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Fruit Trees Screwed, Again......................................................

KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭
edited April 2019 in General Discussion
All my fruit trees are fully budded out. It was snowing to beat the band earlier today.

Supposed to be 19* tonight. More snow forcasted for Tuesday.

4th year in a row this scenario has taken place. No fruit from any of my trees again this year.

Roughly 250 Peaches before that.










Got to love that "Global Warming."

Comments

  • spasmcreekspasmcreek Member Posts: 37,724 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    maye the democrats will force a deal ..have each illegal carry in a big basket of peaches ???? everybody happy Si ????
  • serfserf Member Posts: 9,217 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    All my fruit trees are fully budded out. It was snowing to beat the band earlier today.

    Supposed to be 19* tonight. More snow forcasted for Tuesday.

    4th year in a row this scenario has taken place. No fruit from any of my trees again this year.

    Roughly 250 Peaches before that.










    Got to love that "Global Warming."


    Hot House time! Saw a guy burying a long pipe under the frost line and growing cash crops in cold climates on youtube. I know it ain't helping now but it's idea if you had the time and the land . Later!

    serf

    http://blog.zipgrow.com/low-grade-geothermal-heating-cooling-greenhouses/

    The most effective methods bury several feet of 4-6 inch corrugated septic tubing for every square foot of space being heated/cooled, with the intake and outflow pipes placed so that air flows though the space from the outflow to the intake. Air is then circulated through the underground system.
  • HessianHessian Member Posts: 248
    edited November -1
    The same thing has happened to me 3 out of the last 4 years. A late frost burns all the flowers off my Apple trees and my Walnut tree. The Pear trees bloom later and the European Plums seem a lot more tolerant of frost. The Apricots seem a lot more tolerant of frost also. I have some sort of hybrid Apricots, I call them sweet Apricots, they taste like Peaches with no trace of the normal Apricot bittersweet taste

    My next door neighbor was a horticulturist of some fame. His Apple tree varieties bloom at different times and have overlap for good cross-pollination, he always had Apples.

    If I knew back when I planted my fruit trees what I know now, I'd buy different varieties of fruit trees that bloom at different times. Hindsight is always 20-20.
  • dcon12dcon12 Member Posts: 31,934 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Potatoes are way up. Corn is growing. Tomato's and peppers are in the ground. But, I have no fruit trees. Don
  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    dcon12 wrote:
    Potatoes are way up. Corn is growing. Tomato's and peppers are in the ground. But, I have no fruit trees. Don



    Way, way too early to be planting a garden around here.
  • wpageabcwpageabc Member Posts: 8,760 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Dafodils are just bloming around here. My neighbor puts burlap wraps around his fruit trees. Usually too risky till after Easter around the Jersey shore to avoid the frosts.
    "What is truth?'
  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Up to 70 today.
  • castingcasting Member Posts: 110
    edited November -1
    I've planted apple, peach and plum trees. 4 or 5 yrs ago. Semi-dwarf from Lowes, Home depot and like stores. They grew but no fruit. Blooms would just fall off. I finally wised up and sampled the soil at the extension office. Well no wonder. N was ok but K and Ph was non-existent. Needed Mg too. I put some on in December to let snow help soak it into the soil. I hope to see some fruit this year or the saw's coming out.
  • HessianHessian Member Posts: 248
    edited November -1
    casting wrote:
    I've planted apple, peach and plum trees. 4 or 5 yrs ago. Semi-dwarf from Lowes, Home depot and like stores. They grew but no fruit. Blooms would just fall off. I finally wised up and sampled the soil at the extension office. Well no wonder. N was ok but K and Ph was non-existent. Needed Mg too. I put some on in December to let snow help soak it into the soil. I hope to see some fruit this year or the saw's coming out.
    I know nothing about Peach trees, too far north here for them. But both Apple and Plum do better when they have two trees of different varieties (lines) to cross-pollinate. Some varieties are supposed to self-pollinating, but I've found many of these are iffy and if they do bare fruit it is usually a low yield.
    When you buy two fruit trees from the same outlet chances are they are clones. And like I said the best pollination is from Trees of a different strain. Having two clone trees gives about the same results as a single tree trying to pollinate itself, anything from zero to poorly.

    Something you can try is to cut thin thickly flowered branches off of another tree (from a different line or strain) and stick them in a water filled bucket or vase at the trunk of your tree. If your yield goes up then you know you need another tree as a pollinator. If you have ever checked out a commercial apple orchard there is usually a few crab Apple trees in the mix.
    Apple trees like iron, if you get an iron fertilizer make sure it has it's own fixer mixed in.
    The Plum trees we have around here are pretty bullet proof, they just need another variety (line/strain) to pollinate well.
  • 11b6r11b6r Member Posts: 16,588 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Central VA, peaches, pears in bloom, apples just starting. As the man said, most apples and pears need another variety to pollinate. I have a flowering crab for the apples, and Moonglow and Bartlett pears. Some of the commercial orchards use flowering crabapple, some use New England Greenings- so they get pie fruit from their pollinator trees.

    This year I am going to war with the damned racoons. Last year they tore up our sweet corn and the pears. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Havahart trap, sardines, and a .22 in the ear. And if you think they are cute, give me your mailing address- I'll let you deal with them.
  • castingcasting Member Posts: 110
    edited November -1
    Thank-you Hessian. Those things I didn;t know. I know I have at least two varieties of peach between 4 trees but two have been too young to bare fruit. Plums are something people around here know little about. Especially me. The Iron Information is new to me. I'll be following up on that too. Thanks again.
  • JunkballerJunkballer Member Posts: 9,147 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    When you know it's going to frost turn water sprinklers on your trees to protect the buds, that's the Georgia, Floridian way to protect your fruit crops from frost.......ice/frozen over buds, small fruit will live ;)

    "Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee

  • JunkballerJunkballer Member Posts: 9,147 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Junkballer wrote:
    When you know it's going to frost turn water sprinklers on your trees to protect the buds, that's the Georgia, Floridian way to protect your fruit crops from frost.......ice/frozen over buds will live ;)

    "Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee

  • llamallama Member Posts: 2,637 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Junkballer wrote:
    When you know it's going to frost turn water sprinklers on your trees to protect the buds, that's the Georgia, Floridian way to protect your fruit crops from frost.......ice/frozen over buds, small fruit will live ;)

    Or the kerosene smudge heater pots in the middle of the groves...
  • JunkballerJunkballer Member Posts: 9,147 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    llama wrote:
    Junkballer wrote:
    When you know it's going to frost turn water sprinklers on your trees to protect the buds, that's the Georgia, Floridian way to protect your fruit crops from frost.......ice/frozen over buds, small fruit will live ;)

    Or the kerosene smudge heater pots in the middle of the groves...

    Yep, was gonna mention the smudge pots in my post but figured not too many would know what they were so I left them out :D , it's been years since we used them but they do help but require a lot of labor/work....water not so much ;)

    "Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee

  • mnrivrat48mnrivrat48 Member Posts: 1,711 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    "maye the democrats will force a deal ..have each illegal carry in a big basket of peaches ???? everybody happy Si ????"

    If the illegals had to work to come they likely wouldn't show up. Or it might slow them down and god forbid they don't make it here in time to vote for the democrats.

    Sorry about your loss. My brother in AZ has had some bad years for his trees from time to time. Pistachio , and a couple other trees that are fruit related rather than nuts.

    Mostly apple trees here in MN . The danger with them is mostly worm related and they have to be sprayed.
  • jrentjrent Member Posts: 89
    edited November -1
    All my fruit trees are fully budded out. It was snowing to beat the band earlier today.

    Supposed to be 19* tonight. More snow forcasted for Tuesday.

    4th year in a row this scenario has taken place. No fruit from any of my trees again this year.

    Roughly 250 Peaches before that.

    Got to love that "Global Warming."

    It is Trumps fault...........
  • Rocky RaabRocky Raab Member Posts: 14,137 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have no trees at all, but I have neighbors with an apricot and an apple tree that overhang my fence on two sides. Each year it's about a 50/50 shot whether frost gets the blossoms on one or the other. Last year, frost got most of the apricot blooms, but the ones that survived produced humongous apricots. In years when all the blossoms survive, the 'cots are tiny - and there are bazillions of them. A royal pain to pick up and throw in the garbage.

    The other side has an apple tree that drops apples on my side. I have to pick them up all summer in varying degrees f ripeness and size before the mowing guys show up. Another PITA, but at least I get to prune back the branches and get good wood for my smoker!
    I may be a bit crazy - but I didn't drive myself.
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