Weather

I was going to whine about our low temperatures and high winds, but then I glanced at what’s coming to the Midwest. Sorry, folks, and good luck!

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At least in Colorado we typically have snow Into May. Our last frost date is supposed to be May 5th. In other words this is not out of the ordinary for us.

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3" of snow here yesterday–and the first April snow ever recorded at Portland OR Airport (82 years).
More snow predicted for tomorrow. See you in July.

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Inch of snow last night in Boise

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The climate has been so erratic here. We’ve had more hail this year alone than I’ve seen here in the last decade combined. I lost some plants which normally overwinter here. One that died was a native plant I had growing in pots. It went to complete mush.

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id say i feel bad for you but ive seen late april storms here drop 2ft. :slight_smile:

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We never worry about snow cause we don’t get any. That being said we can drought and have recently for the entire spring h and lost everything for lack of water and its just near impossible to water everything over the size spread you can have. A few years we’ve had rain so bad for the entire spring it’s drowned everything and all gardens were basically mud ponds. On the other hand we’ve had 90’s for Temps. Starting in early April and running through the summer and seeming to never want to end giving the scorched earth effect. Then there have been years like this one. Cool and comfortable even still and looks to be reasonable through the entirety of April into May. Very nice periods of rain for just the right amount of time with cooler nights and comfortable days. No really bad severe storms with the exception of a few small tornados which are actually expected here every spring. All in all a very nice comfortable winter with a half a dozen frosts. So far no late severe frosts and appears none are in the forecast and we almost never get frost after the last April full moon and we are almost there. So far so good. Mother nature will take her course regardless but has been good to at least my area for the last year or so.

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Seems like the early warm spring tricked all the peaches into early bloom, then followed by this cold snap the bees all disappeared, so not so much pollination getting done, still hopes for a good plum year, but peaches not so much here in Kent, wa

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More our Norm for this time of year. Well above what some of you will see for summer. Just what each of us deal with. We just hope for enough rain to somewhat temper the heat for decent growth

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Very pleasant here perfect for grafting and pruning

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So far so good! Might be the best winter/spring for now, might change. Why? Inground tree’s no damage, including all inground figtrees, just tip damaged but branches will be shortened anyway.
Looking forward to a better than a 2021/2020/2019.

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well, the -40f we had over the winter seems to not have done any damage but the heavy wet snow that has melted so quickly has stripped/ crushed many smaller bushes and tree branches. spent 4 hrs yesterday pruning out damaged wood and barely scratched the surface. if its not 1 thing its another!

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Local temperatures showing to be in between 51-88 F next 10 days with 3 days in a row of 86-88 F.

I have grafted all my Apples and pears already and want to start grafting Plums, Cherries, Apricots and Peaches.

Questions for veteran grafters : Should I go ahead with grafting all and cover with Padded envelop and Aluminum foil or Aluminum foil or do not cover the junction except just the parafilm … OR wait for a better window of 10 days temp between 60-80 which might not happen from here on.

All opinions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I would graft on Wed or Thursday. I wrap the whole scion in parafilm, except for the part to be inserted in the understock. After insertion, I wrap the junction with a double layered parafilm (double layered for strength), then I go over the parafilm at the junction with electric tape. The junction has to be wrapped pretty tight, with both parafilm and electric tape. I then put a brown bag (paper lunch bags) on top of the whole scion covering down to about quarter an inch below the electric tape and use a little string to keep it in place. The top corners of the brown bag are then cut off (cut off prices are very small, like half the pinky digit) for ventilation. Then try to forget them for a couple of weeks :blush:.

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Early white donut peaches were ready yesterday. This was an hour after getting ripe. Not safe to harvest until they are all ripe and not good keepers. Unfortunately, these peaches tend to negate my other fruit crops. Mother nature, please give it a rest!!!

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@snowflake … oh no! Did you lose a lot of peaches?

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@fieldsofgreen

Quite a few broken branches and fruit spurs and especially tender new growth on persimmon. I haven’t checked our peaches yet. The weather has been especially painful this spring. Our first “rain” in about 9 months (in April) was a hail storm also.