Insulating ground around tree in spring to prolong dormancy?

General Fruit Growing
1

Like many areas of the country, we’re experiencing pretty warm weather in my 5b area, and I’m concerned about my fruit trees waking up too early, and then getting their blooms/fruits froze in a late freeze, which is common in mid-April here. I’m curious if anyone has ever tried insulating the ground around their trees, to prevent the sun from warming up the ground as fast? We’re talking relatively small trees here - 8 feet in diameter and height, or so. I’m considering a couple options:

First option would be wooden pallets which would mostly shade the ground from the sun, but still allow air circulation.

But the second option, I also have many 4 foot square sheets of 4-6 inch thick white beadboard styrofoam. I don’t love the idea of risking beads getting scattered all over if some animal took an interest for some reason, but they are white and very thick, and so would reflect light, but also actually insulate the ground, hopefully delaying heat getting in. I realize that they would also at some point tip to keeping heat in, as the deeper earth heat works upward. But with the number of high-60 to low-70s days predicted, I’m thinking that at least for the near future the keeping heat out would outweigh the deep earth heat.

I doubt either option will provide a month and a half of delay, but if temperatures dropped back down at some point, just maybe it might bridge this warm period? My main two trees of concern are a nectarine, and an apricot. Neither of which I’ve ever seen fruit from in the three years they’ve bloomed, due to late spring freezes. But I’m considering maybe attempting to try this tactic in more normal years, even if it doesn’t work this year.

My other concern is, will the sun warming the branches cause the tree to wake up anyway (sun-scald issues aside, which we’ll almost certainly have if the weather does cool down again, I’d imagine).

I couldn’t find any discussion on this, so I’m wondering if it’s just a crazy idea…

2

never heard of it but it cant hurt to try. unfortunitly its more the sun heating the tree that takes it out of dormancy long before the soil warms. have you tried painting your lower trunk with diluted white latex paint. here it helps protect from the sun reflecting off the snow in april and causing splitting of the bark. might work to keep your trees cooler. not the prettiest but its a option. could paint the whole tree if you wanted to.

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Simple mulching is said to keep the ground cooler. Some commercial fruit trees growers use white plastic to color their fruit with reflected light but you could use the same (or mylar) to keep the soil cool.

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4

Possible I’d say…practical, no.

But if you have a few bags of ice or a big snow drift…scattering some daily around your tree you want to keep dormant would be worth a try!

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Get some of those cheap tents (like the fruit stands use with 4 sides). They are like $100 and 10x10x10. That would help with the sun heating and keeping frost off.

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Tried that, it makes it even warmer inside and tree wakes up even earlier.

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Supposedly in greenhouse fruit production in China, they will force fruiting by rolling burlap over their greenhouses at night to trap heat inside, allowing trees to absorb heat and light by daytime. To extend dormancy, they will do the opposite: roll the burlap up at night, allowing cold air, and then rolling it back down to cover the trees in the day, trapping cold inside. You could try to replicate this.