peach tree buds

Last October I bought a couple little Belle of Georgia peach trees and planted them in my side yard. They immediately lost all their leaves and went dormant, with the cold temps and 20 degree nights we had in December.

The last couple of weeks we have had unusually warm weather in north Georgia, and today is expected to go above 70 degrees! Unimaginable for January temps here! My lil trees have grown a zillion little buds already, and I am concerned about how to protect them when the temps go back down in the next couple weeks. I anticipate a lot more freezing nights before spring. Is it best to cover the trees when it gets cold again? How about clear plastic as a cover? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

NO clear plastic. Actually the only danger is that they will bloom too early and the fruits will be killed by a late frost. At that time a cloth cover, floating row cover material, cheese cloth, even old bed sheets can be used to cover small trees. I think plastic does more harm than good athough it might work in a pinch.

Oh gee, I am sure glad I asked for advice. I have some old sheets that I can wrap them in just before we get another freeze. I sure would hate to lose all the fruit my very first year with them.

I have a big cicle dug out around each one of the trees going out about 3 feet from the trunk, which I covered with a layer of pine bark nuggets. I was thinking about adding a few inches of pine straw to add more ground cover over the young roots (I have a giant pine tree so the mulch is free). Any other suggestions for giving these baby trees a good start?

Thanks,
Cindy