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Fruit & Orchards

When is below freezing weather a problem?

16 years ago

I live in the Pacific NW (Zone 8), where it is usually pretty mild. We've had decent weather lately and all of my various fruit trees are budding out nicely, and some buds look like they're close to opening up. Temperatures during the day have been in the 40's-50's, and at night in the high 30's. Looking at the weather report, though, it looks like we might have one last cold dip this week...down to 30F for one or two nights. Do I need to worry about protecting my trees? Most have been in the ground for 3 years, and are dwarf or semi-dwarf, so they're of a size where I could wrap them with plastic sheeting if I had to. Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.

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Comments (4)

fruitgirl
16 years ago
Well, that all depends on just how far along things are, and what all fruits you have. I'm about an hour north of Seattle, and have access to blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, and my personal assessment is that those crops will be ok.

But, that probably doesn't help you much! Here's a link to a Michigan State page that shows approximate hardiness for most tree fruits (and grapes) at different stages. I hope it helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: MSU fruit bud hardiness
kiwinut
16 years ago
I'm surprised you have anything trying to bud out with temps that cool. Here we have had the usual radical temperature swings this time of year, but bud break is running behind "normal" so far. I do have two peach trees starting to bloom, and we hit 23.7 F this morning, so I'll have to see how they are in a couple of days. I suspect they will be fine, but just a few more days and they would be toast. It was 60 F on Saturday, 70's for several days before that, snow yesterday, and 65 F today. Pretty "normal" spring weather! We still have 2-3 weeks of frost danger left.
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murkwell
16 years ago
I live near Portland, Oregon. I have a new Japanese plum that began blooming (1 of 3 flowers), and my Early Laxton looks like it will bloom on the next warm day. I can see white tips.

The Cherry buds are open enough that I can see the individual flower buds.

We had frost this morning.
fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
16 years ago
Our fruit trees have been blooming for a month. In the last 30 days we have had 18 days with a high temp between 70-81F. We have also had 8 days with a low between 32 and 20F, three below 24F. So almost every day this time of yr is either above 70 or below freezing. You cann't hold a candle to the southern high plains when it comes to spring freeze danger. Just in case you don't believe me check it out on weather.com, Alpine TX. Not only that I chose this place as the best in west Texas, it's better here than Amarillo where I spent 30 yrs.

That's why I have a greenhouse.

The Fruitnut

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