For me, freeze damage is a threat every spring. I know pretty much nothing about persimmons, but I do know grapes are extremely sensitive to cold once they have started to grow. I've seen plenty of damaged grapes here. At my place, any time the air temp drops below 40 there is danger of frost (I've seen frost when the lowest temp registered on my thermo was 39 degrees). If they get frost on the new leaves they are gone. Sometimes the shoot is fine if the leaves get zapped, but sometimes the whole shoot dies. Often they will push secondary buds after a week or two, but they are not as fruitful. Luckily spring is usually slow to warm around here and that keeps them from budding too early (mine are still just at the bud swell stage right now). Also late pruning can delay bud break. Grapes are the only thing I've suffered much damage on so far. My other fruits are not nearly as sensitive. I got 26 degrees last year when my peaches were in full bloom and still had a good crop. I got worried because the flower petals appeared to be damaged. Sweet cherries managed the 26 degree event as well. They were maybe a few days further along than my peaches when the freeze hit. Apples seem to flower late enough to miss the hard freezes. I know apricots are more sensitive, but I don't even try to grow them here.

dibbit posted this on another thread and i thought it answered your ? perfectly. The latest from the Master Gardeners/Polk County Extension agent is to wait at LEAST 3 weeks after the frost before pruning out any "dead" stuff from your woody plants (trees and shrubs) - 4 weeks would be safer. Then cut back until you get live wood - i.e.; the cambium layer just under the bark is green. If you REALLY can't stand looking at them, then you can carefully take off the dead leaves, but be REALLY careful not to damage the buds that will be the source of the new leaves - do it SOON, before the new buds start growing. Perennials, on the other hand, you can clean up now. Water if the ground is dry, DO NOT FERTILIZE, and keep a close eye on the plants that had to leaf out again, as they should now be considered stressed, and thus prone to disease and bugs in the next summer.

Based upon your question/comments, you do have interest in these seeds .... Why not experiment with them rather than just tossing them ... put them into the freezer for a day or two then thaw them out and perhaps repeat - extreme representation of 'winter' and of attempting to activate the chemistry within the seeds that controls germination protocols. Some seeds(NOT daylilies) need extreme heat and some actual freezing to facilitate germination. Germination ease or difficulty is a genetic phenomenon it seems. There is little to lose with the experiment IF you wish to save the potential within those seeds.

I was afraid that heat was causing my problems. Most of my plants are in the shade atleast 6 hours of the day after the first of June. The ones that I use the most are in light dappled shade more than that. I know I lose bud quantity by not being in more sun but since I'm fighting the heat, I figured the shade from my big old oaks would help. This year our weather was really freaky. It was so cool in April and the first of May that I didn't start having blooms until the last week of May. I usually have some the first week in May and by the second week, I'm getting around 100 blooms a day. So, the blooms were late and then, Blammm!! It goes from 40 at night to 95 in the day and the lows only in the 70s. I dare not even try to explain how high the humidity was. Next year, I'm going to be up before dawn putting on pollen. I hate getting up early, but I hate worse working 4 hours everyday for nothing. No, I don't freeze my pollen. I leave it in the vials, in my cool home until I get ready to use it. I don't know the science behind pollen, so I hope pollen doesn't "die" for the lack of a better word??? I did freeze some the first year, but it would sweat in the vials before I could use it and this just didn't work for me. My blooms usually don't have fluffy pollen until around 10am. The ones in the early morning sun fluff up first and then the ones in the shade will be ready to gather by the time I finish gathering the ones in the sun. It's amazing, the little bitty bees can sniff out dry pollen the second it gets ready and they are gone with it before I can get to it!! I use the little light weight hair nets to keep the bees off if they really get to greedy. I sure appreciate the feed back. I thought maybe you had a magic potion to hold the pollen to the pistol or something when you said you were getting such high success. I even wondered if some were wetting the pistol since I see so many photos made with water showing on the petals. Ya'll made me feel some better. Now, I'm going to work on getting my plants in good shape for next year. I need to repot about 300 pots and it will probably take atleast 600 pots to put them into. Sooo I have a lot of potting to do. Any recommendations on good fertilize. I'm using Mircle Grow garden soil in my pots and topping them off with mini pine bark mulch and using MG slow release fertilze. It gets expensive to repot this way, but when you think about paying $50 for one fan, using $3 worth of soil to put it in, isn't outrageous. I just haven't been able to pay $250 for one fan. I'd have to sleep with it to make sure the ______!!! voles didn't eat it. While I'm asking, what's your favorite parents this year? I'm going to purchase about 10 plants later this year, and I'm wanting to get the best pod builders I can. One more question: When the bud count is listed in the description, does this mean the total buds on all scapes for the year?? I have never seen a scape with 50 buds on it. I do good to get 15, most of mine is 8 to 10. I do have some that say they should have 35 - 40. Have a great day, Mona