Freeze tonight

[subdood_ky_z6b]

Sorry to hear about you guys’ bad luck. Sounds odd that you had heavy losses at temps in the high 20s. We had temps around 26 Friday night, and we had minor losses with our peaches and apples. But 21-23 this morning was too much for the peaches. But, I am hopeful we still might get some apples, as some of their blooms were not open yet.

It’s supposed to be 29 again tonight, but I’m not going to cover my strawberries again, and it’s supposed to be windy, so I’m like, why bother?

Like Kevin said, here we were are in the middle of April feeling pretty good about our chances of getting a good crop of fruit, but after three cold nights like this, it’s a kick in the gut. Saturday is our average last freeze day, and we get three of them within a week of that. And the one we had last night was like a one in ten probability. Crazy.

Hope we get a big berry crop this year, and that my luck growing veggies this year turns out better.

[Poncho65]

This page Cold Temperature dates tell me we still can get rather cold weather here where I live up until mid May… We have had colder weather until then in years past but it hopefully isn’t likely this year.

[gregkdc]

I only have a few trees but was pretty sad to see that my nectarines and peaches were wiped out. Temps were forecast to be 24, my thermometer said 19 and the car thermometer when I went to work said 25. Needless to say I can’t find any live buds. It looks like i should still get pluots and plums as they weren’t as far a long as the peaches. This happens about every third year and I am considering making a cheap cattle panel hoop house next year so i don’t have to worry any more. If only for a few trees at least I would get something.

[Olpea]

I’m sorry to hear of all this fruit loss in the Midwest/South. Kevin, I’m really surprised at the loss at 31F. I do hope it’s not quite as bad as it looks. This reminds me a little of the 2007 Easter freeze, although the freeze during Easter of that year was much colder and more widespread.

[SpokanePeach]

Strange that nectarines froze while same sized peaches did not.

Apparently tiny fur coats do keep you a little warmer!

[BG1977]

I’m really sorry to hear this.

[Bede]

I hope this isn’t out of line but I’m really curious what the bulk of your expenses are? I’m very much clueless as to what goes into a commercial operation. Do you have employees?

[PharmerDrewee]

Sorry to hear all you guys are getting frozen out. This really hurts because most of our tree fruits only have 1 shot of yielding per year so we have to wait until next year for another chance. I might get frozen out tomorrow night. The low is forecasted at 30. I’m not working the next day so I’m tempted to go into by backyard in the wee hours of the morning to spray down my trees with water. Maybe that would help prevent freeze damage. Everything has flowered here except pawpaws (1 week away), persimmons (flower buds showing), and jujubes. However, they’ve all budded out and might still be damaged.

[thecityman]

Andrew- thanks. Just so you know, I 'm 90% sure I lost all my persimmons as well. Mine, like yours, had not bloomed yet. However, all my trees had already sent out about 6 inches of new growth, and on that 6-10 inches of new growth were all the very tiny, premature flower buds that would have turned into flowers in a few weeks. Well, all the new growth (that 6-10 inches I mentioned) was froze and killed- its just limp, black mass now all over all my persimmon trees.

Now, having never had this experience, I’m not sure what will happen now. Since the new persimmon flowers grow on new tree growth, and since I’m pretty sure my persimmons will at least put out new growth, its possible that the new growth will also have flowers on it which will then bloom and produce. But I’m doubtful. I bet the new growth on my persimmons will only be leaves and limb tips. I tell you all this so you’ll know your persimmons may still get damaged even though they haven’t bloomed.

I’d be interested in hearing from others what is likely to happen now with my persimmons. Again, persimmons don’t act like other fruit trees- in other words, they don’t have separate buds for flowers and vegetative growth. The flowers come off the new vegetative growth. NOw that it has been killed, Im pretty sure the trees will send out new veg growth. But I’m interested in hearing whether the new growth will also have premature flowers on it, or be only leaves and limb tips?

By the way Andrew, the Asian pear tree you gave me- name slips my mind at this moment but I have it- actually produced one bunch of flowers this year. I desperately hope they got fertilized and survived the frost!!! Has yours bloomed yet>

[RichardRoundTree]

Sorry to hear, extra hard this year also. Usually new growth emerges from dormant buds but sometimes you lose a site you wanted.

[BobC]

23 was the low so far. We’re around 27 this morning. Once again another tough night.

[Poncho65]

I came home to a better site than I had expected. We did have some damage but for the most part things are looking good. My Orchard is on a bit of a crown. Each side dips down and I think that the cold settles down on either side of it. I did actually take that into account when choosing that particular spot. Everything elsewhere is also on a small slope. I had some freeze burnt leaves in spots and I am sure I lost some peaches and pears ( I guys nature helped me thin them…) I will be happy with a small crop because it is better than getting nothing. I feel so bad for all the ones that have had total losses or evn partial losses. It is just awful to think about all the work one puts into these trees and then to lose a years crop, just awful. For those that receive an income from these it is even worse and I hope you all have some other fruit or some other source of good income to help make up for this loss

Also it is 35 this morning as I leave, so much better! It is showing a warming trend from here on out, so I really hope that the weather fairs up and stays that way!

[Nfg831_Z6b]

Planted several young persimmons and 3 seedless Che several weeks ago. Looks like the freeze last week killed them. Nikitas gift, saijo were pretty young and hit hard. Some green under the bark above the graft but not much. They were fully leafed out when planted because they came out of a greenhouse. Ruby was partially leafed out but may push out new buds. Tecumsah, Gwang yang, prairie sun, Yates, tam kam, had swelled buds, but not opened so I’m hopeful. About 15 persimmons total were planted and may be lost. 32 degrees last night and forecasted 32 Saturday night.

[PharmerDrewee]

@thecityman That sounds pretty disappointing and abysmal looking at your trees and seeing that much damage. I sure hope your trees recover. This warm spring is fooling all our trees! I normally don’t expect my persimmons to be so advanced. They don’t leaf out until later in April or even May depending on the year.

That Asian pear (called Jilin) had a few flower clusters for me too. I really wanted a taste so I went through the effort of hand pollinating what few flowers there were. Mine are at petal fall.

[BG1977]

Tonight might be dicey, but it looks like here in the mid Atlantic we should escape most issues. Saturday night was too breezy and cloudy, and last night was too cloudy as well.

It’s clear now, and tonight we are under a freeze watch. It looks now like we should bottom out right around 30-32. If that’s as cold as it gets, damage should be minimal to manageable.

My yard isn’t particularly cold (cold air drains to the lowest point a couple houses down), and clouds are forecast to move in after midnight. Fingers crossed.

I feel horrible for what you guys in the middle of the country are dealing with.

[tonyOmahaz5]

I had persimmon trees died back of late frost in the past and no fruits for that season. The tree will recover with new growth though.

[Lucky_P]

this is bad, but I’m hopeful that it’s nothing approaching the Easter Big Freeze Disaster of 2007 here…
Exceedingly warm Feb/march, with a number of days up into the 80s…
then 4 consecutive nights with temps into the mid to low teens. Every green shoot, flower or fruitlet was killed. 10 yr old heartnut seedlings were killed outright, all kaki persimmons were killed, Carpathian walnuts killed back to BW rootstock…even big mature oaks and hickories in my woods had branches killed back to the main trunk.
Following The EBFD, we had a prolonged drought, with a single 1" rain event between May 15 and Nov 30, which served as a death knell for a whole lot of things, including many of those big mature hardwood trees in the forest.
This may be a year for hard regenerative pruning on the blueberries, as it looks like there probably won’t be any berries…

[Olpea]

I hope this isn’t out of line but I’m really curious what the bulk of your expenses are? I’m very much clueless as to what goes into a commercial operation. Do you have employees?

A big part of the expenses is employee labor. I just have one employee during the off season, but those expenses rack up costs week after week.

Some, but certainly not all of the expenses on a yearly basis are as follows:

Chemicals last year $3900
Last year I spent $1600 on trees and plants
Spent $1500 last fall on injector pump repair for tractor
This spring spent $1100 on boxes
This spring spent $1500 to get another battery operated pruner
Spent $3K on another shipping container last fall for more storage (of boxes and various supplies.
Spent $1600 last year on gravel to keep the front lot graveled. Generally we spent about $1K per year just to keep the front lot graveled.
Spent $3600 last year for heavy equipment expense to set poles for deer fence and partly to build road through property.

Then there are a host of smaller expenses which really add up. Fuel, filters, fertilizer, various supplies.

I’m trying to keep my main employee on through the summer, but I’ve told him we will have to reduce his hours. But I can’t really afford him. I’ll be working all year for nothing.

[AndySmith]

Low of 23F @ about 6am, and a fresh blanket of snow keeping things dormant here :

[maineorchard]

Regarding blueberries…I’m doing hard regenerative pruning this season. This winter wasn’t bad but winter of 2018-2019 was very hard on them. I should have done more pruning last spring but ran out of time.