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

Hi, Does anyone have a Diospyros kaki in Canada and if so what zone are you in. I am a little confused as the zones on different sites are different. Will it survive in a Canadian zone 6 or not? Actual growers, I would love to hear your experience.

You're quite welcome

I dont know that there is any wrong way as long as you dont add certain things- no meat , dairy, cheese, or oils. When a person is just starting on the that first tray and it becomes rather dark and most material is used or even there is still debris in it yet worms are moving around and maybe find some out of the tray its time to add that second tray. But from there in I dont judge on how full a tray is instead its how dark the material is, how much material/debris is unprocessed ,, how many worms are left in the harvest tray. All those tell me when the tray needs harvesting, but I still may or may not let it go longer before harvesting. As far as harvesting goes Im not aware of any non messy way of doing things. Someone else would have to relate that to you. Some people take a plastic sheet and dump the vc out on it and separate the worms using the pyramid method by making several piles and by doing this in a place where plenty of light is shining on the vc the worms go down and scrap a little off the top till you see worms again then you take a little break let them go down further, eventuallly you have a mass of worms at the bottom of the pile. Some people rotate the bottom tray to the top put a bright light over it till the worms go down into the next tray.. Personally I made myself seiving box out of 2x4 and 1/4" screening I made mine about 2' x 3' . I put this over a wheelbarrow and dump all the finished vc inside of the home made screener. This screener also comes in very handy for seiving contents that go in plant mixes such as peat and compost. While you are screening the vc its easy to lift it up on occasion to see any worms that have fallen thru as they will be on top. I will put any worms I find in a separate container to go back in the worm bin . Depending on how much of hurry you are for the vc you can at your liesure let the worms continue to work the harvest tray till you are ready to take it. No matter how long you wait it seems there will always be some stragglers still in the harvest tray. Heres a shot of my well used screener