Hello Rye, I am not very expert in this, as I don't use the system, so hopefully somebody else can add more. Regarding the ice and icicles, these would not necessarily mean you had a problem, as long as there was a coating of unfrozen water on them at all times. This would prevent the ice from dropping below freezing point. The fact that the water turned off could be a problem though, as then there would have been no more unfrozen water, and the ice (and buds encased therein) would drop to the ambient temperature. 4gph sprinklers might not be adequate I suspect, or would not protect against a more severe frost (it depends too on how close they are spaced). When I looked into getting frost-protection irrigation for my orchards, the water use would have been many times (perhaps 6 or 8 times from memory) what I would have needed for soil mositure deficit irrigation only. I am afriad that I can't shed light on what a good rate would be, but I bet someone else here can. The good news is I would be very surprised if your trees were damaged by the ice. Con Traas Ireland
________________________________ From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net on behalf of Rye Hefley Sent: Sun 02/02/2014 17:01 To: apple-crop@virtualorchard.net Subject: [apple-crop] Frost protection via overhead sprinklers made mattersworse? 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
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