Keeping late frosts from freezing tree flowers
The crocuses are running late this year...which apparently means nothing at all. But I sure hope it makes the tree flowers run equally late!
Finding ways to harvest
tree fruits despite late spring freezes is one of my thought projects
for the year. Possible solutions I've come up with include:
- Easily coverable espaliers so I can protect opening flowers from hard freezes.
- Espaliers along an earthen bank so the thermal mass of soil can do the job for me.
Planting late-blooming varieties.- Planting standard-sized apples in hopes the blooms near the top of each tree won't get nipped. (We don't have tree-free room to try this...yet.)
- Finding less frost-prone pockets on our property, perhaps the
south-facing hillside across the way. Unfortunately, this would require
considerable tree removal.
One option I've read about that doesn't seem to work here is:
- Planting trees on the north side of a building or hillside to slow
down their bloom cycle. That's where our high-density apple planting
is...and they still persist in getting nipped each spring.
I'd be curious to hear
from others who regularly see tree flowers in March when you still have
ten weeks of cold weather to go. Have you found any solution to the
frost-nipped blossoms and fruitless years that result?
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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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Maybe you should think of a sprinkler system?
I've had success covering grape vine and strawberry blooms with thick blankets--they have to be thick! And with using dog food bags over branches with apple blooms, with another blanket over the whole tree. Which I then take off if the cold spell passes over, but keep on, if it lingers.
I have heard that sprinklers/musters work - the water freezes and releases a ibt of heat in the process. Also the water is warmer then freezing.
Smoky fires can also work by adding a "cloud" layer
Gee, I'm way behind in comments. I haven't answered these from last weekend!
Mom and BW --- Sprinklers are only effective right on the border of freezes. So, if it's going to drop to maybe 28 and you've got strawberry flowers that get nipped at that temperature, sprinkling can mitigate the effect. Unfortunately, we often get nipped at much lower temperatures. Last year, we had a 15-degree night at the end of March ---- no fruit and sprinklers wouldn't have cut it.
Brian --- That's a great idea, and one I'd completely forgotten to consider. On that front, it seems like pipe heating cable might be even more effective. Hmmm....