The low prediction for Saturday is 23F. Well what does that mean for my muscadine vines and the other orchard trees? As of now my dines still look to be very dormant so I’m inclined to think they will come through unblemished. At my location, the different fruits that I grow muscadines and most of the apple varieties bloom late enough that the cold springtime weather usually doesn’t bother them. I hope this year is no exception. Some of my plums are in full bloom and the others are about to open. I don’t know exactly how the one nanking cherry fits in with the plums but it has bloom buds just starting to swell so I think it will be okay. The pears I’m concerned with are Harrow Sweet and Korean Giant, of which both have fruit buds enlarging but not open. These two if not damaged will be 99% of my pear harvest this year if they make it. I have about five other pear varieties that aren’t fruiting yet that I think in most years will bloom late enough to beat the late cold weather. I feel like pears can be successfully grown in my area once a good fit with varieties is determined that gets past our late cold snaps.
@Auburn … seems it goes like this every year… nice early warm ups followed by temporary dips onto the 20s… and this will probably not be the last one … for me anyway… fully expect a couple more of these before mid April.
A few years back we got a 26 -27 degree dip on 4/15 that took out all my peaches apples grapes…
You know exactly how cold it gets and how long it stays there… and exactly where your fruiting trees, shrubs, canes, vines are at in the budding or blooming process will determine the amount of damage done.
Would be nice if a frost could perfectly thin our fruit… without damaging the remaining fruit. My peaches require soooo much thinning. I would be glad to do all that thinning myself and avoid these dips in temp.
I hope we all get thru this and have plenty of fruit left.
This also makes me think of adding more fruit that is not so susceptible to late frost… like Jujube… blooms in May… Eu Plums… which I hear bloom later… blackberries raspberries and blueberries seem to be able to survive and fruit well thru my late frosts.
Good Luck !!
Your plums in full bloom are probably toast, at least most of the blossoms. There may be a handful in there that have yet to open and you could get those. But when that happens in my area it just turns out that the squirells find them very early-on and make sure I get nothing. I would think that your pears will be fine. I am no help when it comes to muscadines, but guessing if they are fully dormant they will be fine too.
Curious as well what will be damaged. I have no flowers on any of my fruits, but some buds look like they are breaking on my blue and blackberries. Hoping they all survive the snow tomorrow. Suppose to touch 18 degrees here in Maryland.
If your trees are in full bloom, the only thing that has worked for me is KDL
Most of my important trees are still fairly dormant. So I’m not that concerned.
If they were in full bloom, I’d be spraying KDL.
There are a number of threads that I’ve written
with FULL explanations.
this is when having short trees gives you options. I have various tarps I can use to drape over peach trees. Heat source could be a simple oil lamp. Years back when I was a youngster, we made “bacon lamps” for camping. Basically a beer can filled with bacon grease and a cotton clothline cord as a wick. Smelled so nice! But diesel works even better for this purpose. Set your alarm for 4:00 AM or when ever is a few hours before the danger zone
Bumping the temp up just 5-6 F is the difference of total loss or not
Boy you and the East Coast are really being hit this year. I hope you don’t lose your crops. I’ve been there its horrible. Good Luck!!!
I’m expecting single digits this weekend (°F), but I’m thinking the only things likely to suffer for me are my peach blossoms that are pink enough I know they are about to open and maybe some garlic tips. I’ve one cherry and one flowering quince with buds far enough along that they won’t likely suffer until the next wild drop, but it’s normal for it to pogo here through April. I’m just hoping we don’t get another one in May like we did the last two years.
Not being argumentative but isn’t there a limit to this? if the low is low enough, ain’t nuttin you can do. I think that’s where many of us are this weekend.
I have G890 apple roots that have half inch leaves…Budagovsky seems dormant still.
Rootstocks in transit someplace …
hope they are OK.
Blueberries…some about to bloom…currants have leaves size of quarter…probably black leaves on Sunday
One Asian pear is far enough out to probably be damaged.
(Figs are inside!)
Two packages of scion on my porch today, in a snow storm. Never heard a knock. I doubt it’s half an inch of snow, but the wind won’t let it land. So now I’m worried another package or two may have been left and be in the neighbors cow pasture by now, although the ones I know were shipped have arrived. Far more worried about that than what is in the ground. I’m sure my peach blossoms are toast. I’ll look at grafting something else onto it next year to maximize the potential of something making it through.
I hate it for those of you who are a bit further along, or who have more riding on each season’s production.
My peaches are at calyx green. Stage 2 here on this chart, maybe a few into calyx red.
Tonight‘s low is expected to be 16, but it’s already 26 and will probably be below 20 for at least 12 hours. I expect some percentage of loss but probably not significant enough to affect my crop too much.