Strange weather - Will it get our blooms and fruit?

It is 35 here with 5 mph wind out of the north. I have a drop cloth on the Asian pears and c9 lights on the peach tree. It is clear, if the wind stops it may get cool tonight!

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I know it doesn’t look like it but that is fifty feet of c9’s on the peach tree.

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Are those flowers on the tree? Holy Cow!

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Yes, it is in full bloom. The best case scenario would be that it kills all of the blooms that I would have to thin, lol.

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All of those and ONLY those. :wink:

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OMG. That is painful to see. I hope they make it, thinking of you!

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Thanks for your concern, I am sure that many of us go through this every spring, although this spring came very early here. I hope your trees stay asleep for a while longer.

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Here in Maine, we are about 3 weeks ahead of a ‘normal’ spring. Signs are pointing to a possible repeat of 2012, when abnormally warm weather got the trees going too early and many orchards lost their harvest because the bloom was frosted out. A good reason to diversify the crop and and grow a few that aren’t subject to getting nailed by frost! This is a reason I am trying beach plums, they bloom later than my other plums which could be just enough to get them to fruit.

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Very cold morning here in Kansas at 26 degrees. The wind blew all night and my hill top orchard seems ok so far. We will be back down to 26 Thursday. The plants have all been in the same stage of bloom almost a week now.


Remember back to the first picture at the beginning of the post of the snow melting in hours literally. This is what this area has looked like since February

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Have you checked the little fruitlets this morning? I’m going out to check mine any minute after 28F since midnight. It will be really easy to tell damage here. You can tell on yours by checking the style I think it’s called, the little tube the pollen travels down. If unfrozen it still looks vibrant and turgid. If it wilts that fruit is toast. But you probably know that.

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Fruitnut,
I wasn’t counting on eating any apricots this year. They usually get froze out. I did not know though I should have thanks for the tip. There is a lot of stuff like that I’m still learning.


The apricots are a week ahead of the peaches, plums, and pears this year. The apples are not showing any color yet.

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Those apricots are clearly undamaged. Great pictures by the way. The turgid style is clearly visible.

Here the unprotected fruitlets that are pea size are toast after 28F. The small late stuff like yours I think is OK.

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Thanks Fruitnut maybe I will get luckier than I thought this year.

I’m afraid we’ll both need another 4-6 weeks of good luck.

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We will see how it goes. This is the goose plum I was concerned about showing buds back in January finally blooming


I grafted a Japanese plum to a bounty plum thicket a couple of years ago and it seems to have slowed the bloom down which may be useful to know
I also noticed duchesse d’angouleme pear seems to be blooming a bit behind some of the others which may be useful later. I top worked this tree three years ago. I pinched most blooms off because the pears get so large The apples have a ways to go until bloom.

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Fruitnut,
Were most of them covered that made it? I see why you grow your trees like that now. That size is ideal for a lot of reasons.

On my multi graft pear I notice that most of the European pears are showing little leaves and the Asian pears have small leaves and blooms ready to open but the lanti jujuli had stayed compleatly dormant so far. It may avoid spring frosts well. I wonder if it came from an environment similar to here with springs that would freeze early blooming plants.

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Derby,
That’s the kind of thing that pays to know. If you have room for additions that might deserve consideration if everything else is positive.

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Yes, I don’t know how it will taste, but as you said it could be good to know at some point.

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What I covered came thru a long night of 28F. Those unprotected froze if past petal fall but not if still blooming. These are all outside not my greenhouse.

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