Best I can tell the low temps close to our orchard were -10F, -12F,-13F for the days Jan., 14th, 15th, and 16th. These temps are sort of an average from a couple personal online weather stations close to the orchard. One weather station is a little over a mile south of the orchard, one is 1.5 miles east of the orchard.
This is slightly different from the KCI airport readings, which is the official weather station for Kansas City. The official temps at the airport were -12F, -13F, -9F for the three days.
I agree with ztom that the temps dropped more quickly last year. Imo, the biggest problem last year was that the drop occurred in Dec., when there really hadnāt been much cold weather before the big drop on Dec. 22, 2022. I donāt think the trees had much of a chance to get into endodormancy. It was almost 60 degrees 9 days before the big drop last winter (on Dec. 13th, 2022). We had a lot less days of sub freezing weather before the big drop last winter. According to the records, the farm south of the orchard got down to -6.5F, but it was a pretty steep drop (Red line is the temp.)
However, the low temp was much colder this year, which is bad. Plus there was three days of bud killing temperatures, which is also bad. Iām sure peach trees arenāt happy. Unlike last year, this year we didnāt do any fall pruning, so there is a lot of red wood on the peach trees. How much of it has viable fruit buds remains to be seen.
What low temp is ābud killingā? Our lowest here in Southern Indiana this year was 0F, several days of it. Last year we had a warm December and dropped to -7F overnight X-mas eve. I had 2 peaches on 3 treesā¦
Wishful thinking, Maybe we get off easy with little thinning? We all hope your farm pulls off a decent crop.
Iām not Olpea, but this old thread: Peach bud hardiness? Clear as mud? indicates that its dependent on how dormant the buds are. It sounds like the cutoff is -5F but if the weather has been cold and theyāre dormant you can have lower temps and be just fine. Olpea mentioned getting worried around -10F.
Last year I think the bad problem was spring frosts in my area and in KS. We had a mild March then a few serious freezes through May. This thread: 2023 Peach Evaluations gives a more complete story about temp drop and late freeze. =(
Ive heard -15 F mentioned as a threshold for hardy peach varieties. That comports with my experience. We have -10 essentially every year here, so Id never get peaches if that were the lower limit. I read an interview with Dwight Miller, who was one of the first commercial orchardists in VT to grow peaches other than as a curiosity. He said on average his trees would make a good crop every 3 yrs. Thats been about my experience. For sure it depends on lots of factors, particularly those affecting the relative dormancy of the tree in question.
It also depends on the amount of time the peach tree experiences the cold. I remember one year it stayed at 30F for two days while peaches were in full bloom. It barely moved in temps up or down. It was unusual. 30F shouldnāt hurt blooms, but it removed all the peach crop. Too much time at 30F.
I remember another year it got to -19F for a short period of time. We had about 100-150 peaches from our orchard that year. But this last winter it got to -12/-13F, but it stayed there for like 6 hrs. Iāve found one peach so far in the whole orchard.
