Winter was thought to be behind us, but these past two nights have once again been cold and today there were snow flurries again. Ah, the changeable Indiana weather! Growing up, I was told that if you don’t like today’s weather in Indiana, just wait a day and it will change. These up and down thermometer readings do make it difficult to grow fruit in our area, especially peaches. The peach crop this year doesn’t look promising, AGAIN! This recent winter was milder than that of 2014, that is until the month of February. Extremely cold temperatures the first weeks of February did real damage to the peach crop. Peaches do not tolerate cold temperatures that dip lower than minus 10 degrees zero. Several mornings in early February our thermometers registered 20 – 25 degrees below zero not taking wind chills into consideration. Although we can probably make a somewhat educated guess, no one can determine the loss until bloom period. Bloom is the defining factor as it is the indicator that fruit buds have survived the subzero temperatures.
Fruit bud for this year’s bloom was actually formed during the 2014 season in the branches of the peach tree. So when winter temperatures drop to subzero, this fruit bud freezes. Once the buds freeze, there is no regeneration for this season. It is absolutely gone. How we determine what bud life there may be before bloom period is simply cutting several branches, putting the cuttings in water and placing them in a sunny exposure. After a period of time, if the buds are alive, there will be an appearance of blossoms. With blossoms there is hope for fruit. So far, we have no blossoms on the cuttings.
The apple orchards are pruned and cleared for the anticipation of another year. The apple trees are “silver tipped.” What this signifies is the apples are leaving their winter dormancy period and sap is starting to flow in the trees. “Silver tip” is simply the first stages of the branches shooting leaves. Very interesting to watch the development of the apple trees as warmer temperatures start their growth cycle for the coming year. We anticipate full bloom to be about 7 days later this year. Colder temperatures have played a major role in a longer dormancy period for the trees. Once the trees start to “push” and get closer to bloom we certainly do not want any freezing temperatures. Once the trees bloom there is no regeneration of fruit bud if temperatures get too cold. It’s a challenging business but we do indeed love growing apples and peaches for our customers.