A slow spring and critical temperatures
Last year my
three exclamation point spring post came on March 26 --- the plant world had
awakened, with peaches and dandelions in bloom and blackberry and pear
leaves unfurling. This year, we're at least a week behind...which
is a good thing.
A few of our fruit trees
--- the oldest peach, for sure, but also maybe the younger peach,
nectarine, and cherry --- are old enough to set fruit, but only if a
hard spring freeze doesn't nip their flowers. Each stage in the
bud-opening process has its critical temperature, below which the bud
will be too damaged to set fruit. For peaches, these temperatures
are (for 10% and 90% kill, respectively):
- Swollen bud stage - 18 F; 1 F
- Bud shows green (like in the photo below on the right) - 21 F; 5 F
- First pink on bud - 25 F; 15 F
- First bloom - 26 F; 21 F
- Full bloom - 27 F; 24 F
In the spring, we
gardeners tend to get antsy and want everything to happen now, but a chilly winter slows
things down and may mean more food in the long run. Here's a table of critical
temperatures for most of the common fruits. Don't forget to keep
your eye on the weather forecast once your fruit trees begin to bloom!
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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.
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