Sunday and Monday night low is 23 and Tuesday night low is 25. So I think all the cots, pluerry, and a few plums flowers are a goner. But I will still have the figs and Pakistan Mulberries save by moving them back in the shelter.
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@tonyOmahaz5
Mother Nature is not very kind to your area. Temp that low for consecutive days is really damaging.
@subdood_ky_z6b, it depends. Sometimes if flowers and fruit are serious damaged by a sudden drop of very cold temp, you can notice the damage by the end of the day. Sometimes it takes a few days.
Then, there are times when fruit even set but never develop. This kind of delayed damage leads to our fault hope.
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It was about 44 F when we got up at 5:00 this morning, and about 35 F now. We walked about four miles and the wind was blowing us all over the trail. Now it’s really moving in: mixed snow and rain, gusts to 25 mph. Looks like a rough day for flowers and crittur.
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It has been windy and cold here since yesterday.
It was 32 F at 7 am this morning. By 8:30 am, I went out to check my new mini beds of onions and strawberries. It was windy and cold. The soil on those beds was frozen!!! I put straws on those beds before getting back in the house.
Went back after 10 am, with 15-20 mph wind, it was still very cold for me. Though it is sunny, it is not a good day for yard work.
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Wait! Your tomatoes are planted in the ground in 6B? Umm, I’m in 9B as in 28° was my WINTER low, and I literally planted my tomatoes in ground on Friday. Gamble much? lmao.
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In my younger years I always planted tomatoes first half of April in zone 6b.
(Yes, I’d cover then sometimes, and sometimes they’d get blackened…but usually lived.)
And, they’d have fruit ripe a few days sooner than tomatoes planted in May.
This year, haven’t even planted my tomato seeds yet.
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I think we narrowly escaped a freeze late night. I left my potted figs out since the weather was terrible yesterday and I wasn’t in the mood to move them all back in. None of their leaves were damaged. They’re normally the first ones to show any cold temperature damage out of all my trees. We are not in the clear yet with possible frost on a couple nights next week. Just about everything has budded out. I even noticed green buds on my jujube. Those didn’t start leafing out until May last year.
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I did a quick check of things, it looks like maybe the strawbs that were covered might have made it, I don’t see the ‘black eye’ characteristic of frozen blooms. But, it’s still too early to tell, others that weren’t covered already look like they got zapped.
My pear blooms look dark, whether if that was from not getting pollinated or freeze damage, I can’t say for sure, but it looks like we might not get many pears this year.
The apple blossoms down the hill look mostly okay, but it does look like some are darkened a bit. Some blooms aren’t fully open so they might be alright.
The apples up the hill are in about the same condition, there are quite a few fully open blooms, some look a bit crinkly, but not blackened. Others aren’t fully open, so they might be mostly okay. The old apple tree on the fence line is blooming and those look alright also.
The peaches look kinda the same as yesterday, some are shriveling up, but were doing that then. I assume not all flowers get pollinated and will wither anyways. Most were almost at shuck split (I might be using the wrong term), so we’ll see in a few days if they were damaged.
@BlueBerry, you’re closer to me by location than most, any comments on my report?
It’s sunny and 60 already, and I’ve seen a few bees out, but hope they visit my apples.
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One location just notice a couple flowers a little wilty looking…I think we had a bit of breeze that kept frost away, and temp around 31 to 33. (I don’t have a ‘recording device’ like you, and it was 8 a.m. when I got up…so not certain of the low.)
Will go to the location of my mature apple trees tomorrow probably, and see if I can spot any damage (and see if I got fruit set on Redfield).
But, I typically have a more frost free area than half mile away in the valley, or where my mom lives two miles away. I’ve actually recorded 47 when the radio station said 28. (That was around 6:30 one morning in 1995 I think.)
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Thanks, we’re on a hill side too, but it was still pretty cold.
Based on my findings, what would you say my outlook is for my apples, pears, peaches, and strawberries?
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By tomorrow afternoon, you’ll know if the strawberries have “brown eyes” (black takes an extra 2 or 3 days to happen). But you won’t lose the whole crop.
Apples, any not in full open bloom will be fine, and some of them even will make it probably.
Peaches, plums, apricots, not so much.
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High of 70F today. High of 33F tomorrow with snow, then lows of 16F and 18F. Only open blooms are wind blasted nanking cherries but peaches, apricots, pears (especially asian) and apples are very close.
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You’re a braver man than I. I read one study here in CA that suggested planting tomatoes in March as opposed to April meant a much larger bounty planting later, due to the cold ground stunting the tomatoes.
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my plum’s branches are at least 4ft off the ground, same with the cherry tree. so, they might have done better. i have a couple tart cherry bushes blooming, plum is at petal fall. i haven’t checked any of those yet.
i’d hate to think all my peaches got zapped. since they naturally overset anyway, maybe i could still get a few fruit. the two trees down the hill are Contender and Blushingstar, so i’m hoping their supposed hardiness will win out.
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Calron, I don’t know that bravery has anything to do with it.
But, if you had no refrigeration, and never bought any tomatoes from the supermarket (or your parents didnt’)….then all the tomatoes you had from Halloween to July 4th were from a mason jar. So, you got an early start on some fresh things from the garden. Some years you won, some years the weather would win.
But, when I stated that I planted tomatoes in the first half of April…what I didnt’ say was I grew those same plants from seed in a cloth covered bed outdoors in Feb or March to get them big enough to plant 3 feet apart in rows in April.
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How cold did you get?
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After an inspection today, apples look mostly okay, pears don’t look that great, but may be because they didn’t get pollinated. Either way, may not be getting pears this year.
Strawbs that were covered look okay, but will know for sure tomorrow. Even if they got fried, they should still produce new blooms into May.
Peaches look the same as yesterday, considering they’re almost at shuck split stage. From what I’ve read, you get 10% kill around 27.5, and 90% kill around 25. So, we were right at the bad threshold. Consdering apples and peaches typically need about 15-20% bloom survival for a full crop, I may be okay.
I really wasn’t expecting it to get that cold, the forecast for days was about 33, even yesterday’s. So, when it reached that temp at about 10pm, I started getting worried, because it was clear, and no wind. It dropped fast after the sun went down but looked like it was stabilizing at 2am, at about 27.5. I knew with 4 more hours of darkness, it could be rough. Honestly I expected it drop more than it did. Hope this will be the last hard freeze we get.
It turned out to be a very nice day, it reached 73 and was mostly sunny with no wind. Thankfully the bees were out, so hope they did their work today.
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I had the opposite happen in a sense. We lucked out.
Low of 32 was about what was forecast, but I thought it was going to get a lot colder.
It was already 34 at 11:30 pm with a dewpoint of 24. However, temps started rising well before sunrise. There was a breeze and a few clouds that moved in that kept temps up a bit.
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we will have low of 26, 26 and 23for 3 days next week. I heard that turning on the sprinkler to cover flower bud with ice may help. Anyone tried this? in zone 5, not bloom yet. Thanks
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