Hello, So last night there was a forecast for 29° for early this morning. Frost NOT in the forecast.
So I decided the forecast could change to frost while I was sleeping or the forecasters could miss it so I scheduled the sprinklers. This was my first attempt at frost protection as this is the first producing year for the orchard. First concern: I set the time too short and the sprinklers turned off at 6:30 (worst possible time). Don't ask me what I was thinking when came up with the duration, though I have degree in math, I don't have one in arithmetic. So it was off for an hour before I discovered it and turned it back on. Second concern: using 4 gallon/hour micro sprinklers that produce a thick mist, when I went out there at 7:30 the trees (flowers, leaves, wood, set fruit) were encased in 1/4" ice and icicles. So I think maybe the 4GPH nozzles deliver too little water for frost protection and just made it worse. Also being off for the worse possible hour made it "worser" still. What would be your assessment on the damage I did this year? (Fortunately only one variety that I care much about. The others haven't bloomed yet so no water on those.) Will the trees survive the ice? Will the fruit that already set be OK? Kiss the flowers goodbye? Will the new buds make it? If 4GPH is not sufficient, in the future what would be a better delivery rate. (Assuming I could avoid the arithmetic error from now on.) Thanks for your insights. Rye Hefley So Cal _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list apple-crop@virtualorchard.net http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
