Here near Houston we had a mild winter. Lowest temperature was 30-31F which is zone 10A. We very occasionally get freezes of 18F which is 8B. No freezes of 28F that would freeze and ruin citrus fruit and that occur most years. I harvested late season citrus that sometimes get ruined by freezes. Now two years ago we had a citrus tree freeze to the sour orange rootstock which is one of the least freeze resistant( since bark grafted and as big as ever). Spring is here, citrus are covered with blooms, and air conditioning is ON.
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Arp rosemary is named after Arp,TX having survived there. Arp is zone8A/7B.
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@scottfsmith Sorry to hear about your figs, I have not uncovered mine yet. I think we had some low temps in November before I covered my figs- was that what you think killed your tops?
Steve, I expect it was all the cold and wind in Jan/Feb.
I recently planted apples and peaches in with the figs so they are definitely on the way out. If I decide to do figs again it will be in pots I drag into the garage in the winter.
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I didnāt lose any trees but I lost my entire plum crop. The trees were absolutely loaded with BB sized plums when we had one last freeze. I lose my plums about every other year due to them blooming so early. When they do make the trees are always loaded.
I believe I may have lost my Spice Sweet (scion from Fedco) that I grafted last spring. It grew well last year, but it now doesnāt look quite right. Fingernail test of the cambium wasnāt promising either. It wasnāt green, but it also wasnāt brown (yet). Iām guessing at a minimum it will suffer pretty significant die back.
As the snow continues to melt, Iām able to check on more trees. Today I fingernail tested a Spitzenberg, Wolf River, and Hawkeye. I have serious doubts that any of them will wake up this spring
Thatā too badā¦but maybe theyāll sprout out from the trunk or something. I have a piece of Wolf River if you need to regraft.
So, far, know Iāve lost a jujube, and likely some seedling pawpaws.
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The deep snow we had last winter appears to have minimized any winter kill but the 2ā high mesh vole guards were not high enough. I lost a 5 year old Yellow Transparent apple that had been producing apples as well as a 3rd year Juliet cherry to vole damage. Scratch testing everything else looks promising but we are are still 6 weeks away from green up. I will watch and wait to see if the Juliet comes back from the roots. There is not enough bark on the trunk left on either to attempt a graft.
Thanks for the offer. If I were to lose a treeā¦Wolf River is as good as it was going to get. Iām not a fan of the apples. I would have probably top worked it at some point anyway.
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Iām not a fan of [Wolf River].
Heresy! Where is your Wisconsin spirit?
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Ha! Well, Iāve yet to get to eat a Wolf Riverā¦but it will bloom soon I hope. I made it into a āFrankentreeā with additional grafts still to go, if I find the time before growth is too far along.
So, yeah, I didnāt think I wanted a whole Wolf River either! Just one to sample.
lol
I had figured Wolf River would be about ābullet proofā here. I mainly wanted them for feeding the deer and as a low maintenance variety. Iāll have to do a bit of an autopsy if it doesnāt wake up this spring. I had assumed it would be winter hardy well into zone 3. Maybe something got at its roots
How old was your spitzenberg? I have one on order and am now worried I picked another marginal variety!
My Spitz is on b118 and was planted in 2015. It has never been a vigorous grower.
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The primocane-fruiting blackberries tend to not be very cold hardy, so I usually only get a Fall harvest in NKY. I was pruning back winter kill on some other varieties yesterday. I have PA45 and it has buds and small leaves alreadyā¦but that is not necessarily an indicator that the canes have survived. When the canes start to stress from developing fruit (during and right after bloom) is when you truly know.
I did notice that Boysen blackberry survived the winter uncovered with some winter kill as usual. We had -6F for a low and also very high wind chills (-20F) one day that probably caused most of this.
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So I think 3 of 4 Asian pears suffered serious winter injury, shenseiki, chojuro, and hosui. The Korean giant appears to be mostly fine.
The shenseiki looks like everything above the snowline is dead but is pushing new buds low on the trunk but above the graft
Both the chojuro and hosui, all the buds look dead and they are showing no signs of bud swell or any other signs if life, but the cambrium on their trunks is still green.
Dead bud?
Green cambrium
So should I wait to see what, if anything, grows out, cut it back and hope there are dormant buds ready to grow, or replant?
Can I have the opinion of some of the other cold area growers here @marknmt @smsmith @markalbob @northwoodswis4 @Katie_didnt_Z4b @CRhode
Iām not much help with Asian pears, sorry. I did just graft a couple Okolo to ussurian rootstock, but that will be the extent of the Asian pears I have here. I know from a couple decades of experience growing north of you (DeForest area) that Korean Giant survived and produced. K.G. was the only Asian pear I tried there because I remembered when that area was zone 4 and had some wicked winters (70s and 80s)
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Thanks for your reply. They weāre all fine the past few years and the hosui and chojuro have had small amounts of fruit the past two years. The -30 we saw this winter was brutal. I think even the flower buds on my Euro pears are toast but they are at least leafing out.
Do you think I should replace them or wait and see what grows out?
Well, youāre out nothing if you wait and seeā¦right? Iād give them a chance and see what happens.