I,ve got a shipment from Gurneys coming tomorrow, and I have a 2 to 3" layer of ice yet on the ground. I’m just going to keep them in the garage for a few weeks. We have mostly 40’s for highs and 60 on Thursday with rain. Hopefully it won’t be long till the ground can be worked.
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A few weeks ago we had the cold spell that brought 3F and 40mph winds, my Apricots were showing color and it looks like half the buds are toast, Redhaven Peaches look fine, and did a scratch test on my in-ground Chicago Hardy Fig and it’s still a moist bright green at 5 feet, so I’m happy with that. I finally potted up my first Romance Cherry sucker, from plants 4 years old and in-ground 2 yrs. The sucker was 6 inches from the trunk of a Juliet, so I assumed it was Juliet. I had made shovel cuts around it last fall to encourage roots, but when I finally worked it out of the ground I found it was from the Carmine Jewel planted 5 feet away. A 3/4 inch CJ root went 4 feet just 4 inches underground. Not what I expected but I’ll gladly take it!
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Yipee! I sprayed my copper and dormant oil all day Sunday, most of Monday, and part of today and I finally finished all my stone fruit trees (about 50). To be honest I was a bit late on some so we’ll see if I burned anything, but most were just about right. Looks like I came out pretty good on the freeze a couple weeks ago. I lost some pluots and apricots and some peaches and plums, but none of my peach and plums seem to have lost ALL their fruit. But I better be quiet…we still have almost 2 months during which a late freeze is possible!
How is everyone else doing on their first spray of the year? Anyone suffer any big losses from the freeze?
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Went to the garden store, got fertilizers and stuff to spray. Uncapped the outdoor water and attached the hoses. Dunno when I’ll spray, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, then get cold again. But I’ll be ready when the weather is, and everything is still dormant out there.
Also put my bees outside.
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Checked on my blooming trees today. We had a bad freeze 25-19-26 F for three nights in a row last week. I may get a very few peaches. My largest tree was too far gone and I don’t think I’ll get any from it. Plums look pretty good. My Ozark Premier, Santa Rosa, and Bruce are all in a stage of bloom. OP bloomed before and after the freeze so I think I should at least get a few. The other two held off until afterward and maybe I’ll get quite a few from those. And Pears! I’m so excited about pears! I have a Kieffer pear that bloomed out early and was leafed out with possible fruitlets. It’s not good but among the dead blooms, fruit and leaves and some bright green living leaves that will keep it alive… I have an unknown pear tree with buds about to break into bloom. My orient is blooming. My moonglow has buds about to bloom and my Le conte has a few bloom buds. ALL of them look like they might overlap in bloom times and there is a Bradford a few hundred feet away that also has blooms. I MIGHT GET A PEAR OR TWO FROM ALL MY LARGER TREES! Even the Harrow Sweet whip has a bud on it (that I will pull if it fruits) but I’m sooo exited that I may have overlapping bloom times! Now fingers crossed that it’s the last frost/freeze.
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I’m so excited that my Autumn Royal apricot didn’t bloom until today. It missed that 21 degree low we had. Nothing else looks hurt by that, except leaves on roses, etc. Maybe my orchard siting really did help about freezes.
I saw the big Rhodesian Ridgeback that’s been trying to mate with my little dog today. I’m so glad – he was polite enough again and not a bad boy. I hadn’t seen him for about 3 days, after I screamed bloody murder at him to go away. Well, he wouldn’t listen otherwise, lol! I actually scared that love-crazed goofy boy off! He could eat me in one gulp and he was scared of me 
He stole all my chicken mcnuggets, too, that day. Darn straight he was going to get an earful 
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Look What I found this morning! Spring is definitely on the way. This is my Santa Rosa Plum tree.! Zone 7a - Dover, Delaware
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The spring melt is upon us here in MN! Sounds like a babbling brook outside. I cant wait til the snow is gone so i can scratch test my trees and see who is still alive and kickin.
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I cannot believe the change, today the snow is melting and I saved enough to fill 3- 25 gallon tubs in my greenhouse. The temperatures in there are topping 35C during the day. With 3 feet of snow, I think I will get myself a chair, a book and a drink, close my eyes and relax in the sun.
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im not a sunbather but after a long winter the sun feels SO good! we are fixing up our house and I’m removing the south facing porch and putting a lean to attached greenhouse in its place. going to do dwarf pomegranates and citrus in there.
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Youre going to be so happy you did that when winter comes again! Show pictures when you are done, if you can!
@moose71
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Since it was so nice yesterday (60s) and today (72), I got a lot done outside. Cleared off some more brush yesterday, along with some pruning of the biggest of the fruit trees.
Used the chainsaw, but it wasn’t cutting that great, so I had to sharpen the chain today. After the first sharpening, it still wasn’t doing that great, struggled with thicker wood, so I did another sharpening, and it did much better. Was able to clear out some more paths up the hillside and some more trees away from the barn.
One of the peaches look like they’re pushing some small buds, but all the other trees are still asleep.
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I was cleaning the greenhouse a few days ago and came upon an old fruit box filled with the stones from my apricot canning session last year. I had intended to take them into the house in the fall, after they had dried, and stratify them to germinate a few apricot seedlings for no other reason except interest.
I thought no way could they have survived -30C day after day in a box with no cover (we had 6 weeks of intense cold). Lo and behold, today 2 have sprouted.
Now I have a new problem, there are at least 200 seeds remaining in that box and as I look at them I wonder if there is an unsung apricot hero lurking there, just waiting for me to germinate it.
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Well you know there’s only one way to find out.
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I was out last night in the pleasant 40 degree air. Sowed 50 “Early Wonder Beets” and about 50 Bloomsdale Longstanding spinach seeds. I also transplanted 35 spinach plants that I had started on 2/3/19. Tonight I will plant some peas. I may transplant some lettuce under a hoop house, but I want to check the soil temp first.
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I saw some volunteer lettuce babies popping up yesterday. Waiting for them to get big enough for relocating. That’s my idea of planting lettuce. I started Shishito pepper inside today. I might be a bit late on that.
Out in the garden garlic planted in the fall coming up now. Have to prep a bed for beets. I guess it’s starting now.
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i have 5 types of peppers i just uppotted to qt. containers in my grow room. 17 of 20 planted sprouted so far. thanks to thepodpiper ill be trying different varieties of peppers for a long time.
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I usually buy my peppers tomatoes etc. only start from seeds if it’s a variety that I can’t find in the local green house.
i have a grow room i set up in my spare room with led lights. i have never grown peppers from seed and traded for the seed i have so i figured it would give me a little green to tend to until the snow melts.
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That always cheers me up…and it is also why I always plant too early. I like seeing green stuff growing, so I start plants that either end up dying, or taking up too much room before they can go outside.
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