It was 30 F here in southern Indiana. Our 3 Red Havens are at a 6 days past petal fall. Sweet Cherries are near petal fall. The one Sour Cherry is in full bloom with many yet to open. Tonight forecast to get to 28 F. The tables say 10% lose at 28 F, but I trust Olpea’s thought, it could be very bad
Will tarping help at all?
Well, we’re screwed. It was 28 (up hill), and 26 (downhill) when I went to bed around midnight. I figured with clear skies and little wind, it’d drop at least 5 more degrees. Well, I got up right before daybreak for a bathroom visit, and it was 23 up here and 21 down by the barn. So, anything that survived Friday night most likely got fried. I haven’t been out yet, but I’m pretty sure it won’t look good.
The forecast was 29, but once again, it was off by 7-9 degrees. Tonight’s supposed to be 31, so that’ll probably be another hard freeze.
Guess we won’t get any tree fruit this year, just maybe berries, the strawberries were covered so they might be better off. The blacks are setting some buds, as are the rasps. I noticed some droopy leaves on some of the blackberry canes, tho.
Pretty disappointing, I knew it was too good to be true, but when things bloom 2 or 3 weeks early, this is not unexpected. I’ve been here 6 years, and other than last year, we never seem to have a normal late winter/early spring warmup. Plus, losing two apple trees makes it a more bitter pill to swallow. Hope our veggies do better this year…
Sorry for all your trials, subdood_ky_z6b
That’s cold enough to wipe out most things except some apples probably. And certainly the ones in bloom are 100% killed at 21. I’ll check my grafts afterwhile, but my apples that already had petal fall are probably fine at around 30 degrees.
Checked…apple grafts with lots of new growth appear not hurt.
But tender pawpaw leaves are damaged.
I didn’t think to check the actual temperature before heading outside this morning. On top of that it was already 8 by the time I made it out. We had frost on the ground and my hose was somewhat frozen. It will be interesting to see what, if any, damage to our fruit was sustained.
It’s in the mid 40s, and sunny now. Just got back in, took the tarps off the strawbs, didn’t really look at them, too early to tell.
The apple blossoms that were in first or full bloom look like they are toast. But, those that are at first pink may be okay. My early bloomers like Alkmene, Zestar, and Roxbury Russet look worse off than those who are still not in full bloom, like Grimes Golden, Novaspy, Winesap, Suncrisp, and King David. So, we might still get a small crop of apples.
My Goldrush and Honeycrisp aren’t blooming this year, but have barely woken up, so maybe they would be okay in other local orchards, like Reed Valley or Fuhrmann’s. I imagine their peach crops were done in as well.
Peaches, though, look like they’re done, I didn’t take a lot of samples, but the ones I did were kinda brown inside.
One of my tart cherries (Juliet) look like they might be okay, they look like they’ve set fruit, and they look alright to me. Brambles with fruit buds look okay.
WeatherChannel app said 28 @ 6 am today.
oaks, pecans, hickories, butternut/heartnuts, mulberries here at the house have blackening, wilted leaves and catkins/fruitlets.
Blueberry blossom petals are mushy, some apples/pears may still be ok… only time will tell, but some fruitlets are already discolored & shriveling, like the frost a night or two back already damaged them.
Another potential freeze tonight… other than a second wave of mulberries, after releaf, this may be a near-total fruit/nut crop loss
It’s my veggies have me worried, the ones in the ground - at least the brassicas. But I can plant more. It’s not like a tree.
Down to 23 this morning so it’s going to be a interesting year.
https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/oh/new-concord/KOHNEWCO12
My wife planted a seedbed of lettuce, radishes and onions last week. I covered them Friday night, but forgot to last night. I checked them out today, and they actually look alright, though looks may be deceiving.
We got 31 forecast tonight, so it’ll prob be 25 based on their previous predictions.
Sorry to hear it @subdood_ky_z6b 
Gonna go home this evening and check to see what damage is done at my house as well…
All this cold weather right now sure does suck for fruit and veggie growers 
The only insurances i see regularly work and pay out are life insurance and the one that should be the most insolvent car insurance seems to be fair most the time. Crop insurance is famous for not paying out.
Thanks. Good thing we have the berries, or we might not get any fruit this year. We may still get a few apples, though.
We ought to have a better veggie season, provided we don’t get too much rain (which we usually do in the spring and summer).
I have often found, when I thought all the fruit on a tree was wiped out, that a few late buds will open and bear.
Lettuce, radish and onions are all quite hardy, wouldn’t be surprised if yours pull thru.
Man, it’s hard to believe the temps are SO cold back East. We are having our warmest day of the year.
This is, once again, a prime illustration of how, for us orchardists/gardeners, it’s often not a concern of HOW cold it gets, but WHEN it gets cold.
So, last night i worried myself to sleep about the cold. I woke up at 4 am and the temp was 31, so I felt great about and went to sleep. Woke up again at about 7:30 and it was 34, so I felt great about it all and was so dumb I didn’t even go check my stuff. Then about lunch time I get a text from my nearest Growing Fruit . org friend, @zazlev saying it looked like he lost most of his stone fruit. I literally ran to my orchard and couldn’t believe it…all my smooth skin stone fruit is lost!!! I just don’t get it. I’d never had a freeze when my fruit was this size (most of my stone fruit is the size of pinky nail or 1/2 size of a dime. past shuck split. I thought it would surely take 30 degree temps which is what the weather service says we got to. Apparently baby fruit are just incredibly tender.
Zack and I agreed…the absolute most painful part of all this is that this was almost certainly the last chance of a freeze this year, and since it didn’t dip below 32 until about 4 am and was back by 7 am, we are talking about roughly a 3 hour time period, last one of the year, and that did us in!!! It hurts so bad because I had SOOOO many fruits that I was going to get to try for the first time. I man a LOT…like 6 plums I’d never tried, 4 pluots I’d never tried, and 4-5 various other things that had fruit for the first time and now is a loss. I hate it even worse for zack because he was going get a lot of fruit for the first time ever as well, and his trees are newer and he really hasn’t had much fruit at all of any kind before this year. But here we are- lots of fruit on our trees, heading for a perfect year, and BOOM! ITS G O N E !!! Stone fruit is soooo hard in my area but I love it so much! Oh well.
I do, of course, have to keep things in perspective. THis was all just for fun and personal enjoyment for me. Some of you, and of course @Olpea comes to mind, spend a LOT more money and depend on fruit revenue to make it a viable business. SO in no way is my loss comparable to those who do this for income. BUT IT SURE DOES STILL HURT!!!
Also, I need to say that I think most of my peaches are ok, and about 1/2 of my Spring Satin Pluots made it. Strange that nectarines froze while same sized peaches did not. And Spring Satin has fine hairs like peach, so I wonder if those hairs help in some way.
Anyway, enough crying. This is the hobby I have chosen. If it were easy everyone would do it and it wouldn’t be so amazing when I have success. Life certainly goes on- in the real world this isn’t a big deal…just frustrating. Thanks for letting me vent. Sorry for everyone else who got hit!
Sorry to hear it @thecityman and @zazlev
I think I lost some fruit but for the most part I think I cane through this better that I thought I would… I do have some burnt leaves on a few things that I set out this weekend (some seedling chestnuts) and a few things here and there, plus some more set backs on a few grapes but I am better off than Ibwould have been for sure. It is suppose to get cold again tonight but nowhere near as cold as last night (hopefully)…
@thecityman and @zazlev,
Sorry to hear about fruit loss. I sure can feel you pain. Hope you will find more fruit that survive this freeze in the coming days.
Kevin - I wonder how cold it really was in your area. It could be colder than the forecast stated. That could be why the damage has been more than you expected.
Absolutely gutted. I think my wife registered a 28 as the low.
I pushed like but only for support not because I like what happened
