I’m in Dallas where we’re getting record lows in the next few days (possibly -2F or so). I’m worried because I just planted 20 raspberry bareroot plants in the ground as well as 8 bareroot apple trees and 4 bareroot pears in a raised planter (12ft x 2ft) which is more susceptible to freezing…
All these plants are hardy to temperatures even colder than what we’re getting, but do I need to worry since they’re so recently planted? A few raspberry plants had started growing leaves - will those just die off without affecting the overall life of the plants?
Long as the trees haven’t broken dormancy and the buds growing…they’ll be fine.
I can’t address the raspberries…but I’d cover with pine straw or something if I could.
I’m in Plano. Also planted a number of bareroot stonefruit and raspberry canes. We banked bagged compost/landscaper mix above the graft on all trees at most risk (persimmons, citrus, etc) and covered what we could. Watered well 2 days before freeze. Anything potted was moved to wind protected area/wall of house.
I planted around 20 blackberry bushes myself about a month ago. We are expecting the same weather. They should be fine though the new leaves will probably freeze. My older ones are still dormant. I also have a couple dozen new fruit trees planted. They are all in the ground so I am not too worried about them. Though I did lose a big limb out of one of my older plum trees today due to the ice. All my trees are covered by at least 1/2” of ice. There are several trees in the pasture that have limbs broken right now
I watered them in when I planted, but should I water them again now? It’s currently freezing out (25) and just going to get colder, so I assume it’s not a good idea to water them now.
I am throwing whatever I have to mound up around the plants: mulch, compost, potting soil…and throwing a blanket over that.
Here’s hoping that most of what I have is truly dormant…I think 80% of everything is. That really guarantees they’ll be alright around 0F?
I am in the same boat, in Decatur, TX. I recently planted a bunch of plums, persimmon, and some apples. Apples and pears should not be a concern. Most of these can easily withstand -20F. I used to live in NE and my fall bare root plantings there were fine with -25F weather. I don’t see why raspberries would be much different, but I don’t have experience with them. One thing to note, with the snow we are about to get, do not remove it. The snow will insulate the ground and roots, so let it stay piled on top of your trees and berries.
Right now all my trees are covered in ice though that is good because it actually helps insulate them. It will not get above freezing at my place until Friday. We are expecting snow tomorrow so that should help as well. The only problem I have had was I lost a big limb out of one of my plum trees due to the weight of the ice.
Thanks again for everyone’s advice - I wanted to provide a happy update! All 8 of my apple trees that I cut down to about 2 feet off the ground survived the Dallas “blizzard” and have pushed out growth near my pruning cut. Really happy about that. Same goes for my 4 pears and the 20 raspberry bare roots as well. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised these plants made it (they see worse up North) but it’s still a sigh of relief.
Techniques used prior to the freeze, which got down to 0F: mounded compost and mulch around everything, to a depth of at least 6 inches. I watered that well a day or two before the weather turned freezing. I also put some bed sheets around the tree mounds, but that probably didn’t actually help anything. If anything, I had to be sure to remove those quickly when things warmed up.
Even the St Augustine lawn survived
Thanks again everyone!
Also, per @Dudeness I made sure to just leave all the snow throughout the week.
