I am tired and a little sad this morning.  No matter how much hard work and skill you put in to the orchard, some conditions are just out of your control.  Last night mother nature brought us one of those events.  With our tree crops over four weeks ahead of an average year in development, they were susceptible to a hard frost.   We had extended low temperatures over night.  It was below 26 degrees F in the orchard last night for over 5 hours.  We had a low of 22.5 degrees F at about 6:30am and than the temperature started to climb back up.  With the wind last night it was impossible to use any frost protection methods effectively.  It’s frustrating when there is little you can do to stop damage.

The important question is what does this mean for the fruit trees?

The Asian and American plums in full bloom and first bloom could have up to 90% damage to the buds.  This is the predicted level based on cold damage research.  It could be more or less in our orchard depending on several factors and we won’t know for a few days or weeks.  No matter what there was serious damage on the plums last night!

The Hungarian cherries were not quite in bloom yet, so the buds can take lower temperatures, but I’m sure they were damaged to some level.

The apples and pears were in a stage of development that I believe allowed them to escape most of the bud damage.  Even these trees may suffer a little damage.

The grapes had swollen buds and may have also suffered a little damage.

The small fruits were generally in a stage of development that should have allowed them to escape most of the cold damage potential.

All of the perennial fruit plants will be monitored and evaluated for damage in the next couple weeks and the real picture will become clearer.   This is an unprecedented season for New York fruit growers.  Nothing comes close to this in the recorded historical temperature records or from the memories of many “old timers” that I’ve spoken to about this season. What other crazy events are in store for us this season?

You can at least enjoy the visuals of the plum blooms, if we won’t be enjoying much of the fruit this year.  The picture is from a couple days ago.  I’ll keep you posted.

Our Asian and American plums are in full bloom and not a good thing to be on March 26th.  With the cooler daytime temperatures we run the risk of not having enough pollinators working the flowers.  We spotted a few solitary insects in the flowers yesterday, but no honey bees.  Considering it takes 6-8 visits per flower to actually set fruit, warmer days are needed during bloom.  Tonight the temperature will drop in the mid 20s – yikes!  We plan to cover as many plum trees as physically possible along with the flowering seaberry plants.  John plans to stay up all night to monitor the temperature.  He may have to light a fire to help create a protective inversion layer of air within the orchard once we reach 27 degrees.  When things get down to 25 degrees, that is when damage can begin to occur.

I looked back through our blog posts to 2010 when we had an early spring.  Our Asian plums began blooming April 19th and we noted that this was 15 days ahead of schedule.  This puts the 2012 season into perspective!  2010 turned out to be a great long season and our melons were fantastic that year.  Perhaps, after this nail-biting week, we will cruise through a warm spring.  The alternative is not too pleasant to consider.

It was another warm day in a winter feeling like the balmy Carolinas.  The black currants show signs of buds wanting to stretch in the sun. Crocus, snowdrops and green grass were not really the things I needed to see, to know the fruit plants will awake this year very early on the calendar.  This sets up a greater potential for a possible hard frost during bloom time.  We do have a few tricks up our sleeves, but the risk is real especially for certain types.  I find myself wanting to think we’ll just have a really long intense season to produce amazing fruit.

The high tunnel for raspberries is slowly being assembled, we’ll post some photos soon.

The signs of spring made me view again one of my favorite photo collections by an artist Jane Alden Stevens.  The pictures speak for themselves.  Humbling.   Check them out at Fraction Magazine!  The apples sell for $5.00 or more a piece in Tokyo and other cities.

We had a great time at the CSA fair today in Boyton middle school.  We always enjoy meeting new people who have an interest in the diverse world of fruit.  Thanks to all the folks who came out and talked to us.

We would like to announce a new service for our CSA members.  Garden Gate Delivery will bring the fruit share to your home/job on Tuesdays throughout the season.  Marlo offers a great service and will be working with several local vegetable CSAs for many different personal options.  The delivery will cost $50 for the season in addition to our CSA share price.  Contact us for more info.

All the Ithaca area members can stop reading the blog post now.  For our Friday pickup members and all the other Seneca County residents keep reading:

The horticulturally talented Karen McCabe of Lodi, New York will be offering an organic vegetable CSA for Friday pickup at our barn on County Road 138 in Ovid. Karen has extensive experience working on local farms, including many years at Blue Heron Farm in Lodi, NY.  Her crop list looks delicious, you will not be disappointed.  The season will begin mid June and run through October or early November depending on the season.  It will be $300 for a half share and a full share for $500.  For those that prefer chicken eggs (vs. duck), she has an egg share with 1 dozen a week for $80 a season and 1/2 dozen a week for $40 a season.  Please contact her directly for more info. at 607-279-2123 or karenmccb@gmail.com.   The queen has spoken! ……sorry Karen, couldn’t resist this pic