Its really sad, as the buds are black (really dark brown and dry as a rock). the stems are fine. The buds also look as if they have shriveled as they are tiny. Not all of them but many. The others are gray and plump. The most delicate of my trees seem to be the Shui Mi Tao and the Early Crawford. All of my other peach trees are fine. Nothing is is bloom, way too early. The rain has stopped so I can spray my second round of copper this Sunday after I cut scion wood. Thanks for asking. My ‘Black Boy’ peach is loaded with buds that are just fine.
-10 for three days and high winds. Lost a beautiful Witch Hazel tree. It was about 34 years old. You know, its never easy!
MrsG,
Hang in there. There will be plentiful of fruits next year because your trees are well rested this year.
Tony
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Tony you are sweet to respond. I really will have plenty of fruit and trees, it just never fails that my favorites seem to be the ones hit by frost or wind. Oh well! I just won’t have as much to share, that I don’t like. Thanks for your thoughts.
Mrs. G.,
The dark brown, dry ones definitely are not a good sign. I kinda underestimated the low temp. I figured it’s only for 2-3 of single digit subzero (I did not count the windchill factor).
I have not checked my peach buds yet but I looked out the window and saw my bamboo leaves turned dry green and going brown. It looks bad. I’ve to check fruit buds tomorrow.
All of my other stone fruit is fine as well as the apples. Its just two out of five peach trees that are overly sensitive to freezing temps. We have a fierce northeast wind here that you know about. It flies over the island I live on and can be horrible.to my trees. This winter three are bent over and will need re-staking this spring. Windchill usually doesn’t count but our temperatures usually never get below ten degrees. The low temps were a real surprise. As someone said, my ‘thinning’ is now finished.
It sure was windy last week.
Whicph trees have bent over?
Please tell me those were the night temps! Brrrrrrr! I was cold and miserable during that same spell, but didn’t say anything about our weather because I know those of you farther north had it colder. As windy as it was here for what seemed like days on end, I have no doubt that the winds were stronger where you are. I heat the bathrooms and other people’s bedrooms, but the part of the house I use remains unheated. So, yes, I was cold.
Until recently I felt almost certain that I’d lose most or all of my fruit buds this year. The warm December had advanced the development process to the point that I had apple blossoms ringing in the new year. It took a few weeks to get past mourning the loss in advance, and progress to thinking as Tony stated - that the rest would put the trees in good stead for an abundant crop next year. Plus, I would be able to focus honing grafting skills and making general improvements in my setup, because I would be freed from thinning and protecting the fruits from the ravages of nature.
The January cold did stall and slow down bud advancement. Although I may have reduced set due to lack of appropriately timed chill, the odds of getting fruit this year are now increasingly favorable. The apple continues to bloom, unfazed by the taunts of cold. The only blossoms I’ve been losing have been blackberries and strawberries, and that has been from rain and lack of pollinators.
I hope you find the same is true of your peaches - that more buds survived than you now suspect.
Three apples. They are leaning.
I hope you’re right. I’ve decided I can never have enough peaches and raspberries and Mott Pink apples! So life is good.
High temps yesterday…almost 80F in S Dakota.
We are losing a lot of our snow here…should be mostly snow free by next week by the rate we are going and with the forecast keeping us above freezing until Sunday.
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Yes and the two 90s were in my backyard. Looks like an earlier than normal bloom here and we already bloom a month too early.
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Does wind chill matter?
I was at a local vineyard recently (right after we got 3 feet of snow) and someone asked the owner and wine grower if he was worried about the vines. His answer was that the vines only care about actual temperature, not snow, not wind, but the actual temperature.
Is it different for fruit buds? Are they sensitive to wind chill?
I don’t think so, but the wind does dry them. If the roots are frozen and enough drying winds hit the tree they can die. As the tree cannot get water. If it happens during warm spells the tree should have plenty of moisture. Only during the dead of winter can it hurt.
Sorry to hear about your losses MrsG, I lost some blueberry buds myself, but not on all of them, besides that so far so good. Another warm spell here, but not really bad the high tomorrow is 55 the warmest it has been here. Still freezing at night, or close, trees can take a couple days and stay dormant but lose some hardiness. It slowly becomes cold again, so I should be fine. I’ve mentioned it a lot, but the Great Lakes are life savers, they hold the temps constant for us and so these warm spells are not as warm as they could be and cold spells are not as cold as the could be, it’s win win. Although about once every ten years the weather is severe enough to damage buds. it does happen, just not that often. This year we are good so far, but plenty of time to kill buds yet! The only way here to damage fruit buds now is a late spring freeze. Here though that has to be late April as the plants don’t really flower till mid-April or later.
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Wind chill doesn’t affect fruit buds. That’s a factor for something like us that’s warm and trying to stay that way. The fruit bud will cool to air temperature in short order windy or not.
This little area of the country stands out as having nearly normal temps with highs and lows running mostly within 10 degrees of this time of year’s average for at least the next week and a half. Neither outstandingly hot nor frigid, and no freezing temperatures. Although it will be wet, the battle of the seasons seems to be taking place elsewhere and not over my head.
I’ve been lugging my bananas and some potted citrus outside for the days and back in at night (except for this past holiday weekend when it was too cold out there for me, much less them). Now I can leave them out there for 4 or 5 days before returning to that routine. I look forward to putting them in the ground for summer.
Thanks, Fruitnut. That’s my understanding, too. I’ve probably learned it from you from GW.
Unbelievable. I would definitely call that baking! RI shows as all white area. Chilly for us, not really normal temps by the sea, should be warmer.
I thought it was supposed to be cold and wet all winter in the south and west. And where’s the rain in CA? Maybe I’m wrong but I think CA has been more normal rain this winter than wet like was forecast. So much for the super strong El Nino.