Someone please talk me down...
Most apples at or near silver tip. Some pears too. A couple apples on the verge of green tip.
Cane berries and bush fruit buds starting to show some green.
Cherries swelling.
Currant buds almost full green and on the verge of opening up.
About the only things in our orchard that don't look like they're trying to grow are the mulberries & grapes.
All this on December 13, 2015 just south of Portland, OR.
Anyone else?!?!
Wow, hopefully we have a relatively mild winter.
Honestly, the weather has been so lousy, I haven't been out in the orchard much. My currant buds are quite swollen, but that might happen every year. some of my apples haven't lost all of their leaves yet.
I'll have to look at the trees closer next time I'm out there.
My orchard is a little further north in Battleground, and everything looks fully dormant. I did notice the fig buds have a touch of green they usually dont have this time of winter. I think that's because the never became fully brown.
Like Murky's, some of my appkes have retained a few leaves. Sweet Treat pluerry was fully leafed until the recent storm, and dropped them green.
I've been watching plum buds the closest. They dont seem any different from a month ago.
I still have quite a few medlar, hawthorns, and a few mandarin oranges on the trees. I left 2 Gold Rush apples on as an experiment. They look good. One quince fell off the tree about a month ago. It is on the ground and it still looks good to eat. I have been slowly chucking the others as they start to rot. The Himalayan Huckleberry still has nearly all of its leaves on. I may have to chop it to make it smaller for next year. The silverberry is showing its' fruit for the upcoming year.
I think that mine mostly look like normal winter stuff.
This el Nino makes me worry about trees coming out of dormancy then freezing, and at the same time feel excited about getting lots of first time fruits on some of my trees. Most of my newest fig trees are looking very promising, most at 2 or 3 or 4 years old from cuttings. Maybe this will be the year of the pawpaw? And persimmon?
I am collecting mulch, anticipating a hot dry summer. An arborist in my neighborhood dumps a truckload in my drive every few months. Saves him the costs of hauling and dumping fees. Currently I have a few cubic yards of pine chips/needles to spread. Putting down a thick layer for each tree. It will last longer than the older grass clipping / leaf / straw mulches I have around most of the trees. I read 2016 is expected to be hotter and dryer than 2015, but Im not sure of that.
I keep watching over my buds. We are almost into January. There are some predictions for temps into the 20s. John, you are more expert than I am, so you might already have this info, but here are some things I found.
Chill units calculator. If I understand correctly, most of our fruits have received their chill requirements.
My calculation today using KWALACEN4 as the weather station, fairly near me at LaCenter WA, is
Below 45 Model: 948 chill hours
Between 45 and 32 Model: 870 chill hours
Utah Model: 1011 chill units
Positive Utah Model: 1011 chill units
Dynamic Model: 40 chill portions
I don't know which calculation is the best. Chicago Botanic Garden says use the range between 45F and 32F. Bottom line here is almost everything probably has all of the chill it needs, and will grow and bloom, weather permitting. I think.
If that's the case, then what is the risk for harm in a frost or freeze?
Michigan table of freeze damage thresholds. I don't know if a pdf can be uploaded, so I'm just linking. For apples, silver tip or green tip, we are looking fairly safe down to 20F or a little less. Pears, down to 20F if blossoms exposed but not further developed. Peaches down to 20 if buds green not pink. More data in table. Different format, a little more compact table.
Closer to home, from Oregon State - this just on cherries, but maybe there are similarities for some other fruits -
"Cherry buds become hardy sometime in October. This hardiness capability is largely due to their ability to supercool (cooling below the freezing point of a liquid without solidifying). Once thisability is obtained, buds are capable of withstanding temperaturesaround -6°F until the period of rest is fulfilled, generally sometime in January. During this time, the buds would not grow even if temperatures were warm" also, "Once rest is satisfied for the fruit tree, sometime in mid-January, the temperature at which buds are damaged rises slowly but still remains near 0°F until just before the buds begin to open." The author also discussed role of underlying tree health in bud hardiness, basically healthier trees are more likely to be freeze tolerant than less healthy trees, and over-fertilized trees are less likely to survive.
This photo table is similar to the one from Michigan, is sourced in Utah but originally WA State.
As far as I can find, even with a historic warm winter so far, and some cold probably to follow, we may still be OK for Spring. Depends on what happens next, of course. We all know that long term predictions are inaccurate. For my area, I could only find a week projection on WeatherUnderground - lows are in 29F range. - 2 weeks on weather.com, similar lows projected, and accuweather projecting the same or warmer into Feb.
Crazy weather. Thank you el Niño!
What many don't realize is plants are able to see light through younger growth. They have the ability to latch a morning event of light and use it to the advantage of springing out. My interest comes from Kotovich who made a life watching trees acclimate in the fall before winter and I had his results proofed and approved through some contacts with PHDs that I had mutual interests with about cold hardy research and (Kotovich is right) that trees really can see all the time, even when dormant.
Another thing not mentioned are warm period regulators that vary from species to species. Apricots might be a good example that have none (why they bloom so early), and beach plum, the last of stone fruits to bloom, have the most.
Ned Rowell (1999) who is an Alaskan weatherman had worked out a "guess" formulation when ....
"By trial and error, they found that the greenup clock starts when the average high temperature for three consecutive days is 50 degrees or more."
If I could be so bold to say; If you have had no frost issues in where ever your western exposure is for the last five years or any other El Nino year then I wouldn't worry. Other than the fact of a deep freeze to the least adapted part of a tree, the Root.
Thanks everyone for the great feedback. I realize there's nothing we can do about the weather - and expect we'll probably get at least one more good freeze before winter's over - so we're lowering expectations for next year's fruit haul. However, if it turns out all our buds make it through unscathed then we'll be pleasantly surprised.
Happy New Year!
Mitch
Loquat blossoms,
first seen as more than a fluke last year, have not yet frozen out this season. Well, some of the lower clusters are damaged or mostly so. Higher up on the tree, locations that did not flower last year, flower clusters appear still in good condition.
Pretty susceptible to freezing weather. Last year, made it through the first two events,succumbing at the third. They start blossoming October, November they're full on in flower and continue 'till the cold/kill.... so far....
Larry, those black raspberry canes are very distinctive, and I like the look. Lovely overall and I like how you have your caneberries on their own little neat island.
Do you have any difficulty managing the various cultivars so close to each other? Does Triple Crown try to take over?
DanielW said
That's impressive about the loquats. Ive never tasted one, and didnt know they would grow here.
I have not expected to have fruit on the loquat, ornamentally is stands well. I have friends who enjoy some knowledge of uses of the leaf; for tisane; extractives, apparently used externally as well as internal (they are using vodka) and poultices, kind of, of whole leaf in concert with moxibustion. I intend to learn more.
I would love to get fruit, even a sporadic occurrence would be exciting, but I'm not counting on it. Too cold here it's thought generally. I knew that going into it. Didn't know of leaf uses. Tasted fruit in N.California while visiting friends, was immediately enamored.
There is a long standing tree in SE Portland, borderline industrial/commercial, that fruits sporadically, not necessarily reliably or biennially that I can tell.. It is situated with low-lying structures to the South and West. Excellent sun exposure there and a lot of reflected street heat from asphalt thorough-fare with (previously) high volume traffic, I believe being a contribution factor. 'Traffic calming' devices have come to the street and I perceive quite a bit reduction of traffic volume (heat) so the dynamics may change. Just have to wait and see. But Who knew or would surmise?
Larry, great look to the berries. It could be an ad for the edible landscaping philosophy.
James, I've never tasted a loquat. I suspect I have none of the Portland heat island effect, so won't even think about growing them. Exotic looking leaves, very interesting. That microclimate effect that you discuss is worth thinking about. My figs are south of the house, warmer. I also grew corn and squash there last year, figuring warmer soil. They did well. I'm thinking about a bank of rain water barrels against the house, might have a slight heat modifying effect as well.
As for blackberries, mine are the ones no one wants. There is still about a quarter are to clear. Not in the cold. In the portion that I have cleared, the ground has no weeds or grass. They seem to kill everything in their path. As if they are saying, "You will assimilate. Resistance is futile". The berries are delicious, one of my favorites, but you wind up bloodied picking them.
It is an exceptional year for these Rubus leaf colorings. The Logans are a recent addition.
Although the Triple Crown (TC) variety dominates by mass and length, the cane count is similar to other varieties, I have not had any significant running problem.
TC serves as a trellis unto itself and I often use its laterals to train the other varieties. By keeping most of the TC to the north and east sides of the 3-row patch, the other varieties get good light. Since TC is so productive, I just remove any newGrowth/currentSeason leaves and laterals that interfere with the others. Plus, TC is such a late crop that there is only a little harvest overlap.
I have noticed that Black Diamond suffers when shaded and have been carving out more room for it in recent years. The blackCap and Logan seem to fruit fine in cramped quarters, but I try to keep the blackCap somewhat isolated because of the thorns.
James,
I dare you to invite people over and tell them, "Loquat I'm growing here!" They might get it.
I have one. I grabbed a fruit from my brother's house in SF and planted the seed in my yard. It is way smaller than yours but also looks good now. The spring diseases are what makes it look bad. Mine is also strictly for looks, but I am intrigued by the medicinal factors. Just getting into tinctures of turkey tail mushrooms with hopefully much more into the future.
Larry G,
Your set up looks great. Mine isn't so pretty. It's in a mostly shaded area, and still produces great. Mostly TC, apache, and chester. I don't remember anymore. They are astonishingly productive. I put them in the shade in terrible, terrible soil. Blackberries are supposed to be as healthy as blueberries but not as available for most folks in US-they freeze out most locations this time of year. I'm going to try to corral them. Our raspberries are set up like your blackberries and it works great. They are currently on either side of a hugulkultur bed. If I figure out something that works I'll show youse.
John S
PDX OR
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