So you don't have any source of heat in the greenhouse?

Geraldo: Yes, I have a heater in the greenhouse. Didn't need it in the last freeze. But did in early March when it dropped to about 18F well after greenhouse fruit bloom. Was just mentioning that for reference.

Is your Flavor Grenade one variety that is developing bare wood? Both my F Grenade and F King are that way. They are rather weak growing. Only the upper parts of the tree continues to vigorously grow new wood. The lower spurs fruit a couple yrs and then quit growing leaves. My solution is to cut them back severely and force them to grow new wood down low. Maybe not feasible for a commercial grower, but OK for me.

Still I really cann't see why there isn't a considerable production of Flavor Grenade coming out of California. They could sell a million boxes easily. The only real weakness of that variety that I see is the lack of vigor. Would think that could be addressed with the proper rootstock, fertility, and irrigation. The tree sets big crops but is pretty easy to thin for a plum. The quality is certainly there! Mine in the greenhouse has a great looking crop, good foliage, and the fruit is going to be large. Could you grow it around Prosser by using propane heaters for frost control? When does it mature there? What diseases are you seeing? Are you in agreement on the quality? Seems like you were last time you mentioned that variety.

The Fruitnut

I think many freeze reports need plenty of time before a good evaluation can be done. I'm starting to get a good idea now of just how bad this freeze was, so I'll go ahead and give a report. Most plants were at or past flowering. Easter morning it hit 21 F and it was below freezing for all but a few hours over two days. Some of the lower areas nearby got as low as 12 F Easter morning.

Peaches, pears, pawpaws, currants, and gooseberries are all a 100% loss of fruit, but plants were either undamaged or are recovering well now.

Fig trees still have green cambium, but all buds seem dead and the trunks are extruding weird white tubes (dried latex?), and they are gradually declining and may die to the ground.

Kiwi vines were mostly killed to the ground. So far, only one unprotected vine is showing any sign of life on the upper portions, an MSU arguta. All others vary from totally dead wood to live wood, with dead buds. They all are sending up new shoots from near the ground.

Blueberries are managing to produce some fruits from late flowers, but overall it looks like maybe a 5% crop.

Grapes are recovering. Muscadines lost about 1/3 of the wood, but bud survival was excellant. Bunch grapes lost all primary shoots and apparently all secondary buds that were at the base of primary shoots did not survive. The new growth seems to only be from latent primary buds. Some cordon wood also died.

Asian persimmons were still dormant, and are now leafing out rapidly. Raspberries and blackberries seem to have little to absolutely no damage, even though flower buds were near bloom at the time of the freeze. They are blooming now, so I should know if fruit set was normal in a couple of weeks. Aronia was just starting to bloom, and did not suffer any damage.

~kiwinut

Is your Flavor Grenade one variety that is developing bare wood?

Yes, it is. Very frustrating. We can grow it here if we have it on a good, relatively frost free site, but it isn't all that productive. I don't think this would be a good commercial variety for here. Light production(I think that is frost here), frost susceptible and a few other problems. I very much agree on quality, just not quantity. I would have to check my records to be certain on time of maturity and I changed main computers ten days ago. Still looking for things. That's the trouble with having three computers, never know what is on what. I will guess July 20 at this time, with a very large picking window. Mine isn't too small of at tree, about ten feet tall with a large central leader that needs to be cut out. the CL extends it to maybe twelve. I really like it for my personal use, but I would lay awake at nights if I had planted twenty acres of them. I talked to a man who had pulled out a forty acre (I think it was that much) of, huh, the other one, what is it, the main one. He said he couldn't get them to pollinate, but I wonder if there was more to it like frost. Flavor Grenade must one of the best things you could plant in a greenhouse.

kiwinut, I really like kiwis and would like to grow them, but every time I investigate them these are the kind of reports I get. Killed to the ground. Maybe some day, but not right now. It would sure be to nice to have an unlimited supply of kiwis to eat.

Here in Morgan County, AL I lost:

100% peach tree crop lost. Trees look fine. Both trees are large and mature.

100% blueberry crop lost. The baby O'Neal's I received from Stark this spring are almost dead; 2 some some green on the stem and 1 looks like it may pull through. The larger Blue Ridge blushes I got from a local big box nursery center were well fruited and although the fruit was lost otherwise appear undamaged.

Raspberries and blackberries: leaf damage and blossoms lost, but a full recovery seems likely with no fruit this year. This was their first year in the ground. The Fall Gold raspberries hadn't even come up yet much so they show no damage. Perhaps I may get a token crop off them.

Arguta kiwi's - killed to the ground. One male and one female are coming up from the roots, but the other female shows no sign of recovery.

Muscadines (2 each of 3 varieties) - Hadn't even budded out yet due to me getting them in the ground late. All except one are either producing leaves or show buds.

Grapes (Concord, Merlot, Vanessa, Thompson) - All coming back except the two Thompson's, which look quite dead. A very large and rambling old grapevine of unknown variety on the property didn't even lose all it's leaves and is looking quite well.

Brown Turkey Fig - as of yesterday, showing bud growth. New in the ground this year (like almost everything), but it was a healthy specimen with a well developed trunk and root structure.

Th elow I got was around 23-24F for one night, an dhad a 25F a night beofre.

100% loss on all peaches , asian pears and plums. Trees are fine.

Asian perssimons are leafing out now.

Blueberries seem fine, blackberry seems fine.

I'm just south of kiwinut in north GA and had similar damage to him. Wiped out nearly all my Gala's as they were in full bloom. G. Del was almost as bad but I might get a handful. The Spitzenberg was knocked back but the later blooming buds made it thru the 20 deg. low. I went to great lengths to cover and warm ONE apple - Cox's Orange Pippin. Huge tarp, packing blankets, and a double-lamp worklight that provided 600 watts of heat helped my little seven year-old tree (9 feet tall) keep it's blossoms. Data: 20 outside, 30 inside at the coldest part of the onslaught. This morning as I was putting footies on the applets, I was glad I went to the trouble to protect it and will remind my wife (who rolled her eyes when I asked her to help me cover it up) when she takes a bite out of one this fall. Raising fruit is tough!
Herbert

Good for you, Herbert! That'll show her.

Well, I wrapped up 7 9-foot trees in cold gusty wind. Neighbors thought that was Hawloween. Lots of effort and quite bit money spent on wraps, but I got nothing. 100% wiped out this year. My wife joked that we were going to get a hundred dollar peach, and I said:"If we are lucky".

Plum fruit is toast here. Peaches are very few. Raspberries and blueberries should be fairly good. Blackberries suffered a fair amount of damage. Apples are mostly ok except for JonAGold which had most bloom clusters frozen.

Everything up north is 100% ok.