grumpy. (freeze-related)

17 years ago

I know that when one gardens, or even just loves plants, one deals with the unpredictability of nature.

I know that I ought to be able at this point to take the bad with the good.

I know that, in other years, I'll likely be astonished by the good timing of the spring weather.

But tonight, as my furnace kicks on again and again, and I think of my just-budding azaleas, my lilac bushes, and everything else that's flowering or just about to burst into bloom...

And I am grumpy. Freezes in April are just WRONG. If you steal all the Arkansas peaches from us again this year, cursed cold, I am going to be seriously PISSED.

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Comments (5)

helenh
17 years ago
I have been covering things for two days. Tonight I'm spraying everything with water. I hope we miss a bad freeze; I've got a mess either way. Grumpy, wet, and cold in MO.
gldno1
17 years ago
I know just how you feel. I get almost mad, a useless thing, I know.

So far it is 29Â° here this morning so at daybreak it will drop down to maybe 26Â°. That isn't quite as bad as predicted.

I sure hope the boot heel of Mo. and Arkansas peaches survive.
All our commercial peaches here are brought in from the boot heel. I think we may have one peach orchard left south of Nixa, Mo. I don't know yet about my fruit trees. I will have to wait a few days to check.

Let's hope this is the last of this weather!
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christie_sw_mo
17 years ago
I've been grumpy too and discouraged and also grateful I don't garden for a living. You'd have to be a real optimist to start a peach orchard here.

What's discouraging to me is thinking that we could very well get another frost later in the month.
pinkspoonbill
17 years ago
You are right - a freeze in April IS just wrong. April should be really pleasant weather, not just sailing through the 70s and 80s in May to land in the 90s and 100s for a length of time.

My problem the past three or four years, though, is not a freeze on the peach tree, but peach tree leaf curl, a fungus. We have sprayed our tree right before leaf-out, and still get leaf-curl, which can't be treated once its on the tree. It just destroys the fruit and weakens the tree. I have not gotton one peach off this tree since I moved here three and a half years ago. If only I knew how to keep it off, or maybe it's just the variety of the tree. I think it gets it because there's cool wet Springs. Any advice on it?
gldno1
17 years ago
pinkspoonbill, I just have two peach trees........no fruit to speak of yet, one got curl badly last year; other didn't. I can't tell you the variety because it was supposed to be a white peach and wasn't.

Miller Nurseries in Canandaigua, NY advertises a peach called 'Curlfree'. You might want to check that out.

The local apple orchard owner told me almost all Missouri peaches come from the boot heel region because of our iffy spring weather. I think there are a few left but they seem to loose their crops almost every other year.