From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Freeze damage follow-up
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:42:45 -0500
I forgot to mention my Concord grapes, and I thought there might be some
interest.
I'd waited until late March to prune them, which was maybe a good thing.
But the huge buds were just starting to open when the freeze hit. The
pruning cuts were still gushing sap, so I had icicles hanging from the
ends of the branches. It didn't look good, but I couldn't tell if the
buds had died, since they were sort of yellowish-brown to begin with.
And they didn't show the slightest change for about three weeks.
But all of a sudden, my grapevines have started leafing out, so I guess
the buds weren't damaged after all. Well, maybe some of them were, since
not everything has sprouted yet, but my two vines are looking
surprisingly good right now. (I've got one Caco, too, and it's looking
OK. It hasn't started to leaf out yet, but the buds are swelling.) I'll
definitely delay pruning next year, too - probably on all my stuff.
Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5a)
--
The little shutter at the back of my mind, where I pushed all my
dissonant thoughts, snapped open after the 9/11 attacks, and it refused
to close again. I found myself thinking that the Quran is not a holy
document. It is a historical record, written by humans. ... And it is a
very tribal and Arab version of events. - Ayaan Hirsi Ali