It was a long, hard winter. Then we loved the spring warming. Then WHAM! – winter was back.
Tuesday night of this week, the temperature hovered below freezing for nine hours, reaching a low Wednesday morning of 26 degrees F before slowly ascending. The results for us are a mixed bag. The strawberries came through fine, perhaps because they were so close to the ground and therefore stayed warmer. The pears got hit hard, as did the blueberries. The persimmons came through fine, but the figs suffered. The plums seem okay. You get the idea.
Listen – 19:26
The freeze didn’t knock back the muscadines at all, primarily because they always wait so late to bud. These black beauty leaves are still green and supple.
These Bruce plum blossoms are as pretty and delicate as they were before the freeze; too bad everybody reports the plums are nothing special.
These Anna apple blooms are tight and safe. No sign of any damage from the freeze.
This Carter’s Blue apple leaf cluster looks fine after the freeze.
This Brightwell blueberry bloom cluster is showing heavy damage, but the cluster right next to it looks like it came through fine.
Other blooms an this climax blueberry are showing some damage, but these particular blooms are nice and tight.
This Warren pear is always first to bloom. For some reason it didn’t set fruit yet, so the freeze doesn’t seem to have bothered it at all.
These June Gold peach blossoms don’t seem at all damaged by the freeze.
It doesn’t look good for these LSU Black fig leaves. That curl indicates there’s not much hope for these buds. But there are many more behind these, so this tree may have a good crop this year.
These Shinko pear blossoms got hit hard.