We got around 18-20 in of snow then three nights of below zero this week ,was -15 last night.
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Wow…not fun.
Today looks sunny, but the stratus monster is almost guaranteed for tomorrow (the clouds are already building across TX moving northward with those south winds)…temps will go nowhere tomorrow :(…Monday looks warmer as a front moves through…decent the rest of the week with a good warm up Fri?Sat…witha chance of precip… Extended looks cold/crappy…but models this time of year are garbage…so we’ll see.
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My bag experiment did not seem to make much of a difference. Here is Spicezee.
And Robada
And finally Orange red which looks pretty good
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Only if you all join me, I will have a lot of chairs and a lot of wine!
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Tony,
I thought last night was windy. I was wrong. Today is windier and colder. It’s bad enough that we are breaking the record cold of March 4 in many towns and cities in MA. The wind is brutal.
This morning, the temp was 9 F temp and it will go down to 5 F tonight. This is actual temp, without a windchill factor. Right now it’s sunny with temp at 18 F but feel like 7 with windchill. This would be fine for us here, had fruit buds not being awaken by the 63, 64 and 69 F, just a week ago.
I chalked this up as another possible loss. Need to better prepare next year.
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My plum buds seem to have started to swell. So I went out and gave the plums and peach a spray of Surround.
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In older time in Russia farmers used smoking fires to protect blossoms from frost.
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In not so old times here in the USA, we did, too. Especially in citrus orchards. They were called smudge pots. Nowadays, citrus orchards will flood the orchard and use huge fans to keep the air moving.
Patty S.
And crusty bread and a fine evoo!
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@tonyOmahaz5 - I’m noticing A LOT of open space in your yard available for future tree plantings 
!!!
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Galina,
The news tonight said your city broke the record of the coldest day of March 4. High was only 18 F and low will be 3 F tonight.
My town’s high was 19 and low will be 4F. Your city won by the nose 
I am continuing adding multi grafted fruit trees each year. It will eventually fill up my 1.5 acre lot.
Tony
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Add to this resent record for warmest day few days ago, and you start to think the idea to plant more trees was not exactly brightest one . There is a Russian fairy tale about 12 months of the year got together to help little girl. In that tale, they all take one hour turn to create different time of the year. In my childhood it seemed very magic. Now it more like reality show.
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Just check the weather, last night my town got down to around 8 F, yours to 10F.
Have you checked out the “Trying To Make Sense of Bud Freeze Chart”? @Daemon2525 posted the chart. I’ve looked at the chart every winter. It is good to know so I can be mentally prepared.
This type of weather really makes me understand why my part of the country is dominated by apple orchards and blueberry farms. There are no plum or peach orchards anywhere near here as far as I can tell. All of my stonefruit is at minimum bid swell stage but in many cases had bloomed or is about to pop. My apples are sitting there quietly minding their own business. They unfortunately have far fewer blooms than the stonefruit. So I may have a small crop but.not very much.
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LA-LA-LA, I don’t hear anything, what buds, what weather? My cucumbers start to flower in their pots and it is warm and cozy here… I just forget about the outside till April. If I have to get upset. why to do it ahead of time? 
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These sound like tough situations.I’d probably go with more European type Plums and maybe experiment with a small number of the Japanese ones.Brady
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@speedster1 - same here. We have so many apple orchard but I know of only one orchard that has small section of peach trees. They don’t get any peaches last yera like all of us here.
@galinas - I like your mindset. Up to this point, I am not upset. Whatever happens, happens.
@Bradybb - for J plum, Shiro is very winter hardy for my area, both the tree and the buds. The only problem is finding another J plum to cross pollinate it. Last year Shiro buds survived a freeze in April but Satsuma buds were fried. I had Shiro full of blooms, no fruit set because its lack a pollination partner.
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I used to get really upset, but its just energy going to waste. Yes I will live without some fruits this year. Its harder for people whose paychecks depend on it though.
I got down to 17F, it hit the forecast exactly. My guess now is I will lose 80% of my apricots and a few of other things. Of course another wave of two of cold could add to the damage.
I did some more blowtorching. If I do a lot better than the chart then I will start to wonder if that didn’t help. I also had copper down which supposedly also helps - it kills ice-nucleating bacteria.
One thing I have observed in this is you can see how some varieties have more hardy blossoms than others. Tomcot was mostly in bloom but the blossoms don’t look all that bad. But the Hesse is all browned already. This BTW is from yesterdays cold, I expect todays cold will make things worse. It was 19F yesterday and 17F today.
I’m celebrating temps that didn’t go below 9- 6 degrees higher than forecast. Now I’m pretty sure most things are still viable. J. plums, pluots and apricots are not my most important crops. Nects, E.plums and apples will be enough for me. I can use a lot of peaches also, but they don’t freeze (in freezer, I mean) as well as nects so that’s my first choice for winter stone fruit.
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