EARLY BLOOMING FRUIT TREES

I had not been in my little orchard for 5 days. I went out yesterday evening and I had 13 tress in partial to full bloom. Apricots, apricot-plum crosses and sev. of my Asian plums were white plus 1 peach had about a dozen blooms. I guess I will lose all of them this yr. Its 5 weeks until our last frost date here. This will be 2 yrs out of 3 that I lost crops.
RED

I read something, somewhere about a protective spray.

Red, your trees are reaching their chill requirements and coming out of dormancy too early for your area. According to the first link I found, European plums and not Asian plums are recommended for Illinois. Apricots tend to bloom early even when the chill hour requirement is close to your chill hour average. It's one of the reasons apricots aren't recommended even for Texas. Your extension service should have a list of recommended cultivars to grow in your area. When I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to this part of Texas, I went strictly by chill hour requirements. As a result, my peach tree has lost 2 crops of peaches in the last 5 years.
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/fruit/treeIndex.html
http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/search/stateresults.cfm?cx=013441887324743351507%3Afnavtnakbe4&q=backyard+fruits&sa=Search&cof=FORID%3A11#1194

What has occurred this yr. is that we had 2 weeks of 60 to 78 degree weather which broke the dormancy of the trees. The only other yr. I had a crop failure was in 2007 when we had 70 degree weather in early March followed by a week of 16 to 25 degree nights. Thus far we have not had below 34 degrees. I think they will withstand down to 28 or 29 degrees if there is some wind. Actually a 30 degree night or two would help thin them somewhat. Oh well, I'll just keep my fingers crossed and if the freeze comes I'll try to blanket 2 or 3 trees and save some
RED

Wildly fluxuating winter temperatures is the norm around here.

Made it another week with no freezes. And none in the 5 day forecast. Plums are dropping their blooms Apricots and some peaches have already dropped all their blooms.

Wow, I can't believe how early you are, Red! I had thought we were ahead of all of Illinois but you are obviously way south there. I don't have a single bloom open yet, not even the super-early apricots and pluots. It was 22F only a few days ago so its a very good thing that they have stayed shut -- they would have fried. We are about ten days later than a normal year.

Scott

Scott
We are about 3 weeks ahead of normal here. This reminds me of 2007 when I lost everything. My European plums are just now starting to really swell the blossom buds. They will probably be in bloom next week and yesterday afternoon when spraying I noticed some apple blossoms starting to open up. My son came in from DC yesterday and he said the weather was much cooler there which would be about the same as yours. I have been grafting a few things (my first efforts) and it seems to be going fine.
RED

I have a sweet-pit, Chinese or Mormon apricot between my house and a wall where it is very protected. I have had fruit every year, but night before last we were hit with 19 degrees F. Not only my tree, but every tree in town was in bloom and is now brown. We have always had wild temperature fluctuations in the spring but this was the worst ever. I doubt if I will get apricots this year. No other fruit has started to bloom this year. This frost even turned the forsythia blossoms brown. I am not sure I have ever seen that happen.

Paj, sorry for your tree bloom loss. No buds even close here. It has been so very cold and windy. 32 degrees here this morning and very windy. I will spry some sulfur on my peach trees if the wind ever stops long enough.

Donna

I am sorry, too, but at least nothing but apricots had bloomed so far. It has been pretty cold ever since the freeze, so hopefully the others won't bloom so early.

24 degrees here this morning, but at least the wind isn't blowing yet. It is comfortable to work in the gh so that is what I have been doing. Transplanting tomato seedlings and some flowers. Lots of crocus in bloom.

Donna

I dodged the bullet Sunday night. It got down to 31 with a frost but there didn't seem to be any major damage. Hopefully it thinned my plums.
RED

WEATHERMAN IS CALLING FOR 31 ON SUNDAY NITE AND 29 ON MONDAY NITE. Don't know if i will dodge the 29 degrees. and anything below that is potentially fatal. Oh well.
RED

How far developed is your fruit?

Imred, they've changed the forecast. You may squeek through.

Ltilton
My apricots an apricot/plum crosses are about the size of your little fingernail. The plums, nectarines, & peaches are still in the shuck. My cherries, European plums & apples are just now in bloom. It is 35 this morning and when I came out of the coffee shop the rain was freezing on my windshield. I notice they raised the forecast about 2 degrees over the weekend but have dropped it back to 28 for Tues. night. If it stays cloudy, if the wind blows and if it don't get below 29 I might squeak thru.
RED

Good luck!

Have you seen this chart?

http://www.canr.msu.edu/vanburen/crtmptxt.htm

LTilton, that chart is really informative, thanks. I copied the link and put it on the Rocky Mtn. forum but couldn't remember your name so didn't give you credit. I will rectify that error now! On the Rocky Mtn. forum there has been a great deal of discussion and nail-biting and lamenting about the annual death of the apricots.

Pajarito, do you have a Mormon Seedling Apricot? Where did you get it? A local newspaper columnist says it usually makes it through March and produces apricots (but NOT this year!). Anyway I want one! Or two!

My Moorpark & Manchurian apricots both had all their blossoms frozen. My Japanese plum tree (Shiro & Redheart on same tree) looks like it didn't lose all its blossoms, but it was close (too close) to the house so maybe it was a little warmer there. I still have hopes for my apples (5 varieties) & European plum (Stanley), which are just now starting to bloom. Fingers crossed.

I'm trying a Harglow apricot, but it'll be a year or so before I learn how it fares.

Yes, I have a Mormon or Chinese or Sweet Pit Apricot and it has had crops every year since it started having crops -- but looks like it won't this year. It was in full bloom when the frost hit. I bought mine at a local nursery but it can be ordered from Raintree:
http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/productdetails.cfm?ProductID=C476
The researcher from the local ag station here also recommends the Harglow, but I haven't tried it. Still, he did actual research on trees that would bloom late due to our late frosts.
I bookmarked that chart as will. It certainly does tell a story. Unfortunately, we had an unseasonably warm spell and then a very cold hard freeze and even the ornamental fruit trees have brown flowers this year -- except, of course, the ones that hadn't opened yet.

Ltilton
I had never seen that chart. Thanks for the link. It only got down to 30 last night so tonight with bluebird skys today is probably the only thing between me and harvest or brown rot, whichever occurs first.
RED

As late as my trees are this year, I won't have to worry about a late frost til May.

You are very lucky. We had unseasonably warm weather for 2 or 3 weeks very early this year and as a result the trees flowered unusually early -- but so far only the apricots and ornamental pears have bloomed. The others may be okay unless we have another untimely freeze.

Indeed. We had unseasonable warmth here, too, that made me worry for a while.

30° last night. Asian plums are about ready to open...a few have. Peaches might have been zonked last winter by a single cold night?.........15°

My cherries are getting ready to bloom. Somehow they never get zapped as badly as the others. Can't explain it with that chart. The quince is getting ready to bloom as well -- but I have never had it fruit so I don't know how vulnerable it is.

If already flowering and frost is expecting, I put garbage bags over the limbs. That has saved the ones covered, although it did not get much below freezing. We had two freezes while fruit was already on. I did not think about covering them as I had only read about the delicate flowers. A few weeks later, the plums and then the peaches fell off.