@BobVance, the forecast changed drastically from Tue to yesterday. I checked Weather Underground everyday as they have weather stations very close to my house.
On 2/28, it predicted low temp these coming Fri and Sat in the 20’s.
On 3/1, the prediction of those two days changed to 9 F.
Today, the prediction on those days changed to 8 F. Yikes!!!
@scottfsmith, although the bud stages of my pluots, apricots, peaches, nectarines and J plums are not far along as those in mid Atlantic, they have pushed enough that 8-9 F could do some serious damage.
Last year, thing were much far along in April when 17 F hit. A and E pears and cherries are lone survivors. E plums were too young. Apples went biennial.
I will check bud hardiness chart again. So glad I’ve planted diverse fruit trees. Not all get wiped out.
Alan, this is based on a very old study from the early 1900’s. There was a thread about it that you may have missed:
White paint is the way to go but I wasn’t sure if it would clean up out of my sprayer so I decided to just use Surround with a massive sticker. Whitewash also could be a good option but I didn’t have the kind of lime needed handy. I was also too late in the season to do it and the Surround will stay on long enough. If we get another early spring next year I will be painting all my apricots and Jap. plums white in February, either with whitewash or dilute paint I expect.
The article recommends 1:1 dilution of latex paint. That seems pretty watery and I’d think should easily go through most sprayers without issue. Quick cleanup would be a good practice I’d think. Why not fill a container with clean water and stash the sprayer head in the container during any lulls in spraying or prior to cleaning. The other option would be to purchase a cheap $15 sacrificial sprayer from Lowe’s to test on your most frost prone trees. That way if the paint ruins the sprayer your only out a few bucks.
The article also mentions that on some blackberry varieties reduced yield was noted. Might be a way to “thin” overly productive stonefruits.
Hello, it is easy to clean latex paint out of sprayers, just use a little dish soap, shake to remove all paint from tank, fill with soapy water and let it spray out until the water comes out clear. I have used the same sprayer for years with no problems. With modern latex paints you may have to dilute it more than 1:1 to get it to actually spray out of the nozzle (instead of drip out). Paint is more effective at preventing south side bark damage than delaying bloom.
The pluots (particularly Geo Pride and Flavor Grenade) look almost exactly like the Nadia.
I’m guessing that 13F (current forecast) will be a bit damaging, but still probably leave a decent amount. If this happens again in a few weeks, it could be much worse.
We’re supposed to be around 0 Friday & Saturday nights. Wind chills will be well below zero. This is why I’m glad that Maine never warms up as much as those South of us.
Haven’t looked at the chart but 13F would certainly worry me on the trees pictured. I hope it doesn’t get that cold…!!
Boy I’d not see it that way at all. It’s still early March. After this freeze bloom will come quickly on what survives. After bloom is when the real danger begins. I’d suspect low to mid 20s are common all thru March in much of the affected area and not unheard of in April. Shoot we’re in the same boat. Much has already bloomed and 20s are very much in the picture the next 6 weeks…
OK I see what you were thinking. Even with this early bloom harvest won’t come until June.
Nice but they do have a typo in their plum chart. 90% kill would come at 23 not 33 in the last two stages. Right now they’ve got 10% kill at 28 and 90% kill at 33.
If a Tomcot blooms on March 1st…what would be the ripening date? Would it be the same amt of days then a Tomcot that blooms on April 1st? I really have no idea…i suppose temp, daylight length, would all play in…
I’d suspect that growing degree units would determine ripening date more than anything else. My Robada and Orangered that bloomed in February outdoors last yr ripened in June. I had ripe watermelons by then.
I had to protect the apricots from freezes about 4 times.
In the fall I sprayed 1:1 dilute white latex paint on the trunks of my trees. I tried a $4 spray bottle like you get in the garden department of big box stores. It kept clogging up, so I bought another bottle. Same thing happened. After I cleaned out the bottles, they worked fine with just water in them. I finally resorted to using a dish soap bottle and paint brush. I wonder how much difference the white trunks make, vs. painting the whole tree.
Current weather forecast shows 4 F on Saturday. Do you guys think wilt stop will help in this case? Don’t want to lose everything again this year. I am in MA, Zone 6A.
It’s windy here (ny metro zone 7b), since last night, The cold wind seems coming from North. Will the fruit trees on the south side of house spare some fruits?
This reminds me of 2016, I had white gold cherry out on the back deck a bit too early. I had to move it to heated indoor instead of unheated garage where it stayed for entire winter. Maybe due to the combination of cold, wet condition and swing of temperature, it has no fruit last year, even it had beautiful blossom.
I think the Satsuma looks somewhere between “swollen bud” and “bud burst”. The Nadia (and the pluots) look more like “swollen bud” (a bit less damage). But, both stages would see mid-level losses at the currently forecast temps. Those at “bud burst” may see more than one round of damage.
Today’s wind has been about 55-59 mph, all day, incredibly strong. I was almost blown off sidewalks twice today.
To add insult to an injury, a few of my labels were blown off my trees. Those are multi grafted trees. It would be interesting to figure out which branches or trees they were from.
