Last night 19 degrees?

When you get temps that cold that soon in the fall, guess what, your fruit buds that has already formed could get hurt for next year fruiting cycle.
Members were wondering why some of their tree’s weren’t producing, remember last November, same thing happened.

3 Likes

You are right! I was in my orchard a day ago and looking at all of the new peach buds forming on my peach trees. Well, same thing happened last fall and winter. This spring only half of the blossoms bloomed as the others were already dead. I think I live in the wrong area to grow my favorite fruits. :cry:

This happened to my potted figs last year in that the branches experienced severe tip burn and or bud damage. It went from no days with freezing temps to 25 degrees. The figs are usually good to temps in the teens or lower before I bring them inside. I hope the cold front we’re experiencing right now doesn’t damage my trees.

France calling??

Thanks for making this posts. We didn’t have that hard of a freeze last night but it was enough to drop all the leaves on my fig trees. Definitely need to pick up the speed in planning and constructing my insulated low tunnel for them.

Waiting for the house to sell, nibbles coming in, hopefully offers next week!

1 Like

4f here this am. coldest yet!

Hold out for more than listing price!!:grinning:

A couple days ago some of my less-hardy blueberry bushes had lush, green leaves yet, while other varieties had dropped theirs already. It has already dropped to 7 degrees here, the same expected for tonight. I am guessing there might not be blueberries again on those less-hardy varieties come next summer.

Will try. Will send you the listing! There is the lot with the house on it and a second lot. :grin:

Is it because it is too soon for the trees to be dormant, or because the temp drops so quickly? I am just beginning to try to understand all that goes into fruit trees, so would love to know .

Trees in warm temperatures (and warm soil) are still pumping water which easily freezes and damages cells. Trees survive winter by drying out which concentrates sugars and other things into antifreeze.

We are having the coldest Thanksgiving I remember, it is 7F now. The worst thing my young apricot and sweet cherries didn’t even got fully dormant yet. I spent yesterday covering everything up - not sure though how much it will help. Cherries are on trellis and I was able to place a pipe heating cable under the tarp, but I have nothing for apricot, so I warped it in burlap, then in reflecting insulation and put a large bag on to hold it down. Not sure how much help it is…

2 Likes

Did you wrapped your Asian persimmon this year?

More than that… I wrapped it in burlap, then placed a ceramic heating lamp and a fan near it(controller operated), made enclosure of reflective insulation around all this using bamboo frame, then made a second outer enclosure about a foot wider than first one using the permanent gazebo frame I have there… I did all this about 2-3 weeks ago as soon as temperature started to get bellow freezing mark. Checked this morning - controller set on 0C (32 F), this morning it was -1.7C. I am not sure if it means that lamp is not enough to keep it at 0C when it is -14C outside or it is the delta playing role… In any case, if it can’t hold at least -5C - it is not a tree for me, so will see…

3 Likes

You did a great job of Winter protection! Good luck this year.

So I thought last year - lost whole tree but three lowest buds :grin:. But it grew right back, so I decided to give it one more chance.

I’ve given up on growing marginally hardy fruit here. now i make sure any thing i plant is 1 zone hardier than mine. frustrating when you have a tree grow great for 5 years, then killed to snowline in 1 bad winter.-14f windchill right now.

1 Like

Galina,
I got up at 6 am. It was 10 F. By 7 am, it’s 9F, the lowest temp. Usually, our lowest temp is at around 5-6 am.

I threw mulch and a tarp over my Chicago Hardy a few days ago. Then, we got busy with having to host Thanksgiving and picking up the kid from college, etc.

I think I can practically kiss my Nikita’s Gift good bye, i am tired of wrapping every year to see all fruit drops. If it dies, it dies. No time to wrap it this year.

3 Likes

Our first freeze was 17F. Leaves are froze on the trees. They weren’t ready to drop yet. Won’t know until spring if it damaged anything. The outdoor figs are already in bad shape. No hope for them.