Anyone in 6a/b or Massachusetts get any peach/nectarine flowers? Curious if this mold winter hurt me… didn’t think it would but literally nothing and just leaves emerging…THANKS IN ADVANCE!
It was not just a mild winter. It was mild Dec, Jan and Feb. In that stretch, there was a night or two of -7 or -8 F. Our Mild winter may have contributed to peach, apricot, nectarine, J plums, pluot flowers not being able to sleep (full dormancy).
That made them more vulnerable when subzero temperature hit. These buds are also not as cold hardy as apple or pear buds to begin with… Double whammy indeed.
Of all the stone fruit, only my E plum and cherry flower buds have survived.and bloom. Also, when there is yo-yo temp, you are not sure if the blooms will set any fruit. Flowers can bloom while ovules were dead/killed resulting in no fruit set.
After several years of growing stone fruit in our zone, you will realize that it’s a risky business.
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Yeah, I forgot about that 2 day stretch of crazy cold temps… my shiro, green gauge, cherries, and one of my pluot varieties have flowers. It’s just my peaches and nects.
With Boston in your profile, I tend to think you are more 6b than 6a. I am a solid 6a (formerly 5b) in the Worcester Hills.
Nope. I’m on an island of 6a. Everything is later on my land compared to neighbors… super weird but the climate map confirms it. I’m in a suburb of boston…
Last year we had a super mild year in 5b CO. No snow until December and no snow after March until late May when our frost dates should have normally been over we had a freeze or 2 depending on elevation. Our trees lived but branches got broken on the late frost as they have been out of dormancy for 3 months and our flowers ended up getting zapped.
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No flowers on Contender peach, mystery mis-labeled peach, or Tomcot apricot down on Cape Cod. Buds just stayed brown and then fell off.
It was incredibly mild all winter. I don’t recall any late cold snaps. There might be a few flowers on a few 3rd leaf euro plums (just waking up). Pears, apples, and bush cherries seem to be okay.
Edit: we had 1 night of sub-zero temps on Feb 4. That might have done it.
That was about the same time that stone fruit (mostly peaches, nectarines, apricots, and Japanese plums in New England got bud killed.
My J plum flower buds were 99.9% killed. My Euro plums have survived. J plums usually wake up 1-2 weeks before E plums. They may have almost ready to wake up by our mild winter. With that subzero for one night, they were doomed. I recalled the time temp got that low lasted quite a few hours. The longer freezing temperture stays low, the more damage it causes.
I’m borderline 6B/7A Rhode Island, a free miles from MA. Temps got to -7 F briefly here this year, so it was a Z6B winter in that respect My peaches are blooming now. Third week of April is pretty typical timing.
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Nice! I’m hoping for a resurgence next year but saddened to see no production on my trees this year. Ah well…
-7F is a zone 6a.6 or a 6b-.4
@poncirusguy – I’m not sure what you mean. The zones are classifications by the USDA based on estimated average winter lows. The average low here used to be solidly Z6B (0 to -5 F) but has been trending towards Z7A (0 to +5 F).
Of course, an average is just an average. There are deviations. In recent years, there have been deviations to the warm side. One recent winter had a low here around +15 F, another around +10 F. This winter had a deviation on the cold side – a single night around -7 F.
Given these deviations, it’s impossible to know for sure what the true average is. Especially where global warming g makes the average a moving target. But all the data seem consistent with a view that this area was Z6B but might be moving into Z7A.
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