I guess I did the wrong thing then, I tied black plastic garbage bags over my two brand new trees I just planted about two weeks ago now. I'm more worried about keeping the leaves, just breaking dormancy with swollen buds now, because there's usually no fruit for a couple years anyway. If nothing else, it would have protected them from the harsh winds to some extent. Obviously I don't know what I am doing. I did hear do this do that and did was was easiest after covering other plants. I did leave them on for two full days this past week, but did take them off in the daytime when it was going to be above freezing for enough hours. I was kind of winging it and even though my old ones, same variety, North Star, very hardy, produced every year for over 30 years until they died, we have never had anything as bad as this past week for as long as I can remember. Maybe doing nothing would have been better, no way of knowing now. There is a thread on the old garden roses forum where they are talking about everything in their region. One of the measures commercial growers take is to irrigate the trees with spray, has to be done right, but there is something about the physics of the water and heat released if you keep up continuously while it is freezing. Also some resorted to a product called Wilt Pruf? which works to 27 degrees a few resorted to are are assessing the damage of lack thereof. Look for post by york rose about 2/3 the way down the page (now), or search on "fruit". I think some of you are on to something with the lights, and this doesn't happen that often for a lot of gardeners to have had to improvise, in the fall sometimes I threw a cotton rug over my flowers to prolong the bloom, that was about the extent of it for me. There ought to be some way to build a portable mini greenhouse with plastic for the dwarf varieties, you'd had to DIY because if there were such a thing, it would be expensive. Heavy clear plastic, pvc pipe and stakes come to mind . . . Here is a link that might be useful: Devastation in the garden thread (lots of southern people) posting

You'll find several current discussions on this question here - one just down the page - if you need lots of details. Basically, wash them, put them in a ziplock freezer bag and freeze. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Freezing tomatoes

I live in northeast OK in a small city, and our coldest morning temps have not dipped down to 32 F. degrees, yet this spring. NWS recently raised our forecasted coldest overnight temp to 33. That must be due to all the cloud cover which is moving in late this afternoon. So far, all I did yesterday is to bring into the garage some young potted clematis and 4 pots of cannua tubers that I did not already plant, due to those cannas only recently sending up small green shoots. Of the other 8 pots of cannas tubers I over wintered in protected pots and that sent up a good amount of green growth two weeks ago, I already planted 7 pots at a friends house and sent one of them home with my daughter who lives in the DFW area. For tonight My friend will cover the cannas we planted. Tomorrow afternoon I plan to cover with lots of mulch my newly emerging hostas and to quite deeply refresh the mulch on a lengthy, berm, which I have been filling with shrubs and flowers for the last few years. But I plan to wait until tomorrow's early evening to use bubble wrap and tie lawnbags, to among other things, wrap my young trees: (Smoke tree, Red Dawn 'Gold Rush' redwood tree, three-trunked paperbark maple, hibiscus 'Blue Satin' tree, two chaste trees, and a Japanese Stewarta) along with some young shrubs like my 'Miss Kim' lilacs, 'Awakening' rose climber, and some young shrub roses. which have already leafed out. Any plastic or bubble wrap will be removed during the day when temps are above freezing and replaced overnight as long as the forecasts predict temps to fall down to 32 or the high 20s. Hopefully, I am not waiting too late to protect the above listed items.

Are they sweet cherries or sour pie cherries? I have a Montmorency (sp) cherry tree & this is the first year it has REALLY produced cherries. After pitting, mine look pretty much like what yours sound like. Believe me, they are SO much easier to get already pitted. I froze mine, put them in freezer bags with about 1/3 cup sugar in them for 4 cups cherries. That is what I read to do. I've only used one package & it seemed to be as good as the fresh. I used it in a cobbler, & did reduce the amount of sugar I normally add to cherry cobblers. If your cherries are the sweet variety, I believe you can freeze them the same way, might not need as much sugar.