Hmmm, are my apples at silver tip? My peaches look somewhat swollen but I’m not sure of the their specific state. I’m not sure if at first signs of swelling they’ve reached the official point of silver tip or first swelling- I may be noticing earlier. Last year the peaches looked swollen to me all winter, but peaches in areas that were 2 or 3 degrees warmer than my -12 in Feb that killed most of my blossoms weren’t much hurt.
My apricots and J. plums certainly are at popcorn but I’m wondering how everything else will fair in the predicted 3 degree temp tonight. These crazy warm winters with sudden extreme dips are new to me and charts only take you so far.
My business will likely be badly damaged if we have another dreadful season, so it is more than my own crop I’m worrying about.
What I wonder and I assume is that when it says after 30 mins of exposure it means from 30 mins to countless hours results in the same degree of damage. Or does damage continue to increase with length of exposure?
Well, it’s only 10 degrees right now and it is almost 6 AM, so maybe everything will be OK for now. How much can it drop in the next hour? The drama never ends.
I hope everyone expecting similar extreme cold last night is so lucky- assuming it doesn’t drop 7 degrees in the next hour.
Only got to 16 here, not 6, thankfully. Does anyone have a chart for blueberries? I expect mine are toast. Maybe a few peaches made it. Pears should be mostly OK…
Blueberries were one thing that came through perfectly last year, I’m still eating frozen ones every morning. Given their native habitat, you can assume them to be relatively hardy, I think. I’ve never lost them a single season since I started growing them over 25 years ago here, and that is the only woody fruit bearer I can say that about.
Why only a few peaches? Are yours showing pink already? If not, I expect you won’t even have accomplished adequate thinning at 16.
More proof that zones don’t tell everything or even the most important things for fruit growers. I bet your blueberry crop is fine, however. Keep some notes and report back on it. We need to work together to figure this stuff out. I’m going to try to be a better note keeper for this purpose.
My apricot tree is on the south side of the house and blooms early, but protection equals early flowering, IME. Last year the only apricots on a tree in all the orchards I manage were on the one against my house. There were 6 of them, and the most delicious I’ve ever eaten.
I looked at the charts about a week ago. I figured that anything in first stage bud swell should be able to handle down to about 0ºF. Looking at the forecasts, it appeared that the temps wouldn’t likely go that low anyhow.
Only a few days later the forecasts were updated to show this weekends plunge. Why is it that when I think of worst case scenario, it immediately becomes a threat? It got down to 2ºF here last night. Luckily, only the peaches have some bud swelling. Hopefully the results will give some context to the thresholds in these charts.
Why is it that when I think of worst case scenario, it immediately becomes a threat? It got down to 2ºF here last night. Luckily, only the peaches have some bud swelling. Hopefully the results will give some context to the thresholds in these charts.