I’m in 5A. Central Illinois. I have Peaches, Nectarines, Apples and Sweet Cherries. I believe that we were down to around -10 deg F. Daily temperatures around 5. What kind of impact to my trees should I expect? Is this going to kill them? Branches? Fruit buds?
Probably they will survive ok. I grew up in W Tn where winter temps could be that low for a week or so each winter. My parents had apples and peaches which never seemed to suffer from the cold. If you have concerns about prolonged freezing, you might consult your local county extension agent who could best advise you about your questions and possible protective measures such as applying a leaf mulch around the base of trees.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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It really depends on how cold hardy they are, some apple and some sweet cherry varieties can handle down to even zone 2 or zone 3 Vermont. Others are way more sensitive.
As far as I know the fruit buds of Peaches, Nectarines could only get damaged by that kind of temperature when they are coming out of dormancy, although there are plenty of varieties of peaches and nectarines that I know nothing about.
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You will learn the answer come spring. There are a lot of variables to factor in.
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The Illinois extension office has some limited information on youtube where it mentions temperatures below -9 can kill. I’ve been this low before and never lost anything… but I’ve since added other varieties. Guess we will see. I won’t be able to resist checking on the dormant buds much sooner than spring.
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The trees should be fine. I am in central Illinois as well.
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You are likely in NO trouble. But if it gets to -30 next month…then more liklihood of damage Or if it gets to -30 in late Feb…even a bigger concern.
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Only way to know is to keep track of your lows and then in spring see what has a good bloom and doesn’t. Raspberry Red had maybe a dozen blooms last year after at least 5 nites between -10F and -13F (which for here is a mild winter).
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Most peach dormant flowerbuds are in trouble if it gets around -12 F. And this storm seems to have arrived early so nothing may be fully dormant. Sweet cherries are somewhat hardier than peaches.
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I believe I know my answer now. It’s looking like I lost 95% of my dormant fruit buds. Sigh. I see only a sporadic peach bud here and there.
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How did your trees fare? Specifically peaches if you have any. I’m blown away by how much I’ve lost due to that nasty weather in December.
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I feel your pain. In another thread I recently posted I’ve discovered of 3 peach trees I only have four blooms. I guess I am going to use this as an opportunity to prune it back even harder and generate a ton of new fruiting wood.
The apples, tart cherries, sweet cherries, and cornelian cherries look good so far. I don’t have any peaches so I am not much help there. Are you sure you lost peaches buds and/or trees? Maybe they are slow to break dormancy. For me the cornelian cherries are in bloom, apples are anything from bud swell(silver tip) to 1/2" green depending on the tree, tart cherries are green tip and sweet cherries are only at bud swell. At least that is what I remember when I took a quick look yesterday.
Could you supply more details about what your trees look like? Perhaps @Olpea could comment he is a peach expert and grows them commercially.
I have no peaches but I helped a friend to select a peach tree, he wanted to try to grow them organically and I was skeptical that it would be possible. He ended up going with Glohaven since it was one of the few peaches that had resistance to brown rot and bacterial spot. It also can produce large peaches that have good flavor. Plus I remembered someone on the forum maybe Olpea saying that in bad frost years " you would almost always get something" which is a plus.
I think that’s going to be my plan too. I have 14 peach trees. 12 different varieties. Only one (Reliance) seems unscathed. So yeah… this may be my opportunity to lower the overall height and get some fresh fruiting wood.
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Yeah I’m positive I’ve lost 98% of the fruiting buds on my peaches. They’re just falling off on their own but the trees have clearly broken dormancy. My ‘reliance’ is the only one that is holding the buds/blooms. I bet flowers will be open on it in a few days. One nectarine is okay… the other is not. That sub zero weather really did a number on my trees and enthusiasm.
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There was a lot of dormant bud loss from that Dec. freeze. Normally -10F wouldn’t do a tremendous amount of damage. However, it was either too warm before that cold snap, or the trees didn’t have time to get into full endodormancy.
As far as I can tell, we got to -9F here and lost a lot of dormant peach buds. So did other people around here. But, a lot of trees still had enough buds to make a full crop. We had a spring freeze last week when just about everything was in full bloom. That killed some flowers. I don’t know yet how it will sort out.
Even in KY, peach growers down there lost a lot of dormant fruit buds from that December freeze, according to a chemical rep I talked to from there. Apparently the spring freeze we got about a month ago when they were in full bloom, killed any remaining flowers for growers that far south.
Some varieties off the top of my head which sailed through the -10F in Dec. and had a good bloom here were, Ernies Choice, Harken (which was a surprise because many years we have production problems with these trees), Contender (of course), PF 19-007 (this was a surprise because I think it had some production problems from a cold winter snap a couple years ago), PF eight ball (again surprise because of lack of production from a previous cold winter), Saturn donut, Challenger, Intrepid, Madison, Biscoe, Encore.
There were lots which lost lots of fruit buds, but still had quite a bit of flowers. Glohaven would fall in that category this year. So would Earlystar, Redhaven, Allstar, Veteran, Scarlet Prince, Laurol, Harrow Diamond, Harrow Beauty, PF 24c, Autumnstar, Johnboy, PF14.
Some varieties which got hit the hardest from the Dec. freeze would be Spring Snow (almost nothing on 4 trees), Glenglo, PF9a-007, TangOs 1 (practically nothing), PF 15a (very little), Loring (very little), Victoria, Winblo, Blazingstar (had almost nothing).
Risingstar, which is normally the gold standard for production (and excellent flavor) got hit pretty hard from that Dec. freeze, which was a surprise.
We have other varieties, but they didn’t stand out in my mind as either really poor, or really great bloom, so they would probably fit somewhere in the middle.
Again, this is just visible bloom and doesn’t take into account the spring freeze we had last week, or any potential future freezes we have left this season.
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Here’s where I’m at with mine. 5A - Central Illinois (Champaign, IL)
No fruit buds/blooms this year:
PF 19-007
PF 15A
PF 24-007 (2)
PF 5D Big
Red Haven
Red Star
Prima Gattie (3)
Flame Prince
Gala
Royal Giant Nectarine
These have blooms:
Reliance (50% less than normal)
Elberta (September - loaded with blooms)
Contender (Young tree - Will likely pluck any fruit off)
Hardired Nectarine (3 year old tree. Seemingly light on blooms)
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Mark,
Do you recall if Contender’s flowers showy or non-showey?
I bought a Contender tree on impulse from Lowe’s. It has non-showy flowers.
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Lol! I also bought a “Contender” at Lowe’s this year. It had a bloom on it and I actually pulled up this link : Here's some blooms of stone fruit in the store on my phone to check before I bought it! I was satisfied the one I was considering looked very much like the picture.
It’s not showy. Hope yours is good too!
Having the right type of flower is only step one. There are more to verify. At least, it is the right first step.
I know Mark/@olpea posted pics but I could not think of the name of that thread. Thanks for bringing it up.