At our research farm near Winchester, VA our low Sunday morning was
26. Lows the previous nights were 29 and 27. There was some wind each of
those nights. The most advanced cultivars, such as Idared and Red
Delicious, were showing some early pink at the higher elevations, but were
not yet at open cluster. Peaches were near full bloom.
I see damage to some king bloom of earlier cultivars, but at this point
would say there is still the potential for a full crop of apples on our
trees. The peaches still have enough live flowers to make a full crop, but
I will reserve judgment on them because I think the miserable pollination/
fruit set conditions might be as much of a factor as the freeze in final
fruit set in our situation.
Yesterday we visited an orchard in central Virginia, south of
Charlottesville, which also has the potential for a full crop in spite of
cold and windburn on petals of open bloom and flower cluster leaves.
Reports from farther south in Virginia are generally less optimistic, with
colder temperatures and more advanced bud stage than we had in the
Winchester area. I am reminding those who are more pessimistic of a
situation I observed some years ago where Golden Delicious trees responded
to an apparent frost wipe-out with stimulated shoot tip bloom about two
weeks later that developed into a good crop!
Keith Yoder
Research and Extension Tree Fruit Pathologist
Va. Tech Ag. Research and Extension Center
595 Laurel Grove Road
Winchester, VA 22602
At 05:17 PM 4/10/2007 -0400, you wrote:
A week ago we were setting record highs in the mid 70s and apricots were in
full bloom. Frigid weather arrived on Wednesday with snow and highs near
freezing for the next four days. We had low temps in lower 20's with a wind
for 6, 8 and 12 hours on successive days. Lows near 20 occurred on Friday
and Saturday mornings. Low temperatures were a few degrees higher close to
Lake Michigan and the extreme cold did not last as long so they fared better
but away from the Lake we got hit hard. We are not wiped out but many fruit
crops were damaged by the freeze. It seems obvious to me that the entire
eastern half of the nation has been hit hard and that fruit crops here in
the east will be scarce, and a lot of growers will be looking to supplement
their income.
Does anyone south of Michigan have any fruit left?
How are things in New York and New Jersey?
The MSU Fruit Crop Alert Letter was posted today with initial reports from
Michigan
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/cat07fruit/f04-10-07.htm
-----------------------------------------
Mark Longstroth
SW Michigan District Fruit Educator
Van Buren County MSU Extension
801 Hazen Street, Suite A
Paw Paw, MI 49079
Bus (269) 657-7745
Fax (269) 657-6678
Email - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Check Out My Webpages
http://web1.msue.msu.edu/vanburen/disthort.htm
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