Not sure I want Maine temps but I would definitely trade high spring like temps in January/February for consistent temps through March. In Virginia having 60 to 70 degree weather in January wreaks havoc on the trees. Bloom is happening 3 to 4 weeks early … I seemed to have dodged the bullet this year but in years past I have lost everything in April.
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I don’t suppose you’re big enough for specialty crop insurance? The heat sink of the lakes can cut the other way, keeping temps cooler in May/early June than they would have been otherwise–but that’s a small price to pay for frost protection. Here in the Finger Lakes your proximity to the lake makes all the difference (much smaller isotherms than the Great Lakes). On the night of 4/11-4/12 my one growing site had 28F, while my other site saw 31.7F, and home (between the two) saw 32.5F. Site 1 is 7km from the lake, site 2 is 0.5km, and home is 0.25km.
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Thank you for your advice. It is greatly appreciated.
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This makes me so sad to hear. It’s hard to do anything about mother nature when trying to make a living. I hope you’ll be able to compensate for your losses from your other crops.
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I did an inspection of my peach fruitlets per @Olpea, since it’s been 3 days since our freeze event.
On the two trees (Contender and Blushingstar) down the hill, I checked three fruitlets from each tree. Of those six, five appear to be green on the inside, so that’s encouraging.
Up the hill, I did the same with my Redhaven and Coralstar. The CS had 2 out of 3 green, the Redhaven 2 out of 3 brown. The RH is the runtiest of my trees, hence its fruit is lower to the ground, so maybe that contributed to the poorer results?
I’ve read that of these four varieties, that Redhaven is less hardy than the others, but that may not matter at this point as Mark has said.
Perhaps the fact they were in shuck split gave them a bit more resistance to the cold? Of course, we’ll see how they progress in a few weeks. Plus, we have 29 forecast for tonight, so we are not out of the woods.
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14f yesterday would have been awesome had it happened last week.
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Here are some fruit buds from today…
Contender Peach:
Red Haven Peach:
Cortland Apple:
Bartlett Pear:
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Right now at 10:30 pm, it is right at 31. We are forecast for 29, but at the rate the temps have been dropping since sunset (it was about 40), it’s gonna have to hit the brakes pretty soon.
I covered the strawberries again, since it seemed to work last Friday night. The only difference between tonight and then is that it’s a bit cloudy, or maybe it’s fog, and there’s a very light breeze.
I got more apple blossoms open now, so they’re more vulnerable than they were last week. I also have fruit buds forming on my floricanes on some of my blackberries (Freedom and Traveler). So we’ll see what happens, it’s kind of a helpless feeling right now.
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currently 33 degrees outside for me here in SE Mi.
My buds aren’t nearly as far along as most of you (due to my proximity to Lake St Clair). @Drew51 's buds are likely further along than mine…
Scott
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Yeah tough couple of days. I brought young figs in. No flowers yet on stone fruit, any second though!
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I’ve been to overwhelmed to move the figs back in. They are just going to have to deal with it (they are all still dormant or nearly so).
I’ve got small buds greening up on prunus (cherry and plum) but nothing even close to showing white (or pink).
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Temp is 28 here now and the frost outside is hard. Not good.
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When I left home about 4 this morning there was a frost and the temp was around 30. Guess we will check the damage this evening and see what is left 
Suppose to drop another degrees or so before daybreak…
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Early bird! I’m going back to bed.
Anyhow, it’s anywhere from 24 to 32 in my part of Kentucky currently. 31 it appears without actually being there and reading a thermometer at my little orchard. 30 at Somerset airport (same as Louisville on other side of state).
But I see a reading as low as 24 in Berea area. Mostly 29 is the consensus.
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33 F here this am, a few inches of fresh, wet snow - but aside from a very few apricots on some neighborhood trees showing a couple of popcorns we still haven’t seen things popping. I think we can expect to get a low in of about 21 tonight, and then we see a warming trend - we do hope.
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I have had to get up at that time for over 20 years now. If I don’t get up and leave by then, then I am late for work 
So hoping that the blooms and fruit that have set are ok… maybe the higher ones won’t have as much frost damage 
at least that is the hope…
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It’s 16 degrees. Wonder if the honey berries will be ok. Sour cherries were at side green
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We used to have it, but there is a number of issues with it, so we dropped it. It doesn’t pay very much at all, but the worst thing is that it’s not set up for direct marketers.
They want you to certify weigh each transaction and have each customer sign the weight for verification. There was one grower in my area who had been paying insurance premiums for years for specialty crop insurance, then when he had a loss due to frost, the FSA wouldn’t pay because he didn’t have the past documentation. He tried pretty hard to get a remedy, writing his congressman, etc. I don’t know that he ever received money for the claim.
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Those are safe from freeze!
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Woke up to a 21 degrees this morning at 5am. Cold!!
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