I know Topeka said 27 degrees for the low a couple of nights ago. I am hoping that was accurate or that we were a little better off as we have most of our permanent fruit trees on a hill where it could have been warmer.
Your close by , your pome fruit trees should be fine. As cold as it was last winter the reliance peaches still bloomed heavy. They are very resilient in this area. I’m not sure if the peaches will have some fruit or not. It’s all about location, wind and so on. At the hill top of my property peaches have blossoms at the bottom some peaches never blossomed.
So i did an experiment this winter and wrapped a small peach tree. It almost killed it. The unwrapped one looks fine (no fruit of course, but its all leafed out). I just leave things now. Don’t care anymore
Yep, I think that is the way to go. I protected some super small hybrid persimmon trees with straw for just a couple days. Not sure what it all helped or if it helped anything. I did notice Gora Goverla is waking up from -17 and a long winters nap, so the straw didn’t hurt it atleast.
I’ve tried to cover stuff in the past for frost protection. Many times i’ve come to find out the blankets/frost cloth has blown away or i just can’t really prove it did anything. Maybe with a heat source and proper coverings it would be enough. The past freezes this week i did nothing other then water the trees.
I’ve grown to expect that type of weather as it’s becoming the new normal. 2022 spring I’m assuming will be similar. I’m going back over everything we documented about this trying to learn the new trends and the best ways to deal with those trends.
Winter is starting very late this year
The droughts and floods can be the worst here not the cold. This thread is a must read if we plan to raise long term orchards in Kansas. Floods like the one in 1993 can be devastating! 1951 flood was worse Great Flood of 1951 - Wikipedia
