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Thanks all for responding, 
After reading all your thoughts I think that what happened to my 
pears was that, in a normal year fall translanting a pear tree might 
be fine but last fall was not because of the early ground freeze, 
although it didn't go more than an inch into the soil, (unlike 
Bernie, we had a lot of snow cover) it came at a vulnerable time for 
the tree, not having gone fully dormant and having been just 
transplanted. Those pears that weren't transplanted AND had sod had 
those two things going for them which was perhaps just enought to 
make the difference.
I wanted to ask Bernie how I should go about determining if the roots 
are not transporting water to the trunk. 
I intend to apply Wiltpruf to those that are still alive and 
struggling.
Kevin B
PS I am sure there is a lot more ot be said in more 
botanical/biological terms, such as the role of hormones, sugar 
levels, etc and anyone wanting to fill us in on those would be most 
welcome to do so.



--- In nafex@y..., Bernie Nikolai <Nikolai@v...> wrote:
> Here up in Edmonton I had two beautiful 4 year old Honeycrisp on 
M26 that
> didn't leaf out.  The trees went into the winter in super health 
and we had
> a very mild winter, only down to -30C or -20F.  Only the trees on 
clear
> cultivated ground died, and my other Honeycrisp in sod on M26 are 
leafing
> out normally.  I hacked away at the dead trees and found the trunks 
were
> just not getting any moisture from the roots.  It appears root 
death or
> severe damage was caused to the M26 due to the almost complete lack 
of snow
> we had this year.  This caused the temperatures to dive below the 
critical
> -12C level at the one foot level under the ground.  I understand it 
hit
> -14.1C at one foot under the ground level in cultivated soil at the
> government test facility.  As a point of interest 4 or 5 years ago 
we had a
> test winter with temperatures at the government test facility 
hitting
> -43.25C, about -47F.  Yet due to the snow the minimum soil 
temperature at
> one foot debth only hit a low of -6.1C all winter.  Snow cover 
makes a HUGE
> difference.  As a matter of interest two trees immediately beside 
the
> Honeycrisp were on Bud 490, and are leafing out normally.  This 
leads me to
> believe Bud 490 is hardier and a safer bet for a zone 3 climate in 
those
> years when there is very little snowcover.  My guess is most of the 
trees
> not leafing out, especially in a normal or mild winter, have 
partial or
> severe root damage caused by a lack of snow which allowed the soil
> temperatures to get too cold, even in a mild winter.
> Bernie Nikolai
> Edmonton, Alberta
> 
> 
> 
> At 01:03 PM 5/22/01 -0000, you wrote:
> >In Indiana, Maine, and Wisconsin I have been hearing reports of 
fruit 
> >trees not leafing out. 
> >We had a very very mild winter here in S WI, and an average 
spring, 
> >no surprises. The only unusual occurrence that I am aware of is 
that 
> >we had an unusally late warm fall with a sudden cold spell, all of 
my 
> >trees had vibrant green leaves when this cold hit, killing the 
> >leaves. 
> >Two types of trees are having trouble for me this spring:
> >Pears that were transplanted last fall, (had to do it when they 
still 
> >had their green leaves as the soil was freezing). The pears that I 
> >didn't transplant didn't have any problems. I didn't spring 
> >transplant any pears to compare them to. 
> >Peaches, both those that bore a heavy crop and those that didn't 
crop 
> >at all.
> >All other trees seem ok. I fall transplanted many apples no 
problems 
> >so far.
> >Have others had problems in fall transplanting pears?
> >Why do you suppose my peaches are struggling?
> >Many thanks
> >kevin b.
> >
> >
> >
> > 
> >
> >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to 
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> >
> >
> >
> >


 

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