North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> We sometimes use an old Coleman camp heater to save our grapefruit 
> from a hard freeze. I doubt that heat tape could save your pluot 
> blossoms, but if you have nothing else it's worth a try. You might do 
> better to cover the whole tree with old sheets or something. Best of 
> luck to you.


I'm almost ready to give up on trying to protect blossoms from a freeze, 
I think. It probably depends on your location, though. We usually get a 
lot of wind, so sheets are almost impossible to set up and keep up. And 
when I tried it last year with my apricot tree, I think I knocked off 
more blossoms than I protected. I've never tried heat tape, but I have 
tried lights and other sources of heat. But again, with the wind, I 
can't imagine that it does much good.

What I'm trying instead is to slow the tree's emergence from dormancy - 
keeping leaves on the ground around it, keeping the branches more 
horizontal, painting the trunk white, pruning late, etc.  I also planted 
it in a partially shaded location. I'd like to erect some temporary 
shade in the late winter, too, but I haven't thought of a good way of 
doing that (nothing that would withstand a good wind).

I don't know if any of this is going to work, or work well enough to 
grow apricots here, most years. Recently, we had a few days of very warm 
weather and my oldest apricot started blooming, just in time for 
temperatures in the low 20's again. But the blossoms are opening up very 
slowly, so the later ones might make it. At any rate, I'd love to hear 
of an easy way to protect my trees from a late freeze, but I'm beginning 
to think there isn't one.

Good luck with the pluots, Deb!  I've been experimenting with three of 
those, too, and luckily, they don't seem to bloom as early as the 
apricots. However, though they were a mass of blossoms last year, they 
didn't set on any fruit at all, to speak of (2 or 3, maybe, of which one 
survived the squirrels). I've heard that they are very shy bearers. But 
there weren't many bees around last spring, either.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never 
voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. - Gore Vidal