I’ve actually seen Bradfords in bloom survive upper teens and not even blink.
Aaaaannnnnddddd… It just started snowing here in SE Pa.
On the way to Grayson yesterday, I saw lots of probably pears blooming. My big pear tree already has blooms that got bit in the last freeze.
“Only” dropped to 26 this morning, but with a clear sky tonight we may see the teens.
Last night didn’t hurt me. Hope tonight goes as good. 48 for a high I think.
23 for a low here. Of the various coverings I was able to measure, the hoops and plastic I put over my newly transplanted brassicas stayed at 29. Haven’t peeked in there yet.
The coverings around the trees were probably not as effective because there’s no “ground heat“.
Went out to check about an hour ago: my tree peony flower buds are frozen solid, don’t know if I will see flower this year
These Plum flowers are still frozen.
Many times they will freeze, but look fine once they thaw.
Made it through the first night without losing the tarp. I didn’t pop my head in to look this morning as I didn’t want to let cold air in.
I got up at 3am to try and have a fire under the peach tree, but it was way to windy. Most definitely would have burnt my house down. Good luck peaches.
Hope everyone else did okay!
Dropped to the actual forecast temp of 21 here. Still working inside this morning, but will venture out to inspect things. I’m not too optimistic about what I will find. Plus, it’ll be about 25 tonight, so we’re not over this yet. But, supposed to hit upper 70s later this week, so that’s nice.
Got to 23 here. Everything looks OK from what I can tell, but tonight is the real doozy (18 is the forecast) before warming up starting tomorrow.
Kept a pretty big fire going in the orchard all night. I think it was 20 when I came in around 7. Everything was still hot and I had had enough Threw some charcoal in about 6 old buckets and set them at the bottom of all my big peach trees. Topped them off a time or two and they seemed to provide a nice constant warmth. Also had one smudge pot and a small propane heater doing the same, but the charcoal seemed the most effective. Fortunately the wind had died down enough to light them.
Another night to go. We will see if it makes a difference. 18 forecasted for tonight.
Now that is dedication!
This is a bad one for the Mid-Atlantic for sure… its been a long time since we had such a late hard frost. We have had plenty of bad years recently, but it was more because things woke up too early. That didn’t happen this year here so I thought I would be OK.
This morning it was 26F which is tolerable … the problem is tonight and tomorrow morning, it is forecast to be cold for many hours with a low of 22F. I might put my grill on high upwind of my largest stand of apricots and plums and run it all night. Assuming it doesn’t get much colder than 22F I will at least keep most of my other fruits, mainly the apricots and asian plums will suffer plus a few peaches.
I don’t have much of a dog in this fight, my trees are all too small (except citrus, which are indoor and blooming). But, I’ve been following it. And I’ve been surprised that we haven’t broken 30*F here in Columbia MD today. Even now, at 4pm, it’s just now 30.
Do you like Asian plums? Hit me up next year and I have an early plum that gives tons after that temp. It needs a sunny spot or it’s bland, tho.
It’s called Bruce, a hybrid. The offer stands for anybody.
21F here. No visible damage. even my small shoots on my PT have no damage.
I just got home from work and everything seems to be okay as far as I can tell. If there was freeze damage, I would expect brown flowers or something, but even the full blooms look okay. Got to get through tonight!
Thanks for the offer. I don’t think I have tried any Asian plums, unless you consider pluots Asian. I do like them, and have planted three pluot trees, but they bloom way too early for us. Like they did last week, and they are probably toast. Can you describe the flavor of Bruce plums?
Scott- don’t you have pears a hair from blooming like I do? They’re what I’m worried about here, but I don’t have peaches or apricots.