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["Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>]

Title: Message

Good comments, Richard.   I grew up in a part of Kansas where late spring frosts are the rule rather than the exception. When they hit, we or the wildlife simply did not have fruit that year, either cultivated or wild, except for species that bloomed very late or trees that were in microclimates that either protected them or retarded their growth and bloom.  We didn't like it, but what else could be done.  Due to the recent cold weather, my mom's apricots, peaches, pears and sour cherries in Hays, Kan. (about midway between Kansas City and Denver) will not have any fruit.

 

Undoubtedly, wildlife does suffer when fruiting plants do not produce a crop, but most animals do not rely on a single food source. 

 

This weekend, we drove from St. Paul, Minn., where most things had not yet leafed out or started blooming, to Lawrence, Kan., via Omaha and returned via Kansas City and Des Moines.  Everywhere we passed through had experienced temps in the teens after weeks of abnormally warm temps.  In Lawrence, the early tulips looked very limp, bowed over onto the ground.  The blossoms on my friend's dogwoods in Kansas City were frozen on the tree.

 

But almost all things will either regrow from buds that remained dormant while their neighbors began growth or if the top was killed, will resprout from the roots.  It's not nice for fruit growers like us, but it's not the end of the world.

 

--  Sam Brungardt in St. Paul, Minn., where the snowdrops had finished blooming and the flowers of the species crocus and scilla are being held tightly shut and to the ground.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Richard Moyer
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 10:55 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Freeze Damage

"As for Richard Moyer's comments about welcoming this as a test to remove the pantywaist plants that can't make it in Tennessee, does he plan to remove everything except cedars, pines, and blackberries?  Sorry Richard, but this was not your normal late spring freeze.  This was a disaster for all life for the entire southeastern US.  I've been thinking about it.  Hailstorns only devastate small areas.  Even hurricanes only cut a swath a mile or so wide.  Earthquakes tend not to disrupt plants all that much.  And alas, if the 22 year drought cycle holds, the bad weather is only beginning...       Donna"

 

Donna,

Your frustration over this freeze is real.  Agreed that this is not a normal spring freeze.  Was surreal to see a neighbor out mowing lush grass at 26F in April.

As for context of my comments, the Southern Appalachians support hundreds of woody species.  At my place, we limited our plantings to merely 25 genera (kinds) of fruiting plants and a couple of nuts.  When we humans come to depend on relatively few crops from different climates ( e.g. Asia), we assume risks.  My Asian persimmons who still genetically behave as though they are in Seoul have been severly damaged.  But with 12+ types, I have several that have not budded out yet, and appear to be fine.  BTW, most of our fruit is on a southern slope at 1800'.  Since all the fruit for our family (2-3 meals worth per day) comes from our two acres, we planted a wide diversity of fruits for severe events such as these.  Our gooseberries and currants look fine, as do the blackberries, raspberries, figs, mulberries, juneberries (Amelanchier) in full bloom, plus others.  We have been increasing those fruits that yield despite record spring freezes.  We are grafting more of the apples that are long bloomers; some of them have undamaged bloom buds on our trees as of this morning, ones that are just showing pink.  These long bloomers can be a pain to manage but they likely will provide apples this year.  So even with multiple crop losses we will still be eating fresh fruit this year.  This attributed to King Solomon: " Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth."

 

In addition to plant diversity, we preserve an additional season of certain fruits we eat the most of, dried juiced and canned.   So we can stand to lose a whole season of certain crops and still have it to eat.  I think my wife too conservative on this, but this year she got it right.  Certain trees also plan on occasional very limited fruit/seed production.  This perhaps to their advantage as well: 

Trees such as beech vary widely in their mast production year to year even outside of record spring freezes.  Some ecologists reason this holds down the number of animals eating the nuts.  Our current freeze killed some animals outright, and some will die of starvation if limited in diet.  But for eons, certain nut trees have varied widely their nut production through their genetics, and therefore on their own are causing population crashes of certain animals dependent on them.  We humans tend to select/manage for consistent yearly production, forgetting this is not the natural reproduction rhythm of many plants.

 

So I doubt this freeze will cause the extinction of any species.  It WILL cause hardship for those species dependent on monocultures/limited polycultures for their sustenance, humans included. 

 

Richard Moyer

Zone 6, East TN

Where the clove currants and are still happily blooming and setting fruit.