North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

Bill,

A while back I read a summary of some prof. at MU trying to delay blossom by
spraying the whole tree with a dilute latex paint/water mix.  The idea was
to keep the sun off the buds as well as the trunk.  Can't remember how long
it supposedly delayed bloom, but I'm thinking it was a weeks delay.

Mark
KS
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William C. Garthright" <>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] heat tape


>
> > 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
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