Blueboy, They will take some cold.....at 32 you are fine, take steps to protect fruit and open flowers at anything below 30. Frost is worse than the cold temps. I generally remove the late fall flowers and fruit as the fruit is just never good anyway but there were a couple hundred berries out there and when we got down to 23 a couple weeks ago it fried them as well as the open flowers. The swollen buds were fine as well as the buds that were already broken open. If the flowers are half grown and you get below 30 degree weather they will look ok sometimes but the flowers are damaged and can't seem to open. Interestingly on some of the plants buds further down the canes that were not swollen fruit buds are now swelling. It is like the BB keep some buds in reserve.

A spring freeze doesn't kill stone fruit trees. I've seen dozens of freezes worse than you ever see in San Jose and it's never even killed the leaves. Lots of dead fruit and blossoms but nothing worse. Something else killed your tree. I know they are predicting a bad cold spell for your area. But the record lows in late Febr are all low 30s. I doubt you will even lose any fruit, hope not.

I've saved fruit many times from temps as low as 25/26/27 by going out in the very early morning hours between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM and spraying them down with water. It does help. A couple of things -- 1) bring the hoses inside somewhere they can't freeze. Even a little water will leave an ice plug in the hose, which is frustrating and problematic at 4:00 in the morning. 2) Be sure to wear heavy, waterproof gloves with insulated gloves inside. Your hands will get cold fast, especially when wet. 3) Always get dressed. Don't go out in your pajamas and an overcoat like I did, then hide behind the compost pile for 20 minutes while the cops shine your yard looking for burglars because some neighbor called the police about the strange goings-on in your yard at 4:00 in the morning! :=)

The Bonide Blossom Set Spray caught my eye, because I just bought some today, and am wondering if it will make any difference with my tomatoes. ****** See the FAQ, link at the top of this first page, on blossom drop re the product blossom set which is sold under many brand names. It was devised to be used to help fruit set in those areas where the early temps are too cool for normal pollination. And use of blossom set certainly can make a difference with your tomatoes. Different blossom set products have different plant hormones, the one I know best is Indole Acetic acid. What it does is to allow for fruit set in the absence of normal pollination and fertilization of the ovules in the tomato ovary. Fertilized ovules become seeds/ So fruits induced in this way, which is called parthenocarpy, are usually seedless, and can be malformed as well as have an unpleasant flesh consistency, and that's because fruit development is abnormal. Do all of these things all of the time? No, but there's no way to predict. Dr. Baggett at OSU bred many parthenocarpic varieties, such as Oregon Spring, which are helpful to those in the PNW where late Springs are consistently cool. Using blossom set does not protect the blossoms in any way. Sure it's colder than normal for many of us right now, but we all know it will turn warmer in a few days and then temps will be OK for normal self pollenization to occur, per usual. Carolyn, who would never use blossom set, regardless.