Oh yeah, heres what it looked like on a cold -24 night
I set that up in December and will probably leave it until late April/early May. Its really just a Peach tree taco!
4 Likes
I think you are set there. That blocks the wind right? I sometimes think the drying winds of winter do as much harm as the temps. My garage is almost outside temp and i always get a nice bloom on my container stuff. At some point i’m going to get sick of playing container gardener and move some of this stuff into the ground…at that point i’ll need to protect from the cold monster.
I look forward to seeing your peach blooms.
Agreed, even if you don’t have a critically cold temp, those dry winds are killer, and I think the plastic helps a lot for that. This is my 3rd try doing this, the first time I made the mistake of keeping it closed and it got much to warm during the day followed by cold at night. I didn’t realize my mistake till mid January and by then the damage was done and they died back to the trunks.
Last year I got my buds all way thru the winter, they were swelling nicely, we were forecast a low of 23, checked the chart, looked good so I didn’t close the tent up and turn the light on, it got to like 12, toast. I was one night away.
This year I’m not taking any chances
3 Likes
In Newport,RI we’re only going down to 19 degrees. Bad enough😱 What about you Tippy?
11F tonight, 5 F Sat and 14F on Sun. Back to normal after that. These 3 days are brutal.
1 Like
I cannot tell you how horrible my stress level is. We all love our orchards and this is punishment for what? I cannot stand my last year here with no fruit. Yes, I am a sore loser on this one!
2 Likes
Hang in there mrsg. You will be a lot happier next year.
Tony
3 Likes
Definitely may be in some trouble in Kansas. Stone fruit are to far along and pears are close behind them.
2 Likes
I have no actual reason to think this is true, but maybe since the trees went through something similar last year, just maybe they’ve built up a little more ‘oomph’ to help them a little this time. Maybe make a degree or two difference …Of course, I wouldn’t actually bet these odds, but here’s hoping! One thing for sure, if I end up getting any fruit this year, those varieties will go to the top of my priority list for maintenance.
1 Like
Come on Mrsg, you know a year from now you will have your feet up, with some fine wine, surrounded by trees laden with fruit thinking, "This is just to easy, I miss the excitement, the adrenaline, the deep freezes, late cold snaps, the thrill. . ., um,well. . . maybe not.
5 Likes
When I see your postings of 11F and 5F it makes me wonder how any fruit survives. Guess I’m also a little guilty obsessing over my low of 31F and 32F. Wishing you all the best. Hang in there Mrsg. Bill
2 Likes
18 for me this morning. I’ve covered a few limbs but I don’t expect it to help. Strictly for comparison purposes. Tonight supposed to reach 24 and then warm up after that.
Reading about all of the trials and tribulations many of you go through every spring makes me think living on the border of 3b/4a may not be so bad. No fruit trees around here have even thought about waking up yet.
Last evening, I recruited hubby in an attempt to protect my two Franken trees with tarp covering the top of each tree and a light bulb hanging in the middle for a heat source.
Since this was impromtu, we did not have anything large enough to cover the whole trees. We tied down the tarp the best we could.
Well, with the wind gusted at 25-30 mph, It was ridiculous. Ater we had to re- tie a few times, we just let it be. Today is the coldest with a low at 5 F.
The thing I am convinced is it is good that I have kept my trees low. Much easier to cover a tree under 7 ft tall. Since this strange weather seems to be a norm, hubby has agreed to look into better materials and equipment to better protect those targeted trees, J plums, pluots, peaches/nects in the future.
@mrsg47, I am sorry, your last year orcharding in the northeast may be memorable in a wrong way. Think France 
3 Likes
Mamuang,
I hope you can save some of those fruit buds. Yes, you will need a very large tarp from Home Depot or Lowes to cover the whole tree and secured the bottom of the tarp against the main trunk with no open areas so the winds will not lifted up like a hot air balloon. I used a Ziptight or duck tape for that part. I think the weather system you got now was from Us a week or so ago when We got a nasty icy and snowy storm. We are in a clear for 60’s and 70’s temp for now. I have the equipment to protect my multi-grafted cot if there is another dip the temp.
Tony
We got down to 19 here, it was supposed to be 23 so I was not planning on doing anything. But when I saw it was 19 when I woke up I went out and warmed things up with the blowtorch. Maybe I will save a few more blossoms with that. Tomorrow its supposed to be 18, if thats all it does I will be happy but if it goes much colder I will be losing more stuff. I’ll probably be out with the blowtorch again. As it is it looks like about half my apricots are goners, and a third of the plums, based on the charts that is.
Some good news is Hoyt Montrose is definitely behind on the bloom and it should be OK. Also Zard is way behind. It is tender but I think its still early enough in development that it will be OK. Hesse and Tomcot are way ahead and they are already toast.
1 Like
Lol. Care to explain how you warm things up with a blow torch?
Right now it’s 20 degrees. Tonight and tomorrow night it’s 14. Hopefully that’s it for the year 
So ready for spring!
Just crank it up and wave it 4’ or so below the blossoms. Its easy to see where the heat is going as it makes visible waves in the air. I figure giving them a bath of 100F+ for awhile will give some compensation.
Note this is my desperation idea, I never heard of anyone else doing it. I have a blowtorch setup for flame weeding.
3 Likes
Scott, sorry to hear about your cots. I wish We all have a medium size green house and grow multi-grafted trees to avoid all this crazy temp swings.
Tony