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Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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Posted by
rehaberman_s 5B (
My Page) on
Tue, Nov 11, 14 at 14:53
| Hi all I live in Zone 5B Missouri and my peach tree still has all its green leaves. We have a large real cold polar air mass heading our way tonight and on low 20 deg F. Will it hurt the tree to go through such cold with its full complement of green leaves? Should I cover it with some blankets? I don't understand why they did not change color and fall off already. This is a tree I planted in spring and my very first peach tree ever. It is one of the cold hardy types. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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- Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
Tue, Nov 11, 14 at 15:04
| Some of my peach trees never change color. I would not worry about it. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| Rehab, The peach tree will go into dormant after all the leaves drop with the 20F freeze. Tony. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| Wish mine dropped off a week ago to allow a chlorthalonil app. before it got too cold, oh well. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| I agree with everyone else… basically that is not unusual that leaf change/drop has not happened, and the cold will do it in a hurry… BUT, there IS a slight risk of branch tips being killed, if the freeze is significant enough, and the plant was still growing vigorously enough. This is why you often see the advice to hold back watering in the fall (which is not very useful advice in rainy climates). |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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- Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 1:20
Yes I hold back water, but even more important is fertilizer, or pruning. Both stimulate late season growth. New growth is at risk. Even if you have tip dieback, the tree will survive, and I myself will be removing a lot more than the tips before bud break in early spring.
Also I probably will spray them with wilt stop. A wax based anti-desiccant. I'm really using it to protect my blackberries. I lost most of my canes last winter. So those I cannot cover with leaves will be sprayed soon. Any leftover will go on the trees. Well especially Spice Zee Nectaplum as the main leader died back to just above the graft last winter. Branches are thicker this year, all the same a very cool tree I want to protect till it has more girth! OK, let's go back to water. because trees can lose a lot of moisture from drying winds in the winter. You really want them very wet right about now! Sure hold back late season, but you want the tree well hydrated before the cold comes. So about this time of year, resume watering. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| Thank you everyone for the information. That sets my mind at ease. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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- Posted by olpea zone 6 KS (My Page) on
Thu, Nov 13, 14 at 16:30
| 20F won't even kill peach trees after they've leafed out in the Spring. In 2007, my peach trees were leafed out and it got down to 17.5F. It freeze burned all the foliage badly, and of course there was no fruit which survived, but the trees all recovered and continued growing. I see the NWS forecast of 8F a few days from now. Seems like we skipped Dec. weather and went straight into Jan. weather. That could be hard on peach trees which aren't very dormant in KS and MO. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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- Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
Thu, Nov 13, 14 at 17:24
| Here winter is early too, but decent temps, so trees have time to get used to it. We are just below freezing for a couple weeks. That should not hurt them at all and prep them for winter. My fear is double digit negative numbers again this winter. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| OLPEA, 5 deg. here last night! |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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- Posted by olpea zone 6 KS (My Page) on
Thu, Nov 13, 14 at 19:55
| Wow Michael! That is cold for KS this time of year. Here in the east part of the state, we got down to the teens. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| Hi My peach tree has some leaves on it. I guess it is not big thing all leaves fall of, i think photosynthesis is ended in leaves when freeze come or reduced daylight might have ended it. Not sure about it but i guess so. Peach tree is deciduous so new leaves will come in spring, if your peach tree is not dead. I think not all peaches change leaf color as said above. I was too worried about it when my peach tree didn't drop leaves, but it has now dropped some leaves. I think it might depend on local conditions when leaves drop, is weather been warm, did you got rain or are you in dry weather. Not sure about mechanism when peaches loss leaves. I guess peach tree itself is also one thing to consider when it comes to time to peach to prepare for winter. Orginal writer got some answer already, you are not the only one who thinks this thing. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| Everything here has lost its leaves except my two potted peaches. A little over month ago I moved them to a shady spot and cut back the water. They are just starting to turn yellow. It was strange to see a pile of snow on them this morning. I thought they would go dormant before everything else because they were in a pot, making them more susceptible to temperature changes. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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- Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 11:27
I have blueberries in pots and in ground, and the ones in pots are more green. It might be that they are hotter being in pots? Not sure? One of my peach trees, the leaves started to change to yellow. The others are green. Now they are drooping bigtime. Well time for a dormant spray if we have a warm spell. looks like in about 9-10 days the cold subsides a bit.
I covered my strawberries today, good day to do it. |
RE: Peach tree still has green leaves freeze coming
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| OLPEA : still hitting single digits about every 3 of 5 nights, the peach leaves are gone now. Yeah, it has been very cold for us out here, went from unusually warm for over a month to very cold literally over night, poor fruit tree buds, hope they hardened off. I was delaying mulching the strawberries as it was too warm. Now I realize that temps below 20 can kill their fruit buds and crowns! This place ain't for sissy farmers and horticulturists. |
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