North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

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