I brought this product up on Garden Web and Olpea says he tried it,but the results were marginal.He talked to Bob Purvis about it and they weren’t sure why their results were different.
Maybe it will help with borderline situations where a degree or two could make a big difference. Brady
That’s my though. In some cases it might help a little. But if it falls to 21-23F after bloom like our last three freezes here it won’t help.
Last sunday, I lost my crop at 28F, so I think it would have helped me.
I’m willing to spend $28 to find out. Heck, what do I have to lose. It’s a
lot better than the tarps I had to put up and take down for nothing.
Yeah Chris & Friends,
I lost blooms Sunday morning (temp was down to 28 degrees) on 7 of my peach trees that were in ground on the north side of my fenced backyard, but out of the 3 peach trees on the west side of the yard, I only lost the blooms on the first tree planted uphill. The other 2 were downhill under a very tall cypress tree (located in my neighbors yard) and so I guess that is what sheltered and saved those 2. They look like they were never touched at all and I had all the trees in ground well wrapped with sheets and covered over the sheets with hefty heavy duty plastic bags. I wanted to cry until I remembered that I had brought the other 10 trees (pluot, peach, plum and nectarine) into the house because they are all in containers. Next year, I am not losing any blooms off any of my !!! I am putting them all in whiskey barrel containers and using the wheel lift that my brother built me to carry them into the garage when the freeze comes next year. I would rather have a little fruit than none at all! Fruitnut & friends, here I come with all my containers!!! LOL
Sorry friends, I meant to write that I am not losing any more blooms off of my trees due to late freezes if I can help it!!! I took pics of the trees before the freeze came and when I look at those pics I am determined that I will not go through this next year!!!
Yep. I’ve had these discussions w/ Bob Purvis. He has been adamant for years that KDL provides frost protection.
On the other hand, Chris Doll (fruit specialist from IL) has maintained he’s tried these various products with no help against frost protection.
I’m inclined to agree with Chris Doll, based on my own experience, fruit phenology, and other commercial growers.
Still, I value and respect Bob Purvis opinion, so I still have some left over KDL I plan to test an objective test. I will point out all of Bob Purvis experiences (that I know of) are based not on controlled experiments, but rather whole orchard sprayings, where there was no control (meaning no control group). In fairness, my own experience where KDL failed involved no control group (i.e.whole orchard spraying) but the results with the test group showed no promise.
If I’m still growing fruit, I’m sure I will get the opportunity in the future to perform this controlled experiment (i.e. with a test group and a control group). Until then I have to go by my own experience, the experience of Chris Doll (who has raised peaches for 40 years) and phenology. All of which suggests KDL is not effective.
LOL I misread that as “fruit phrenology”. For a second there, I thought you were reading the bumps on their heads. 
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I have never tried KDL, but I will give it a try next year if we experience a major freeze during bloom again again.
It was 24 last Saturday and most of my peaches were in full bloom at that time. I’m guessing I lost most of the crop this year, but how soon can I tell? I see a lot of petal fall, but since I have never grown peaches before I’m not sure what to expect.
Thanks
Rick
Look at the little fruits. If green they are OK. If withered and brown/black they are dead.
I’m not sure how they survived the 24 degree temp, but I see a baby fruit hiding under the shuck of most blooms on the trees. Based on a very informal check, the baby fruit count on the 850 chill hour peach variety is about the same as the 1050 chill hour peaches. If I’m lucky the hard freeze just thinned the peaches for me.
Fruitnut, did you mean the damage with the trees already out of dormancy? NJ is a very important peach state. So our climate should be good with this kinds of situation. Maybe our trees break the dormancy much later…
Redsun:
That’s percentage kill of the fruit not the trees. Is that what you are talking about?
What I figured, just the flowering buds or petals… My peach trees have not been reliable. Spring freeze is part to blame…
This is a little off subject but related. In the winter of 2013-14 I lost all my fruit buds when it got down to -14. Last fall and during December on a warm day i sprayed all my trees with wilt stop. It got down to -16 this year. But it looks like some of my fruit buds are OK! My trees are just breaking now. Maybe it was not the product, but I will be using it again. Also I lost 90% of my upright blackberries in 2013-14 winter. I sprayed them too this fall, I also covered in burlap. I have about a 20% loss this year. Snow coverage was heavier 2 winters ago, so if anything plants were more exposed. JTBurton protected his too, with row cover. he had as much damage as the year before. The anti-desiccant seemed to work. Oh the active ingredient is the same as nu-film, pinene.
Now we have another cold spell coming, but here it is not going to get that cold maybe 31F at the worst. Anyway just thought I would mention it. It’s not much, it’s not proof, but may be worth a try if you experience such cold. I will be using the product again this fall. . Now to see if I can keep the fungus and bugs off my fruit to actually have a harvest.
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We have other problems but -14 is not one of them. Hope it works for you. Bill
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