I have a pear tree that has a damaged trunk from the harsh winter. I scratch tested it and thought it was dead, but the buds are swelling… A few branches died but most are fine. I cant find an area on the trunk that scratch tests green- it all looks brown, and easily flakes off. Question is, can a tree survive like this or will it likely succumb to disease or just being weakened? There must be some part of the trunk that’s fine, and I’m just not finding it, for buds to be swelling. does white paint help prevent this kind of injury?
I had a Fuji completely girdled by voles 2 winters ago and the tree completely leafed out and looked good for a month before it died. They’ll use the energy stored above the girdling before they die. If you catch it early enough you can harvest scions.
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As you know, I’m technically in 6b but based on the map I’m less than a mile from 7a so I don’t know if my information will help you. But I have Brown Turkey, Chicago Hardy, and Celeste Figs that are in ground and which I no longer go to the trouble of protecting in any way. Sometimes they are killed back to the ground-even when they are very big after 3 years of NOT being killed back. But most years they only get tip damage and survive the winter-like this year. When they survive, they are pretty slow to wake up and send out new leaves. In fact, I think the only thing I have that is slower to come out of dormancy are my persimmons. My figs are definitely after my stone fruit and even after my apples. Stone fruit has all already blomed and have small leaves. Most of my apples have small leaves now. None of my figs show any signs of life at all yet. I think they usually start with tiny leaves in late April here. I can pay more attention and let everyone know if it helps. But of course my weather is so different from yours, Tippy, that it probably won’t offer you much insight.
Mice or voles have girdled some of my apple trees. They were not large trees but they were varieties I was testing for hardiness and they had been growing exceptionally well for the last 5 winters, Scarlet Surprise, Wynochee Early, and State Fair. I harvested scions, wrapped the girdled part of the trunk with parafilm and I am going to try bridge grafting. It may not work but all I will be out is my time. Meanwhile the extra scions will go onto an established tree.
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Katie, I believe that even when a tree has sustained fatal freeze damage that it can still bud swell and even leaf out for a couple weeks before succumbing. The reason is, is there is energy stored in the branches to help them leaf out. (Thats why even an improperly grafted scion may start out looking good, leafing out, then die when it cannot receive nourishment/moisture from the tree). However, if the severe cold did damage the tree’s vascular system it will not be able to support itself and die in pretty short order.
Unfortunately, I think you bottomed out at possibly below -30F, which might be enough to do in that cultivar of pear. White paint would not help prevent damage from extreme low temps. That technique is used for a situation where, say in January, when the sun is very low in the sky, it shines directly at the trunk and heats up the moisture in the trunk, causing it to split. This can happen on very sunny days even if the temps are below zero. The white paint strategy can help reflect much of the light, keeping the trunk temperature down, and prevent splitting.
Back to your pear, I’m just a couple hours north of you, when we had the polar vortex winter in 2013/14 all of my apple trees in my 2 year old orchard made it except my Golden Delicious, the whole thing died except for one bud just a couple inches above the graft. I was going to replace it, but when that one new shoot started sprouting, I cut the tree back to that point. Because it had an established root system it grew very fast, is now taller than me, and has produced fruit the last 2 years. Looking at it now, you would never guess it experienced such trauma. So, if your pear tree does die back, keep an eye out for signs of life lower down where the snow may have insulated from the freakishly low temps we had. It should bounce back pretty fast.
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had this happened to a cherry tree i got on clearance. the whole thing was dead except 1 bud near the base i planted it and cut it back to that bud and it took right off, growing 5ft. its 1st summer.
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Anyone know what the earliest ripening elderberry varieties are? Thanks!
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This is a large Anna apple tree. Can anyone tell me what’s going on with the leaves? There’s some brown and black spots and my tree has always had a little bit of this, but I feel like it is on more leaves this year than ever. My tree never goes into full dormancy, and we have had a unusually wet January, February and March. It could deathly be some kind of mold or fungus, is there anything I can do about it or just let it work its way out?
its not wylewood or bob gordon . both get killed off by frost before they ripen here.
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contact thebaileyfarm.com. they are a little south of me but she has a variety called goodbarn she told me is the earliest fruiting elderberry she sells. get some cuttings or plants from them. 
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@moose71 I had contacted her earlier in the year, but she wasn’t sure about how the varieties she had would do down south (She is super nice!). Goodbarn was one of my original top picks (when I was up North), but I’m worried about SWD down sorta-South here. Figured if I was going to try them here I’d want the earliest ripening one… or maybe the latest would be better down here? I’m not real sure. I’m in a different jungle down here, trying to figure it all out! 
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Do apricot blooms look really, really ugly if they are going to set fruit? I can’t tell if mine are dead now or about to fall off and leave the fruit.
i would think if a elderberry cultivar is early producing here it would be even earlier in a warmer climate? should leaf out, flower and fruit earlier than later cultivars? maybe someone with more experience will chime in.
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First the petals will fall off, leaving the stamens, which looks a tiny bit odd at first. In a week or two, the stamens will fall off leaving a very tiny fruit about 1/8th of an inch. Then the apricot fruit will simply grow and get bigger. They will be small and green for a very long time; their color changes as they ripen.
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Thank you. I’ll have to check and see again. It was the first year blooming for this one, and we only had one night that could have hurt the blooms that were open
My newly planted blenheim apricot’s leaves are a bit curled… no marks or blotches. The leaves look healthy but they are curled. Any reason to be concerned about this?
I have a quick question for those who uses fabric pots.
Is this the pot for fruit trees? Looks shallow to me. And is this a good price for 10gl size?
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thats not a bad price. amazon has all kinds. i like the white or tan ones better as the sun dosen’t heat up the root ball as much and doesn’t degrade them as quick as the black ones. but they do discolor more than the black ones.
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I just saw this in store. It looks cheaper than buying the real pot for this size
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they work better too. been using them for 3 yrs. nice thing to is they don’t clutter up the shed in the winter like big reg. pots do.