Frost got me this year...

[Wild Thing]

We were in full bloom this past week when we got hit by a cold spell. This is what they looked like on May 24th...


this is what our forecast was for the night of the 24th - morning of the 25th. We are near Iron Mountain, MI.


We were able to cover up the garden but the apple trees were on their own...


We did get frost overnight and the low hit 27 degrees. The next night we had similar conditions with frost and a low of around 29.

The following pics are from May 26th. Some of the blossoms on the interior of the tree didn't look bad at all...


but those on the outsides of the trees definitely got some frost damage...








May not have to worry about thinning apples this year. Time will tell...

 

[b116757]

My home orchard got hit with frost this year as well I’ll have some apples but it will be a light year for me for sure.

 

[SwampCat]

Frost this year got my peaches and pears - and apples going to be thin. It is always something. Drought last summer killed my two ten yr old dunstan chestnuts. If a fruit is lucky enough to survive the weather - the coons and possums get it

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sorry to hear of the frost damage for some of you guys. I know the work that goes into growing fruit trees, and late frosts are a pin in your balloon when it comes to seeing a crop.

We had a frost in SE Pa. (home) last week - after we had planted a bunch of pots with my wife's flowers, and some with grape tomatoes. About 20 pots in all. We had to bring them all inside, and throw a tarp over her in-ground flower beds. It's a good thing we did those things. Our 2 home yard crabs had already bloomed, so no problems on those.

 

[g squared 23]

I checked my 11 pear trees yesterday and have a total of 4 pears between them. Maybe a couple dozen apples on same number of apple trees.

This tiny Enterprise snuck a couple in, had to strip them so it could grow up a bit

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mortenson]

We hit 24 and 25 on a couple different nights during pear and peach bloom. I think the pears got clobbered pretty hard but the Contender peaches faired well. I'm thinning peaches every day. Apples should be solid, but I haven't seen them in a couple weeks.

 

[Benja]

Don't give up hope! You'll probably still get an apple crop. This spring has been an educational experience here on the border region between zones 5a and 6b. We experienced a final frost during peak bloom for apples and 90% petal fall for pears on April 25. I hung an indoor thermometer in the orchard the night before, then checked it soon after midnight. It showed 28 degrees and the temperature was still falling, so I ran two sprinklers and covered most of the trees. By morning, the coldest temperature had been 25.5 (+/- 1 degree, I don't fully trust this particular cheap thermometer) and hundreds of blossoms were encased in an icy cocoon. Nonetheless, this year looks like a bumper crop for apples and pears. I don't think the sprinklers helped at all; the trees that weren't in range have just as many apples as those that were sprinkled. I'll need to thin most apples and pears. One day later, the apple blossoms looked wilted, brown and sad just like those in your pictures.

@Wild Thing, now that a few a few days have passed since the frost, you should be able to check for damage. Pluck a few blossoms or tiny fruits and slice them lengthwise. Look for any dark brown or black spots or streaks near the middle, which indicate a dead fruit. Compare king blossoms with side blossoms. King blossoms bloom earlier, so you might notice more damage to one or the other type of blossom. Here's an article that further describes the process - https://www.weekand.com/home-garden/article/assess-frost-freeze-damage-apple-trees-18031572.php. When I did this - about a week after the overnight freeze - I found that roughly 1 out of 10 blossoms had damage. This gave me hope that many fruits would still form, . . . and so far that hope was well-founded.

Please do give us an update in a few weeks.

 

[chummer]

I hit 22/23 during peak bloom. I have some trees with no apples, some with a few apples, and some with lots of apples. Good reminder of why diversity is important.

 

[Wild Thing]

Don't give up hope! You'll probably still get an apple crop. This spring has been an educational experience here on the border region between zones 5a and 6b. We experienced a final frost during peak bloom for apples and 90% petal fall for pears on April 25. I hung an indoor thermometer in the orchard the night before, then checked it soon after midnight. It showed 28 degrees and the temperature was still falling, so I ran two sprinklers and covered most of the trees. By morning, the coldest temperature had been 25.5 (+/- 1 degree, I don't fully trust this particular cheap thermometer) and hundreds of blossoms were encased in an icy cocoon. Nonetheless, this year looks like a bumper crop for apples and pears. I don't think the sprinklers helped at all; the trees that weren't in range have just as many apples as those that were sprinkled. I'll need to thin most apples and pears. One day later, the apple blossoms looked wilted, brown and sad just like those in your pictures.

@Wild Thing, now that a few a few days have passed since the frost, you should be able to check for damage. Pluck a few blossoms or tiny fruits and slice them lengthwise. Look for any dark brown or black spots or streaks near the middle, which indicate a dead fruit. Compare king blossoms with side blossoms. King blossoms bloom earlier, so you might notice more damage to one or the other type of blossom. Here's an article that further describes the process - https://www.weekand.com/home-garden/article/assess-frost-freeze-damage-apple-trees-18031572.php. When I did this - about a week after the overnight freeze - I found that roughly 1 out of 10 blossoms had damage. This gave me hope that many fruits would still form, . . . and so far that hope was well-founded.

Please do give us an update in a few weeks.

Will do Benja. Thanks for giving me something to be optimistic about.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Will do Benja. Thanks for giving me something to be optimistic about.

I'm interested to hear how you make out too, W.T. Keep us posted ---- & good luck with your trees.

 

[PatinPA]

I got lucky this year. Had a bunch of late frost warnings but never got any. I would pinch off any blossoms anyway, but mine didn't even get any this year on trees 2-3 years in the ground. I am getting plums though for the first time. They made it through the freeze. They are early bloomers. Now just need to keep the raccoons and tree rats off of them.