It’s all about location with reliance because in Kansas it still has not bloomed and my neighbors peaches are toast already. Their trees bloomed and were nailed. In around 20-25 years growing reliance ( so long I can’t remember) I lost 2 crops down to 10% remaing and never a total loss. I cut down 3 17 year old trees down due to bacterial canker from all the wild cherries we have here. In Kansas reliance is King for me because we have a July crop before high pest pressure begins. Contender gets very heavy pest pressure.
1 Like
Looking at that cold pool in northern Iowa!
Yeah…if we get a snowcover…temps if the skies clear/winds go calm…will plummet. The positive is that snow will not last this time of year…even a foot will be gone quickly compared to Dec/Jan…
Do you know what rootstock your Reliance trees are on? I think that is a factor also. Unfortunately my trees came from Lowes and Krogers respectively so I have no idea the rootstock.
1 Like
Guys I may be wrong, it’s been years since I’ve grown Reliance, but I think I recall it was a late bloomer. I think my experience was like Clarks.
1 Like
My reliance trees came from Henry Fields so I don’t know the rootstocks.
Both of my Reliance trees bloom at the same time so I assume they are really Reliance trees but you never know for sure when you buy from the big box stores. I have only gotten peaches off one of them so I can’t be sure the peaches look the same.
2 Likes
Hey Brad and Chris. We are definitely in for a mess this week. Are either of you planning to cover your trees or put out a heat source?
Most of the trees I’d worry about are in large containers so I’ll be moving them to the attached garage which stays above freezing.
Apricots as predicted are a complete loss
Pears appear to be ok so far
I’m not sure why I grow apricots but it’s never been about getting fruit because we never do. Since we never count on it one of these days I’m going to be shocked when I actually get fruit from them. It happened to me once and 5 gallon bucketfuls of apricots were laying around on the ground because the animals and I were so confused we hardly ate any of them.
4 Likes
It got down to 18F at my orchard. I’m sure things are pretty toasted. We had one tree in full bloom and about 30% of the trees in first bloom. A lot of trees had most of their blooms in well advanced pink. I’m sure those are dead. No copper sprays would help this situation.
Strangely, temperatures north of Kansas City were considerably warmer than those south. North KC only got down to about 28F. I don’t understand how that happens.
@clarkinks, I’m sure you’ve seen the forecasts, but we have another 20F night coming Wed. morning.
I quit growing apricots quite a few years ago because they bloom so early, except for a later blooming one Scott recommended. It isn’t old enough to start blooming yet. I also quit growing J. plums for the same reason. The only J. plum I have now was one shipped mislabeled.
Glad your pears look good. 
1 Like
Looks like I’ll be growing extra watermelons and cantaloupes this year.
1 Like
Mickster, I plan to spray KDL I bought last year, alot of folks say it offers a few degrees of protection. I sprayed it before a late freeze last spring and it seemed to help. This freeze event is going to be colder so I’m hoping the KDL will at least allow me to salvage a small crop of peaches.
I’m also thinking about finding some metal barrels to set near the trees and burning wood. I tried running sprinklers all night during a late freeze a few years ago and that did not work.
When I planted cots, it was with the prior understanding that they were a crapshoot and some years they’d crap out.
I grow them because they’re my favorite fruit when I do get it
1 Like
I’m going to guess it was clouds.
1 Like
Yes it was 18 degrees here as well. It’s pretty tough to grow stone fruit in Kansas the last couple of years. The pollinators were not flying last year due to cold weather so many of my fruits dropped. Let’s hope once it warms up it will stay that way.
1 Like
I checked buds on some trees. So far we had 17, 22 and 25 F. Apricots have pink buds, some of them are dry and brown, some look OK but have brown pistils them. I managed to find a couple of good ones too. I also protected several branches on apricots so it will be interesting to compare. Peach buds look fine and undamaged inside.
1 Like
Thanks Chris. Let me now how kdl works i may give it a try next year if u see good results. Is there any value covering smaller trees with a tarp? Im pretty much going to assume my plums, nectaplums and blueberries are toast. They all have fruit developung ir are in full bloom. bummer.
thecityman
Thanks for the welcome. Yes, this is a great site. I just discovered it a few months ago. Saturday we woke up to a bit over 2 inches of wet snow. By noon it was gone. I bet you got a bit more. They have revised Tuesday and Wednesday’s lows to 23. I figure that will be a total loss. That will be the first one in years. What concerns me more than the fruit loss is I did a lot of grafting this winter/spring and they are budded and/or leafed out. It may be a loss for them.
I have a huge Elberta. Its buds are swollen, but opens later than my ‘Early Crawford’ and my ‘Shui Mi Tao’. I have my fingers crossed during this cold weather.
2 Likes