Winter Damage Info

16 years ago

I've got 3 sweet cherry trees (Blackgold, Whitegold, and Kristin) which appeared to make the winter just fine, however they have never pushed any leaves this spring. They still look like the buds are swollen, but are going no further--no progress since late April. This weekend I checked them over and still see no growth, but buds are soft and not dried out, the branches remain limber, although they do show some signs of drying back from the tips. One branch, while still moist, the cambium was brown and corky so I'm sure that branch is toast and will just continue to dry down. I pruned off another small branch and found the cambium was still green and moist, so I tried grafting it onto a pie cherry in the hopes that will push it to start growing. I'm wondering if the winter may have affected the vascular tissue in the trunk or if I may have dead rootstalks (don't know what variety they are, but the trees came from Miller's or Stark's, trees have been in the ground 1 year, 2 years, and about 5 years). All I can think of is to continue to wait and watch but I'm impatient. Moisture is not an issue, they have been well watered every couple of weeks since the ground thawed with nothing growing around them to consume the moisture, ground is sandy/gravelly so drainage isn't a problem. I see no signs of trunk or bark damage.

I also have a Balaton pie cherry which is behaving similarly, although the lower and north branches have leafed out, bloomed, and are setting cherries while the upper and southern branches remain in a suspended state of swollen bud.

Finally, I have a Norstar cherry which came out of dormancy, the flower buds were swelling, however only the lowest branch bloomed and has put out leaves and is loaded with cherries. The other branches just stopped at the swollen bud stage, but now I notice they are starting to push out a few leaves on what I presume are secondary buds. We did have some pretty cold weather (low 20's)in early May when the cherries were getting ready to bloom and it kind of appears that the Norstar may have gotten frost damage. Evans was at the same stage and has no problems.

Just a bummer to see all this damage and wondering if anybody has any wisdom on what may have gone wrong that I might try to compensate for in the future or if there is anything I should try besides waiting and watching. All is not lost, however, as my Early Richmond's and Evans were loaded with bloom and appear to be loaded with fruit, though bloom has just finished.

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Comments (4)

franktank232
16 years ago
bee-

Doesn't sound good. I also grow Blackgold/Kristin/Lapins/Stella in a cold zone like you, although much more humid. Mine came out of dormancy VERY early this year and flowered early April. Actually the sweet cherries should be picked today because they are mostly ripe.

Do you think drying winter winds could be doing it? I covered 2 of mine with tarps this winter just to test it, but am not sure if it helped. I didn't matter because i have so many pest issues with them that all 4 are getting torn out.
marknmt
16 years ago
Bee, I don't have any answers for your situation- just wanted to note that here in W. Montana we had an early and severe cold snap October 10 last year, and are still discovering the ill effects. Some big trees (beautiful black gums for example) are coming out across the street; our Norway maples were late emerging but are going to make it; my apple has a number of varieties on it that didn't even try to bloom this year. Even self-seeding annuals such as my wife's poppies have been iffy, and one of her hostas is finally, weeks behind schedule, just now peeking through. Should note that it's also been nasty wet and cold compared to what we're used to.

Dandelions and adenophora seem to be fine, however ... :-(

Good luck,

M
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Beeone
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the replies. I think the cold last October is part of the problem. Most trees were just beginning to shut down for fall when it hit, and we got down to about 12 very early in the month and little warm up afterwards. From that point, I figured one of my peaches was toast and the other was iffy, but the sweet cherries looked good--and still do if it was early April. I'm still seeing things leafing out very late and some things that appear to have winter killed.

I've thought of trying to cover the trees in winter, and a number of years ago I built a straw bale house around a tree in late fall, then left it until probably mid April. Hard to keep it all standing when the trees get more than a couple years old, though--I guess I could make the walls 2 bales thick to add some stability. I might try it again. My site definitely gets a lot of winter wind as it has no protection. Efforts at a windbreak so far have been unsuccessful as I tried planting about 15 feet from an irrigation canal and the weed and pest district has an uncanny knack for hitting everything I plant when they spray for noxious weeds (which all get missed) and I take care of later. Within the next year or two I'm planning another try further away from the canal.

I'll just wait and hope that they eventually show some growth, then try to give them some better protection this winter if they do.
Michael
16 years ago
beeone: I did some historical searching on peaches in the state of KS last winter and discovered that there used to be a very large commercial industry approaching 4,000,000 bearing trees as of the 1898 ag. census. Then, along came a year when in Oct., the temperatures dropped very far, very fast and never really recovered, that wiped out the peach industry in one Fall state wide to say nothing of the damage that was done in neighboring states.

It appears sudden cold snaps in the Fall before the fruit trees are ready can be devastating to both wood and buds.