Only station i can find in that area seem to be Joplin and Springfield…Joplin seems to run a hair warmer …30F vs 29F… if you can stay upper 20Fs you should be fine. I’m pretty sure i had 26F one time and my sweet cherries were in full bloom and while some got smoked, many still made it.
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Yes that is correct, I live right between them, about 20 miles south of I-44. I may try to put a light and a tarp on my peach tree. I appreciate the tracking you do on this.
no problem… every year it seems like i’m getting out the blankets to protect something. I’m always interested in seeing how the models do against what really happens.
Another cold shot looks likely late next week dumping down into the plains again…temps around here look to stay around the low 40Fs (for highs)…so my trees are stuck for the time being . Might be early April before we get a bloom.
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Stop it! 26 should be fine. Hard but not too hard.
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After 27 degrees tonight we will be headed back up into the 30’s. It’s anyone guess if it will stay up after that. After 26 degrees last night I will let you know how the apricots etc. do.
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Clark,
When comparing cold temp and flower bud damage, I like this website the best. http://orchardkeeper.com/pdf/IllustratedSpringFrostDamageThresholds.pdf.
I posted it on another thread but in case you have not seen it.
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From a few of the later frosts a few weeks ago I looked at the swelling buds on my Early Crawford. It took the biggest hit on bud damage. Many of the flower buds were pure black and popped of in my hand just by touching them. the entire tree is not that way, just the buds closest to the ground. You do not want to find those buds on your peach trees!
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That’s a pity, MrsG! My most of the buds on my apricot did a similar thing this year–shriveled, turned black, dried up, and fell off when I touched them! The reasons are probably different, since I’m in California. We didn’t have any late frosts, but it got very warm way too early. I’m still trying to figure out what happened.
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Hi Lizzy, I had a very similar thing going on on my apricots. Still, there were a lot of blooms on my apricots, but some of the trees had many blooms in some areas (mostly near the tips) and much less in others where buds blackened and died. So, I had to thin fruit in some places on a tree, while some other branches (or parts of branches) had no fruit at all. I concluded that the reason for this is that my trees are still very young (most bloom and fruit for the first time), so they did not have enough energy to completely develop all flower buds.
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I don’t think that’s from the tree being too young. I’ve been battling the same thing in my greenhouse for yrs. Happens on young and old trees. It’s not lack of chilling in my situation but could be in others. It’s also not lack of water during flower bud development the prior summer. I think it might be spring time temperatures. Possibly excessive diurnal temperature swings or excessively high temperatures before fruit set. That seems less likely in CA than in my greenhouse.
I’ve had this issue worst with sweet cherries, Secondly with some apricot varieties, Orangered being worst. Also with some pluots to a lesser extent. I’ve never had any issues on peach or nectarine. They flower and set under all conditions provided they get enough chilling.
Next spring I’m going to try a different temperature regime. One with smaller diurnal temperature range and lower high temperatures until after fruit set.
Stan what have your temperatures looked like the past 6-8 weeks?
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Fruitnut,
This happened to my Robada apricot too. It had buds that were pushing, just about to bloom. They turned black and and died. My weather has been warm, mid to high 70’s for the most part, but we have also had a lot of rain in the the month of March, which has push us over our average of 11 in. In Feb we had no rain at rain. After all the buds died it failed to leaf out as well, and still hasn’t so I am started to think it is toast. Maybe mine had a different issue. It is on Nemaguard and is second year in ground.
Rob,
What is your potted stock looking like? I had budswell over a month ago.
Robada is another that has blooming issues for me. Like the others the buds start to swell but stop and eventually fall off after weeks. Your issue could be due to wet weather.
February was dry and relatively moderate with most days high temps in upper 60s to low 70s, but with two exceptions: a strong rain and wind on Feb 17 (and temperature drop to low 60s for a few days) and a few hotter days (end of Feb - beginning of Mar) with highs up to 77-78 F. For a couple of days (around Mar 2-3) we had uncharacteristic hot and humid weather, just before the dry period ended. Then in March we had about 10 days of rainy weather with high temps in low to mid 60s, but I think buds that died have been already killed by then.
Now I’m a little more concerned than I was yesterday. We are due to get 8 to 10 inches of snow starting tomorrow through monday. Oh brother! Say it isn’t soooo.
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Mrsg47,
Maybe it will pass quickly. We will be back up in the 70’s next week. Tomorrow we get a wintery mix. We hit lows of 25 in some spots. At my place we oddly stayed very windy which was lucky http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/weather/frost.pdf. The blossoms for the most part look ok. Had to break the ice out of my water buckets I use for planting this morning. I also put my garden and orchard trees that bloom early on a hill and the plants that bloom a month later in the bottoms like blackberries.
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Maybe it was addressed in this thread and I missed it but does the saturating wet snow and rain today hinder or help the blooms in front of tonight’s freeze? I have a few things blooming right now (Nanking cherry and several pluots). I’m not going to try covering them. It’s been rainy and snowy all day. Pullen my potted figs in the garage but everything else is in ground.
Water, wet soil, is good because of it’s high heat capacity. But it won’t help too much given how cold everything is after snow. What helps is #1 cloud cover. Number 2 a high dew point and number three some wind.
Freezes are most severe with clear skies, dry air, and no wind.
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Thanks!