Add me to the list for info on the Ohiopyle foraging! I don’t get up there as often after my grandmother died, but I hope to once vaccinated. I have things to do, and in Pittsburgh too.
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Ohiopyle is a beautiful park! There is supposed to be a huge stand of pawpaws along the bike trail. My wife is an environmental educator and works with the staff at the state park there, so they know the places to go for fruit!
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I am interested in the Ohiopyle pawpaw excursion. I have been on the bike trail upstream and downstream countless times and never noted anything from the trail
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Went out to look over my trees today. My plums, and Asian pears are both getting near bud break, and the peach buds are swelling. The 21 degree low next week is making me have flashbacks of last year. I hope we don’t get more late hard frosts this year.
Yeah, I’m worried. My Superior plum and Redhaven peach were in bloom on April 8th & 9th last year and they are swelling quickly right now. We at least need some cold nights to put them on hold but we’re getting the opposite right now with a stretch of unseasonably warm nights.
This may seem like a silly question, but would putting a light sheet or blanket over your tree help to keep it warm and save flowers? Maybe even with some lights on it for added warmth? I realize that’s a lot of effort, but if it is the difference between fruit and no fruit…
Yes,especially with lights,like the old style incandescent Christmas tree kind.A small heater,with a thermostat,placed at the base,can also be effective.
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Or a 5 gallon bucket and a fish tank heater
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I did sheets on my trees for the May 9th freeze last year and it didn’t matter at all, though it got down to 25. If it only got down to 29, then that may have helped. A light inside the sheets would definitely help if that’s a possibility.
I have read other people (it seems like a lot of the zone pushers in Washington state especially) using the incandescent Christmas light trick to keep temperatures up for their trees during unseasonably cold weather. I’m betting if you set it up now for Thursday or whichever night drops low, you should be fine!
I may end up trying it for 1 or both of those trees if I have enough extension cords lol. The forecast is calling for 25 Wed. night, 21 Thurs. night and 26 Fri. night. If anyone needs it for reference, here’s a really nice pdf on critical temps for frost damage at various bloom stages for pome and stone fruits: Critical_Temperatures_Frost_Damage_Fruit_Trees_Utah.pdf
My pears, peaches, and plums are all going to be right around the 10% loss for Thursday night. Going to try and protect them this year, though may have to pick and chose as I don’t have enough lights for all of them. Guess I shouldn’t have switched to LEDs lol.
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Well it got down to 19 last night after a forecast of 21 and is forecast at 21 again tonight. I covered and hung an incandescent light in my Superior plum and Red Haven peach trees. That was a big pain in the ass due to how windy it was yesterday. I’m sure I looked like a real idiot, fumbling around trying to throw sheets on trees and having them keep blowing back in my face while on a ladder! 
Clothes pins helped a lot.
The peach was at the quarter inch green stage with a bit of pink showing at the tips of the buds. My multi-grafted pear had enlarged buds as well but I didn’t have enough extension cords to get to it so I put some socks on the ends of it’s branches to see if that helps at all lol. Lights will go back on tonight and then we look in the clear, at least for the next 10 days.
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I know the feeling!
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This is the classic “why I keep junk and hoard” scenario! My boss always tends to throw stuff away right before we need that “junk” for some reason too…
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But hey, be careful…you could end up like my neighbor who worked at the city dump for decades and brought home enough crap for his own junkyard, which I now have to look at 
BUT I have gotten lots of useful junk for free from him
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I try to keep most of my junk organized and hidden lol
Oh man… that’s worse than 24…by a lot.
Oh wow that’s a lot worse than I got by me. Lowest I saw was 23 last night. Did anything survive?
One of my Asian pears got fried but everything else looks mostly ok.