I don't think tipping will help next winter's hardiness. If the vigor is there it will just push more buds with even later growth. What would help is dry weather. And let the grass grow to compete with the tree. That will help slow growth. Your best bet is a mild winter with no early hard freezes in Nov and Dec.

Trees are pretty good about hardening off in fall. Don't know of much you can do to help. Just don't aggravate the situation with water or fertilizer.

Water is a problem, we have been very wet this year without much relief in sight. The soil is sandy and well draining, so that should be helpful. We will undoubtedly get a hard freeze as early as October. Mid November last year had mornings around -5 and eight inches of snow mid December. I will let the grass grow in as much as possible and wait and see, thanks.

I think it all depends on what happens this fall. If we go off a cliff into the subzeros, then that could be blitz. If we have a long mild fall/avg winter...probably be a lot better off.

Today felt like October.

Water? It won't stop raining here.. I'm well over 10 inches in the last 30 days.

Seeing a ton of growth on trees here too, especially considering that spring delayed growth so much. Trees have really responded to this weather the past 6 to 8 weeks. Some of my ugly looking peaches (after winter knocked them back) are huge trees again.

I concur. Growth on most of my trees has been exceptional, though not to the extent this one shows. I hope the girth of the tree will grow proportionally.

Not only the rain, but the wind hasn't stopped either.

I wore a sweater all day yesterday, had a few mornings under 40, the coldest was 36....yuck