Cold one in the NE tonight!

[Maya]

Tonight should be a cold one tonight for everyone in the NE. What is your bud stage? Looks like I could get a little thinning. The Weather channel on line is saying 16 tonight for me here and my trees are just barely peaking out with a little green. The chart says 10% loss at 19, and 90% at 10, so maybe I won't have to thin much! ;)

My rep from CPS came by today. He said he has a customer in the Hudson Valley NY that is at tight cluster and they are supposed to hit 20, which means a 90% loss! The guy is fuming! We checked a few of my buds they looked fine. We got down to 18 or so last night.

So what is your bud stage and how cold tonight for you? I know you guys in southern NY and PA have got to be at tight cluster! Oh, and we got 3" of snow today! Grrrrrrr!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Maya - Some of our trees in N.C. Pa. are just beginning to show some green, while others ( probably most of them ) are swollen buds not ready to break, or are still beginning to swell. I'm not sure of the technical definitions !! A couple crabs are at about 3/8" to 1/2" of green showing. I'm hoping because they're crabs, they'll " tough it out " and be OK. Accu-Weather is saying upper teens - low 20's up there at camp. Good luck with your stock up there !! I hope you don't take a big hit. Best wishes.

 

[woodduck]

Some of my trees are showing some green as well, but not all. Not real sure on terminology. Forecast here in NW PA is calling for low of 20 tonight and tomorrow night !

 

[Natureboy]

Most of my apple buds are between silver tip or green tip depending on variety. The pears are another matter with buds exposed. It is suppose to get down to 14 degrees at camp tonight. It will be interesting for the apples but I think the pears will be a 100% kill.

 

[Maya]

Here's pics of the phenology stages and critical temps.....

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/topic/apples/weather/critical_spring_temperatures_for_apple_blossom_buds

 

[WTNUT]

I am at everything from green tip to in bloom. We are going to 30 tonight and 27 in a few nights.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

What do temps. like those in the table do to LEAF buds ?? I'm hoping the trees as a whole won't be killed !! If I read it right, the table is referring to FRUIT BLOSSOM buds only ??

Now that I've seen the table ( Thanks Maya ! ), we have silver tip & green tip on a few trees - no tight cluster that I saw. The buds that had 3/8" green were leaf buds - usually on the terminal ends. I hope we're OK so far. Camp area to get to 18 to 20 tonight and tomorrow night.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I have some trees now at first pink. I dont see any temperatures low enough in our immediate forecast to be of concern. When we got down to 15 degrees at very tight cluster I assumed to see some damage, but other than toasting the edges of some leaves on a Chestnut crab I havent seen any damage.

 

[Buckly]

I must be really lucky because, in these parts I'm a month away from any form of budding.

 

[WTNUT]

Well we are suppose to get to 25 degrees Saturday night. I will have lots in bloom and pink. It says 90 percent kill at that temp. Is there anything I can do to minimize damag absent a fleet of heaters!

 

[Maya]

Crap! Got down to 10 this morning. I got out there at 2 and did some burning. We'll see what happens. I was just barely showing some green, so Xing fingers.

TC, did you cut into the buds?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I got to 13 and I know I had some ar 1/2 inch and some past that so I am thinking I will have between 70 and 80% kill across my orchards. Really sucks. I will get some apples I hope but in general even tho it wasn't for a long period I think I will get w lot of losses. Going up today and we are supposed to have another cold night tonight so I will access damage Even weekend looks cold here. This really sucks

 

[NY_Terrence]

Sorry Aero. We got to 12 degrees in my area in Finger Lakes region of NY. I saw temps as low as 1 and 3 in towns outside Buffalo. When I checked on trees last weekend most were silver tip (Maya - thx for sharing chart). Crab apples definitely further along. SO many obstacles - deer, mice, cold temps, fireblight, sunscauld, leaf-eating insects... Another day, another lesson. Going to review early/mid/late blooming times before finalizing decisions on top working this year.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Camp area is at 19 early this A.M. Same is forecast for tonight. I was fearing this when we had so many 60's - 70's to near 80 in March.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Got down to 7 last night in central NH and we got a few inches of snow too! Where did spring go!

 

[Turkey Creek]

Crap! Got down to 10 this morning. I got out there at 2 and did some burning. We'll see what happens. I was just barely showing some green, so Xing fingers.

TC, did you cut into the buds?

I have not, the buds that arent showing pink are still green so I took that to mean they were alright. Maybe not?

 

[Turkey Creek]

I just got this link from MI State which contains a pile of freeze information some of which I had never seen before. All the bulletin points at the bottom of the main article are articles within themselves.

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001QvLJ...Mh1Rkvgp0AfbGF7diwn8Qd7rprNeyBQHANvjRZkQZ3A==

 

[Natureboy]

Got down to 3 degrees at camp last night. It looks like the pears are definitely toast and I would suspect the apples also. Last year was sparse with only a few apples surviving and those having frost damage.

 

[buckvelvet]

We have a weather station right in a local orchard that I keep track of, I'm under the ludington category.

http://enviroweather.msu.edu/run.php?stn=ldt&mod=w_nt&da1=5&mo1=4&da2=5&mo2=4&yr=2016&mc=396&ds=cd

Low was 15.7 degrees there last night but I am 15 miles further East off the lake so we were probably 1-2 degrees colder.

 

[WTNUT]

Well Maya, Ignorance is sometimes a very comfortable state in which to live and dwell. Having been enlightened as to FATAL benchmarks for my apple tree during cold temperatures, I type while resting in the fetal position on my office floor. I have told all employees to go about their business as if I were well and of sound mind. My personal assistant is charged with monitoring my condition through Sunday at noon. The closest weather stations to the farm measured 24 last night. Nearly all of my trees are planted in elevated areas and perhaps it didn't dip below 26 last night. I tell myself that far fewer trees were in full pink and far more were still in green tip than I recall from Sunday while spraying. I try to forget that I have looked at the weather 675 times today (if I counted correctly), each time noticing the worse is still to come. Saturday shows a low of 21 degrees! I wonder with some frequency "is it possible to hire enough people to keep a Bic lighter burning beside every single bud Saturday night". If my friends don't hear from me in the future, you know I did not pull through and the fear of a 90 percent loss got the best of me. So let me thank my apple experts for educating me over the years; and for Maya, thank you 1,000 times over for all of the educational tips you have provide - with the EXCEPTION OF THAT DARN LINK ABOVE. HA HA!