Freeze damage

[Dotch]

Walked around the yard last night and there was some good and some not so good news. The good news: So far it looks like most of our eating apples were OK so far, even the SnowSweet that was flowering already. The pears, not sure but they were in better shape than I would’ve guessed. Potential fruit hasn't begun to wither or fall off yet so keeping my fingers crossed. Rhubarb and radishes were wilted up a little but on the radishes the growing point was intact and the rhubarb, well, it’s rhubarb and can take a pretty good butt kicking and still produce like normal. Even the peach tree appears to have escaped relatively unscathed. The bad news: The bur oak tree was just starting to flower and all those leaves that were the size of a squirrel’s ear were dried out & crispy. On the pin oak and the northern red oak beside it the damage was more subtle as the buds weren’t open yet. However the buds showed signs of some damage when dissecting them so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. I know they always have another set of leaves ready to go in case stuff like this happens but suspect the mast crops in our yard are going to be hurt.

[KEN W]

Yeah......it got down to 16 degrees here yesterday morning.I covered my rhurbarb and asparagus.They are OK.....strawberries look OK.Rasp tips got burned black.Hopefully didn't kill the plants.

My apple trees haven't started blooming yet,so they should be OK.

[Eric Wettschreck]

My apple trees wern't flowering so I'm hoping they'll be ok. We transplanted our ruhbarb before the cold snap to make room for a bigger garden. It's not happy about it but like Dotch said, it's tough stuff and will be just fine.

It's finally raining here. God knows we need the rain. They're talking maybe snow next week.

[Nainoa]

Yeah when we get these freak early springs, even though it seems counter intuitive, you kind of have to cool down the roots on fruit trees so they don't bloom too early and get nipped by a freak frost.

This upcoming cold snap/storm is going to be pretty bad... And anything that's flowering... Chances are better than not that they're going to take some pretty serious cold damage.

If you've got a giant blanket that you can wrap around a small tree for a few days, it might give them a chance.

For me it's a mixed blessing that I'm moving to a new place and all of my new fruit trees haven't arrived yet!

[Dotch]

Strolled around the grounds again last night and most of what we were seeing the day before appears to be right on. Apples that weren't flowering appear to be on track yet. Even the SnowSweet and flowering crabs appear to have a chance at being respectable. Lilacs got singed on the tips but should flower normally otherwise once it warms up. Pears were showing signs of aborting some of the flowers although as loaded as they were some of that is to be expected. Pin oak and red oak buds are showing more indication that they were seriously hurt. The secondary buds are beginning to swell on them as well as on the bur oak. These are 15' tall trees so will be curious to see how that compares to the mature oaks in the offsite pasture. Weather forecast sounds like a 30 degree low for Monday here which won't be the end of the world. However an encore performance of 20 degrees or less could put us in dire straits locally.

http://www.climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/hard_freeze_120410.htm

[Nainoa]

Yeah the kind of storm that's moving in Sunday into Monday is one of those where there will be a line somewhere in the state where there will be a big disparity in temps over a short distance.

The people on the cold side of that line will be in trouble for fruit trees... The people on the warm side, should be able to skate by... But where that line is going to end up we still won't know until it's straight up knocking on the door.

My biggest concern at this point is that with the big move I have coming up I have a dozen raspberries (My mom originally planted 3 plants 25 years ago) and I'm bring those off spring with me as well as my grandmother's rhubarb.

Rhubarb are in individual break away planters I invented out of old 5 gallon buckets and duct tape. But the raspberries are in a HUGE planter that won't fit into any proper shelter.

Best idea I can come up with is to drag the raspberries into my little storage shed, fill two five gallon buckets with boiling water and hope that the heat sink gets them through the long stretch below freezing.

[flipper]

I am ever so slightly North of you Dotch. I would say we were right on edge with this last freeze. My neighbor had 17 on his thermometer Tuesday morning and he is not the type to exaggerate such things. My apple trees are just blooming good today so I think they made it ok. The pears, plums and cherries might be a different story. I think they got smoked at the wrong time. In the woods I noticed some that some of the young walnut trees got hit hard. Some of the ferns turned black and some of them look unscathed. I have some row covers I use for my early garden plantings so they are fine. You can't kill that rhubarb. I was surprised that the tulips and daffodils look as well as they do. Dandelions seem to be fairing well.....