Will there be pear freeze damage in 2023?

The fear of all orchardist is freeze damage. " Pears in full bloom have a killing temperature of 29 degrees F " .it is going to be a close one on Saturday night in Kansas! How is everyone else doing with their pear blooms?

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I have a few blooms on a bush cherry, no pear blooms this year, but yes it is going to be close, real close…

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We like to call that kind of temperature “frost thinning” :wink:

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Ayers and Golden Boy were both in bloom when we had a freeze down to 26. No production at all from either. Harrow Sweet bloomed a bit later and was unaffected.

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Why you don’t have pear bloom this year?

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My pear blossoms have been through two nights of 29 or 30F and look fine. Bud freeze charts show 10% damage at 28F. 30F should be fine, but of course the forecast is often off by a few degrees. My Clark’s Little Yellow pear is leafing out slower than the others. I wonder if it blooms later, too?

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Also depends on the height of the flowers of there’s an inversion.

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My pears, cherries, apples and peaches are just starting to leaf out. No blooms out for my established plants. My plants that came from other nursery have bloomed or have tried to bloom like all the peaches and almond trees I got from Bay Laurel tried to flower in March and my Nadia from Cummins tried to bloom in April a week after I got it. I just call any blooms on first year nursery stock a bust here because it is too cold when I get them to have them fruit. Second year they come out at the right time typically.

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@Sparty

Yes, the small yellow pear of mine blooms long after others bloom. It is in the last group with harrow sweet, orcas, tyson etc.

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I moved and now only have two little rootstock trees

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Now I remembered . Good luck with your new place.

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I hope not! And I wish everyone good luck!

Pear bloom has finished here. Good fruit set on everything except Seuri (which is finally making a nice tree but is taking its sweet time blooming) and Duchess (bloomed very early, took freeze damage which invited blossom blast). Also, Ayers has a lighter crop because of its early blooming.

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@JeremiahT

It will be very close

See this old thread Pear bud temps for success and bloom stages - #5 by clarkinks

Here are the critical temperatures for pear buds and blooms.

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I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you, Clark! :crossed_fingers:

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I drove by the old house today, the pears are really bloomed out pretty.

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There was frost on everything this morning. We hot the low 30s. Tonight will be the night that matters.

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We hit 29 degrees lets wait and see how bad it is. If there is no ice nucleating bacteria in high numbers i might lose 10% + of the fruitlets and blooms.

Pretty sure many of my pear blossoms/fruitlets were taken out by pear blossom blast and the cold. I saw this:

and also looked a pictures. Mine looked just like the pictures. So that probably explains a lot.

We had many warm days, lots of blooms then suddenly cold cold cold. I posted pics after I cut some buds open. SO many of the pears were black inside: Northern Mid-Atlantic: SE-PA/N-VA/MD/NJ/DE Region - #393 by franc1969.

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Was very blessed not to lose much of the pear crop. The temperature, wind, and hilltop orchard location seem to have worked out this year.

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