Tony, you and Frank have had the worst of Spring, if you can call it that. 'Extended Winter' might be a better choice of words. I was out in my small orchard yesterday and I have swollen buds on all trees, but my peaches do not have as many blooms as I would have thought this year. Was it the colder weather this winter that made them produce fewer flowers? I am sorry for you having to string lights and hang tarps. At least you have next week to look foward to, lets hope the weatherpeople are telling the truth! That is horrible news. Mrs. G

Don't even ask me...this is bananas... they are calling for snow tonite.

Maybe next week we might hit 60F, but there is more rain in the forecast.

Everything here is past bloom, the jujube have 12 inches new growth, corn 12 inches tall, melons blooming, and we're looking at 28F tonight. If it gets that cold I expect freeze damage on everything. Texas weather is pathetic.

I feel your pain Tony. Here 25 mi North of you we're getting that snow too. But that of course is on the heals of a fair amount of rain. Rain which I generally don't complain about, but in the past two days I've received two bare root apple trees from Gurney's (that's a whole other story...) but now they're in my detached garage and I hope they are able to be planted soon, or I think I'll have to heal them in....

My son is up by Sioux Falls and he said they have 6" of snow forecast for today.

Only thing I have any green showing on are my two peaches, and a my two June Berries. Apples and cherries just bud swelled.

Hope tonight's temps don't play havoc too badly.

This chart is invaluable in determining possible damage from frost.

Here is a link that might be useful: Frost damage chart

You guys are getting the storm that passed through here a few days ago. Yesterday it got down to 15, and the high was 31. The forcast says it will get down to 19 next Tuesday. Winter is not over yet:(

Just spent 2.5 hours covering sweetcorn, watermelon, jujube, one small apple tree, persimmon, and 46ft of grape trellis. All the pears and most of the apples and jujube are on their own.

It's 52 at sunset and forecast to drop to 28. We'll see what the morning brings.

fruitnut,

I applaud your effort and wish you well. I got exhausted just reading your post.

I like how it has been this spring since everything is still dormant here, maybe finally have good fruiting year, after two bad years.

Snowing a little now...39F for a high today, 24F tonite...45F tomorrow ...eeeks!

It could be an excellent fruit year, but everything is going to be late...i'd guess the plums and peaches would be mid August at this point. Even apricots will probably be July...

Yep, flurries out there. They've upped the forecast a bit to suggest we won't get much below the freezing point. Looks like now that if we can get past Tuesday, it'll be safe.

But late, fersure.

What surprises me is how far behind the aprium is.

We wre hit with rain here. So much I had to pull four plants out of the ground. They would otherwise be underwater. I have never seen this much water in the spring. I put the plants in pots, they look fine. All my raised beds are cool, as the soil is mostly peat, and it did it's job. The 4 plantings are new and the holes are holding water even though I pitch forked all sides and the bottom. Oh well, I will put them back in a few weeks when the water goes down, and conditions look better.

The forecast low for tonight is 12 degrees here in northern MN. It has snowed 5 of the last 8 days. Snow levels (not in drifted areas) range from 17" to 21" The good new is that everything is still in it's winter mode. I'm not expecting to get any damage. It's going to be a very late start of the season.

My Autumn Britten raspberries (fall producers) have been hit with early fall frost 2 of the last 3 years. This year, because of such a late start, they won't have a chance at producing. I will be pulling out the entire 52 ft row when the frost is out of the ground. The good news is that my summer "Boyne" raspberries were my favorite anyway.

This really late spring may actually help my blueberry and sour cherry blossoms avoid getting hit with frost.

The snow is still to deep to determine if I had any vole damage.

It sounds awful up North. At least here in Colorado we do get sun in between the storms. I would get really depressed with the weather you are describing.

This has been the harshest April that I can remember. Last year, April was wonderful and the ice was off of our lake on March 28th. This year the ice won't be off the lake until at least early May. I'm retired, so we were in Florida for 3 of the winter months. Very thankful for that!

I dropped to 22F this morning, but I don't have snow cover and nothing is really showing anything other then a little green on some buds. Sunny and cold out there today with temps only getting into the low 40Fs... Looks like more milder air (50Fs) and a bunch of rain for Tonite-Tues