North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Amelia Hayner <abhayner@gmail.com>]

I feel your pain.
my kiwis are limp, slimy and black.
they had put out new growth about 4" long. They are in somewhat protected
spot, semi-shaded-; didn't matter, frost got em anyway.
however.. I did see one small new bud of leaves opening near ground- so I
hope the plant itself survives.
Amy
z 8a-7b, near VA line, in northeastern NC

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 3:54 PM, <Hilborn.E@epamail.epa.gov> wrote:

> I am having a bad fruit week. Some background - we have had a really
> warm late winter/ early spring. We have had no frost for weeks, with a
> few sunny days even reaching the mid 80s (F). However, this week we had
> a freeze to 27 degrees F at my house on Tuesday AM.
>
>  Now, I did have a forecast to tell me it was coming. I dutifully went
> out and covered my kiwi vines which are in their third spring at my
> site. Both hardy and fuzzy kiwi had started leafing out in the
> unseasonable warmth. My first action was to disconnect supports and to
> try to lay them down on the ground, no, too woody. I managed to bend
> primary cordons somewhat closer to the center of each plant.  I covered
> the plants with heavy cloth or plastic  tarps to the ground. Sealed the
> edges of the covers with clothespins, sealed the tarp to the ground with
> hay, I also put multiple buckets of water under each tarp.  With kiwis
> that were close to large wooden uprights of the trellis, I tried to make
> bundles of wood and plant material under each tarp with water buckets in
> the center of the protected space near the main 'trunks'.
>
> The next morning after the temperature had increased to near 40 degrees,
> I uncovered and inspected.
>
> The few kiwis buds that were still pretty tight seemed OK, as were the
> partially opened buds within 2 feet of the ground (each male). The hardy
> varieties had leafed out with about an inch of vigorous growth and all
> the foliage was limp and rapidly turning black when I lifted the cover.
> I am not sure how much damage was due to my plastic tarp covering one
> plant as the air was hot under the tarp as I opened it, the cloth covers
> apparently did not retain heat as the rising sun hit the covers.  The
> one bright spot was about 5 buds and leaf clusters of the older female
> that survived the freeze seemingly unaffected as the leaves were laying
> flat with direct ground contact under the tarp.
>
> As I toured the orchard to inspect uncovered plants I noticed that the
> pomegranate had started leafing out with tender material less than 1/4
> ". All burned crispy. The blueberries in full (mostly closed) flowers
> and small leaves seemed OK, the apples and pears ranged from slightly
> opening leaf and flower buds to new leaves and small, set fruit - all
> seemed OK although I noticed the edges of some fully open apple blossoms
> were brown.  New blackberry leaves also seemed OK. My Nanking cherries
> in flower and with small fruit looked a little burned but may be OK.   I
> will watch and see what the longer term consequences are. I am amazed to
> see some unexpected sights, my emerging asparagus that was covered had
> transparent shoots Tuesday AM, they looked heavily damaged. I viewed
> them last evening and they seemed for the most part to be recovering!
> They were more opaque with no signs of necrosis. I will watch to see if
> they leaf out normally.
>
> This AM, I awoke to ice on the cars despite overnight lows forecast in
> the high 30s. My thermometer said 37 F before dawn!  I did not cover
> anything. I am afraid to go look at the few kiwi leaves that survived
> Tuesday AM.
>
> Betsy Hilborn
> 7a Central NC
>
>
>
>
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