JT-02, Kasandra, Hachiya and Nakita’s Gift grafted March 10th buds swelling and breaking parafilm.
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Well, it might have been an old one I forgot to prune because there was not a worm in it, however, there was a worm ON it! I’ll spinosad tonight.
@scottfsmith Pear was in bloom during the freeze. Is this frost damage?
I cut some open and they look black inside but I didn’t see any bugs
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Some of the smaller fruits look like they are self-thinning, the thin yellow stems are a sign of that. This could be natural thinning or could be due to the cold. They could be blackened due to the fact that they their food supply got cut off by the plant and are about to drop. But it also could be that they got zapped.
There are some strange marks (lines) on the bases of the fruitlets on some, I have never seen that. It might be an artifact of the freeze zapping some vascules??
Overall my best guess would be that the freeze indeed made them unhappy. The largest fruitlet looks like it may be OK, so some may survive.
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Do any of you have some indoor stuff that you are getting ready to put outside? Lows are looking pretty good past next Monday. I was starting to harden some stuff off but the heat wave has been brutal and I still have the mid 30s low for next week so… should probably wait. Mother’s Day trick for hardening potted fruits as well?
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We have put our indoor stuff out, but I have a building that I can easily wheel them back into. They are forecasting 29 degrees here on Monday night. Hopefully, we can squeak through with our fruit.
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In pots I have newly grafted apples, raspberries, and figs. Goal is to plant them all outside this spring.
I’ve been protecting the newly grafted apples from the sun for the last week or so since it’s been so hot. Everything else has just been in the sun and heat.
Everything will come back inside for Monday night even though I really don’t think they’ll be harmed. They’ll stay outside otherwise. I have left stuff out and not had it bothered by cold until it’s <31F for a couple hours (which I’m unlikely to get), but the pots are right by the door still, so it’s easy to move them back in.
No tomatoes, baby fig plants, etc. outside till after Mother’s Day. I’ve had a few too many surprise nights in early May! And those guys do seem to get harmed by just freezing temps.
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Thanks all! Makes sense, I still need to get a pallet on wheels or something and I have a good amount of stuff so trying to avoid in and out. I may as well just continue hardening them off and have them outside, I don’t think I am anticipating getting colder than 35F.
It looks like I’m dropping to around 34 early Monday morning. I’m not moving any containers (it was a waste of time for the last “34”), but I will be turning my early-planted veg gardens into a moving blanket/tent city.
My forecast has now slipped to 32 for Monday night. I’m in a slight frost pocket too, so while I may not worry about pulling in the newly potted small jujube tree that is only starting to bud out, I will likely pull my newly repotted (and actively growing) figs into the house for the night.
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With the lack of rain in our area, I am curious what type of irrigation schedule you all have employed? Once a week? Twice a week?
I have drip irrigation lines with two woodpecker emitters between 1-2’ on either side of the tree. My logic is to over water and run it for 5 hours a day three times a week, since the emitter (1GPH or 2GPH) is only going to cover a very small percentage of the roots. Thoughts?
My young trees (1-2 yrs old) have drip. They are planted in well draining soil and not big yet.
I try to give them 3-5 gal 3 times a week when it doesn’t rain. They have enough emitters that it ends up being about an hour per zone. Bigger/older trees get a longer piece of drip line (in a spiral around tree).
In reality, I don’t actually make it to 3 times a week. And I think they would be doing better if I did.
I only watered my older mature trees (pear, apple, peach, persimmons, cherry, pawpaw) one year and it didn’t seem to help them, except for a few. If I had apples on some dwarfing rootstock I’d probably water them even if they were mature (and it wasn’t raining).
I do water my mature pawpaw if it doesn’t rain. I can’t tell if it helps or not- they are planted in a more clay soil. I also water the raspberry and blackberry patch. When I didn’t water the patch, they did much worse, but I’m moving the bed because I think it’s actually getting too much sun.
I will probably water some of my mature trees this week/ month. I’ll use a long hose or mainline and give them a lot. We’ve had practically no rain, I’m renovating some, some are troubled, and it can improve fruit retention in peaches if you water them early.
Yes. About as opposite to last year as we could swing! But, it’s supposed to rain tonight/tomorrow. I wish I had living grandparents who had gardened so I could hear about what it was like when weather wasn’t a unmedicated bipolar beast.
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Same here. Forecast 32 Monday and 33 Tuesday. On river valley slope with some cool air pooling probably closer to 30 and 31.
Sucks. About 2 weeks past historical last frost but i usually see a light frost second week of April in my micro location. Not third though.
I put some annuals in last week that will probably get fried. I’ll cover them with upside down fabric pots to hopefully keep frost off them.
Doubt it gets cool enough to damage my pear fruitlets but the forecast keeps dropping.
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Monday is supposed to go slightly below 32. Would wrapping sensitive items with tarps help any? Trying to prevent the leaves from frying, AGAIN.
Depends how sensitive the item is and how long the low?
I think mostly covering isn’t going to help unless you can trap some heat like with Christmas lights or something?
Every year I’ve lived here I’ve had a late frost - usually in early May. Most things don’t seem harmed by 32F. Really young fig leaves, mulberry leaves, I’m sure there are others, do seem bothered.
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How much fire blight have you all been seeing this spring? My apples are just about done blooming so I’ve been trying to pick off as many straggling flowers as I can. I haven’t seen any so far, knock on wood, but that may be because the tree that is the worst FB magnet for me didn’t have many flowers this year.
On a related note, what are your thoughts on leaving two apples per cluster on a tree that seems to be on the off year of a biennial bearing pattern? I normally thin to one but I was wondering if two would help to smooth things out.
I’ve seen maybe a single shoot strike (not positive it was blight: it was a small shoot and was looking unhealthy/wilty so I took it out asap so it never had a chance to progress to where I could be sure that was the issue).
Otherwise none so far, but the weather hasn’t been conducive: we’re already in a severe drought (I think we have had a single light shower since apples and pears started waking up - and they’ve almost totally finished blooming now), and when it hasn’t been colder than ideal for blight it had largely been hotter than prime blight conditions… best part of this whacky weather has actually been how uncharacteristically unfavorable to FB it has been (so far) here.
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Circling back on the frost topic and preparing for early Tuesday morning. My area it looks like it will be below 35 for about 3-4 hours, with the low being 31 degrees. Do you all typically do anything for apple, pear, peach, cherry, or nectarine fruitlets? Wasn’t sure if trying to put a sheet over the entire tree, putting little fruitlets in sandwich bags, or any method is even worth it given the temperatures. Thoughts?