Is anybody concerned about the trees budding early?

[Ready_fire_aim]

Referring specifically to fruit trees. My peach/nectarine/apricot/apple trees are budding way to early because of the screwed up weather.

Now there is a very high likelihood of a freeze killing all of the blossoms and destroying my fruit harvest this year.

The crazy weather is tough on fruit trees and tough on folks trying to grow their own food.

 

[turkeyrun]

Fruit trees bud at the first 70° temps and get caught in late frosts.

I'm not a bit surprised, happens 4 out of 5 years. This far north, fruit are iffy.

Doesn't keep me from having a bunch of fruit trees. But, they are feast or famine, famine, famine, famine.

 

[cowadle]

Referring specifically to fruit trees. My peach/nectarine/apricot/apple trees are budding way to early because of the screwed up weather.

Now there is a very high likelihood of a freeze killing all of the blossoms and destroying my fruit harvest this year.

The crazy weather is tough on fruit trees and tough on folks trying to grow their own food.

this isn't screwed up weather. this is well within normal for oklahoma. even the oak are budding now. the old variety of fruit trees that could stand our swings are no longer available as far as i can find. my old departed ancestors who made it here for many years used to have a saying"if your garden has tomatoes or corn fruit trees etc in it then you had better can all of it because you might not get any for several years". this still holds true.

 

[rickm]

Why worry about it there isnt much you can do to stop it, its just part of nature you just have to sit back and enjoy the good and tolerate the bad and live on.

 

[TedKennedy]

Fruit trees bud at the first 70° temps and get caught in late frosts.

I'm not a bit surprised, happens 4 out of 5 years. This far north, fruit are iffy.

Doesn't keep me from having a bunch of fruit trees. But, they are feast or famine, famine, famine, famine.

Yep, this isn't anything new. Peach trees are always hit and miss around here.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

Right, ok fair enough… I’m glad the weather and circumstances are considered normal around here.

To be clear: I’m not coming from some weather conspiracy angle

Simply frustrated with the difficulty of growing fruit lol. Surely there are some solutions? Wrap them in plastic before the freeze hit’s maybe?

 

[jakeman]

I had an apricot tree. It was here when I moved in. It was a pretty little tree. I lived here 10 years before I knew it was an apricot. It lived another 10 years, and I think it made fruit about 3 times in that 20 years. Then it died, and I cut it up and used it to smoke pork ribs.

The times it did make fruit, they would start to ripen, then in about 2 days they were all ripe and in 3 days they were all on the ground. You didn't wanna ignore it for more than about 12 hours when it had fruit. I learned that the hard way.

 

[jakeman]

this isn't screwed up weather. this is well within normal for oklahoma. even the oak are budding now. the old variety of fruit trees that could stand our swings are no longer available as far as i can find. my old departed ancestors who made it here for many years used to have a saying"if your garden has tomatoes or corn fruit trees etc in it then you had better can all of it because you might not get any for several years". this still holds true.

I wish I knew what kind of cherry trees my grandparents and great uncles had. I can't count the times I climbed up in the crook of those trees and ate cherries until I was sick to my stomach. Seemed like they had bumper crops of cherries every single year.

 

[j99tc88]

Last two years my plum tree’s started early only to get a freeze that killed most of the blooms. It is hit or miss here.

 

[OKRuss]

Right, ok fair enough… I’m glad the weather and circumstances are considered normal around here.

To be clear: I’m not coming from some weather conspiracy angle

Simply frustrated with the difficulty of growing fruit lol. Surely there are some solutions? Wrap them in plastic before the freeze hit’s maybe?

Solution? Other than moving to a warmer climate, not sure there is one. In FL, they have kerosene heaters to run in between the orange grove rows. I would suspect something similar would be the only way since we'll generally get sleet which will build up on every branch but not very practical I wouldn't think. If you don't have very many, would a large tarp over the top be an option since likely only a few days of freeze?