. My excuse is the freeze that killed half the trees soon after planting two yrs ago. Since then I’ve let them grow with no pruning. All those trees are the same age, going on third leaf. The smaller trellised trees were almost killed, which is why they are so small after two growing seasons. The bigger free standing tree was damaged but not as much. I’ll probably prune it some after harvest.
We are living in a time where no matter where you live it’s going to be hard to grow fruit. I thought with el nino it might be better for the stone fruit, but these temperature swings are going to be depressing. You have the houses and that’s the way of the future. If commercial growers have problems growing it then fruit grown from a house will be such a prize. Hope you get lots of prizes, and can save most.
Fruitnut, I feel your fruit-pain. It’s been in the fifties here for over a week. Looked like Spring, smelled like Spring, it must be Spring. Wrong. 38 degrees out snowing until this am. till it turns to freezing rain then plain rain, then it slowly starts warming up again in a few days. My peach and apricot buds are swelling. You can see silver-grey on the pussy willow shrubs. (in snow). Good for you for going out and saving your trees. I cannot do a thing about mine. Your trees do not look ugly. I’d give any one of my trees to have the blooms your do! This is not a fun time of year. These conversations always sound a little familiar. I hope it all works out for you.
I understand the desire to keep the trees from freezing off, but if your temps are really that low yet what are you doing for pollinators? I can’t imagine the bees are too active yet.
The trees were covered in honeybees in the last few days. Besides peaches and nectarines are wind pollinated and self fertile. We’ve been in the 70s and 80s for two weeks. Freezes come between warm spells. I’ll probably need to cover these a half dozen times between now and May.
Ah! I’m sitting in the 30’s for at least a few more weeks so when I heard freezing temps the bees didn’t seem like a reality.
Now if somebody can tell me when they started a world beyond my front door…
I’d love constant 30s for 6 more weeks. Then we’d be past freeze danger.
Good luck. No bloom in Lubbock yet but I am holding my breath. Maybe this little cold snap will give me an extra week or two
True confesions: We were over 50 on Friday and 40’s on Saturday. That was more an anomaly than the cold.
I hope.
We should have that, luckily here everything is still very dormant. No bud swell, nothing. Well except my blueberries in the garage! Now outside and we will see if they can make it out alive. The fruit is toast. Next year in the shed!
Bummer, I guess I’'l have to send you some Sweetcrisp or you’ll never taste any.
I’ve got a few blooms on Indigocrisp. I’ll get to see if it measures up to Sweetcrisp this spring, yes!!
The cold air the next few days that is down there looks to make its trek southward …right into Central America by Friday… bundle up. I’d expect the next few nights to be similar down there until a gradual warming trend takes over.
One lightly smashed finger later and I’ve gained 4F on the big tree.
The trellised trees look like Halloween!!
Time for bed.
Yeah it’s just not meant to grow here, But I’m not giving up yet. I suppose I could bring it in the house in the winter, and put it in the garage like now, to get the chill. I’m going to see if it can take the temps in a shed. The plant may have some buds that didn’t develop (It’s a big plant, 2nd leaf). As soon as I noticed I kicked it outside.Southmoon was worse. The cold may kill them now, but it is staying no lower than 20F. It is too warm in the garage. The good news is the garage is just about perfect for the figs. They look very good!
Strange about the blueberries growing, I have some currants and gooseberries in there too, and they are still dormant. Only the blueberries started growing. Well also one blackberry too. I’m going to start taking everything out except the figs.
Mine did stay dormant, but it is very small. It’s outside now too, so a test for them I guess.
A snow storm is coming. My bad as I mentioned not shoveling snow this year, I spoke too soon! On top of all this I’m trying to pass a kidney stone, getting old is so much fun! This stone was the most painful problem i ever had. It hurt so bad I become nauseous and threw up. Fun times at Drew’s house! I slept in a chair, it hurt too much to lay down or even move. Better today, but I’m sleeping in the chair tonight too.
The things we do for love(of fruit). Brady
Steve, what’s the material laying on the ground around the trees? Are you using it to prevent weeds from growing near the trees?
How cold did it get? Not much weather data near Alpine…seem like the closest that i can find is Marfa…
That’s black weed barrier. It’s very dry here and my well isn’t strong enough to water grass and trees.
The low so far has been 24 with my sensor inside reading 26. That’s below the 250 watt heat lamp so it’s probably warmer higher in the enclosure. But next time I’ll put the 750 watt heater in there.
The smaller trees may not have gotten as much help. They only have a 60-100 watt bulb by each tree. It should help some on the buds near the heat source.
