Bud break 2012
The first Nanking
cherry and plum
flowers opened on March 14, and the rest of our fruit trees aren't far
behind. Here's my best guess about when our orchard was in a
similar stage of bud break in previous years:
- March 23, 2009. (A late freeze wiped out all the blooms and
we didn't get any fruit.)
- April 3, 2010. (Great harvest of peaches!)
- March 22, 2011. (Would have been a great harvest of peaches if not for brown rot. We got two pears too.)
So, it looks like we're
running about a week or two early --- not as bad as I'd feared.
In fact, now might be a good time for the fruit trees to go ahead and
bloom since the ten day forecast looks like summer. We'll just
have to hope for no more freezes below the post-bloom critical
temperature of 28
for the rest of the season.
The other photos in this
post are totally unrelated. But I have a hard time not throwing
in gratuitous spring images. Enjoy!
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
What's your game plan if the temp is predicted to dip below 28? I think I saw a post about you throwing a blanket over a fruit tree at one point - what about wrapping trees in your quick hoop material? I ask because I'm currently figuring out our fruit tree selections, so this is particularly interesting to me right now.
~ Mitsy
We tried not spraying last year and had some curculio damage to our plums and peaches as well as some black rot on our grapes. We are trying Neem oil this year first (already sprayed) as a dormant oil and we are considering to spray after petal drop to control the curculio damage.
I don't spray our vegetables but I consider the trees and vines more of a long term investment.
Do you spray anything or do you rely entirely on the plants natural resistance?
Jessie --- Here's a shot of our peaches bursting out of their flowers.
Becca --- I'm glad you don't mind my gratuitous spring photos. Even though it's been a mild winter here, we're still glad to see greenery and flowers. Good luck with your move!
Mitsy --- I didn't have any luck wrapping our kitchen peach even when it was quite small --- the frost got through and killed the flowers. That said, the 28 degree critical temperature just kills 10% of the fruits post-bloom. Depending on what kind of fruit tree it is, you don't get 90% kill until 23 to 25 degrees. So, I figure even 26 or 27 probably just thins the fruits and saves me some work later.
Brian --- We don't spray anything on our fruit plants. The way I look at it, if I have to baby them just to keep the plants alive, I'm better off with a different variety. (That's why my apples are off to such a slow start --- I didn't realize at first that it was mandatory to choose varieties resistant to cedar apple rust.) I'm also willing to cut out bad spots and even scoop wormy centers out of fruits. But we're still in the early stages --- I can't be sure the total no-spray approach will work!