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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Peach flowering & hand pollenating

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  • From: "Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Peach flowering & hand pollenating
  • Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:03:18 -0500

Diane,
One thing that happens a lot here is that low temps at a crucial time in the life of a flower bud can damage the pistil. It blooms normally, but if you look carefully, you'll see that the center is dead. This happens almost every year to our mayhaws, they bloom too early but the crop is actually lost before the flowers open. This year we have had surprisingly moderate temps and the mayhaws have set, but a myrobalan plum had lost most of it's centers to a perfectly normal 20 degree freeze back in early March. (I'm planning to graft a low branch and replace whole tree. Some ringing to encourage a change in sap flow ought to allow a more graceful transition.) Probably any of you who have experienced puzzling crop failures should look at the centers of the flowers on those trees when they bloom, esp the earliest blooms to open. It happens every year with the first strawberry blooms, before I get the plants covered or the ones around the edges of the patch that don't get protected. With strawberries it is very obvious, with tree flowers you may have to look twice. Donna




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