North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Ernest Plutko" <ernestplutko@wiktel.com>]

It was -33 F this morning but the ground surface temperature was +18
F.  This is a huge temperature difference.  I understand in Siberia
fruit trees are bent over to grow along the ground so they will be
covered by snow in Winter.  These are called creeping orchards.  I
tried growing apricot and pear trees using this method for 5 years. 
Trees did not die and I had some fruit but voles were eating up the
trees under the snow.  I am going to try again but I will have trees
up about 2 feet instead of a few inches.  I believe this is a very
good idea to explore. I let the bent trees grow normally and they
died.  But my son asked me about the pear tree in my yard.  I didn't
know I had a pear tree  but sure enough I had a large pear tree with
pears on it. First time it grew pears. Left over from the creeping
orchard experiment.   I ordered a wireless outdoor thermometer to get
more temperature readings.  

---- Original Message ----
From: interverbis@videotron.ca
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Temperature Under Snow
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:23:55 -0500

>
>I am looking forward to more details on this trend concerning snow
>cover. I 
>have read an article once on dwarf apple trees grown treillised at an
>angle 
>so that they were almost completely covered by snow in the winter,
>for 
>protection.
>Here, we have about three feet of snow right now, a temperature of
>-20 F 
>to-day, and the ground was not really frozen under the snow when I
>checked 
>about a month ago. (The snow came early in large quantity before the
>ground 
>had time to freeze.)
>It has been my experience that fruit trees do usually well under a
>big 
>carpet of snow.
>
>Hélène, zone 3-4, north of Ottawa
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Ernest Plutko" <ernestplutko@wiktel.com>
>To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 9:51 PM
>Subject: [NAFEX] Temperature Under Snow
>
>
>> Jim Fruth writes that he successfully raises zone 5 blackberries in
>> zone 3 by bending down canes in Fall so canes will be covered by
>> snow.  Tender grapes vines are also protected this way.  Today when
>> the air temperature was -8 F the temperature next to the ground
>under
>> 12 inches of snow was + 18 F.  A little later when the air
>> temperature was -17 F the temperature next to the ground under 12
>> inches of snow was +17 F.  We are getting some colder temps the
>next
>> few days down to -29 F and I'll measure the ground temp again.  It
>> will be interesting to see what differences deeper snow, or
>covering
>> thermometer with soil or straw or tarp will have on ground temps.
>>
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