Topic: fruit blossom and frost tonight?

[triffid]

How vulnerable to frost/freezing temperatures is fruit blossom? I've just seen the forecast for my neck of the woods (outer London) - and it's due to drop to freezing point tonight.
So I'm wondering if I should fling a sheet or something over my apple (in full blossom) and morello cherry (just starting to set fruitlets). Both are coverable (I think) -- the apple's trained against a fence and the cherry is still only about 4'6". :D

Any advice gratefully received.  :)

[goodlife]

I have never covered my fruit trees and I'm in Midlands..and frost haven't been problem..
Your apple is quite sheltered position anyway..so that should be fine..and as to your cherry..if flowering is finished,,almost..well..fine too ;D
With fruit trees I think just odd frost doesn't to harm..it's the rare really cold..minus somethings that would be problem.
We had frost last night and there were touch of ice on bird bath..and yet my potatoes..left uncovered and in buckets doesn't have any frost damage.. ::)
Sleep in peace tonight..it will be fine.... ;D(..she says and then you'll have icicles hanging from your trees in the morning... ::)

[amphibian]

I know the fruit farmers round here like a light frost at this time of year, it reduces the blossoms and saves on thinning later.

[Baccy Man]

I fleece my apricots/peaches/nectarines when they are flowering & it's particularly cold but that's only because they flower so early in the year & it can still be minus 10ºC or colder at night. The rest of the fruit is left to the elements & frost has never caused any problems yet.

[triffid]

Thanks to all three of you for the comforting words. I hoped I was just being a southern softie, but this winter killed so much stuff off that I'm getting a bit twitchy. 
things that have lasted through umpteen regular (ie. soft southern!) winters. Just off the top of my head, four wonderful Talpiot artichokes from an A4A gift...  :'( , a monster potato vine; even a lovely abutilon that had weathered many a frost before.
 
 

[nilly71]

The blossom on my cherries and apples still look really healthy but the plums and nectarine has gone brown, has the frost killed of the blossom?

Neil

[grannyjanny]

Triffid I lost all my abutilons & I'd put them in the greenhouse ::).

[triffid]

Sleep in peace tonight..it will be fine.... ;D(..she says and then you'll have icicles hanging from your trees in the morning... ::)

No icicles, though at 5am it was -1C and the frost was heavy on all the cars down our road. Anyway, the temp's bounced back to 7C now, and neither tree is in the path of the early-morning sun, so fingers crossed.  :)

Grannyjanny, sorry to hear about your abutilons. They're such a lovely family of flowers.

[amphibian]

The blossom on my cherries and apples still look really healthy but the plums and nectarine has gone brown, has the frost killed of the blossom?

Neil

It might already have set.

[campanula]

also lost my abutilons, various solanums and  iochromas. The abutilons have been outside for 12 years, no probs. Dammit. Not to worry about the fruit though.

[nilly71]

Thanks, I'll have a look to see if there are any fruits starting to grow.
Neil

The blossom on my cherries and apples still look really healthy but the plums and nectarine has gone brown, has the frost killed of the blossom?

Neil

It might already have set.

[PurpleHeather]

The garden centres and nurseries are rubbing their hands together with glee, awaiting the queues of gardeners wanting to buy replacements.

What happened to Gobal Warming?

[amphibian]

What happened to Gobal Warming?

Global warming does not mean the end of weather. This cool year is part of a well understood natural cycle, an Arctic and Atlantic oscillation combined with a solar minimum. A harsh winter delays spring drastically and can cool the world for years. Most of the Earth's land mass is in the Northern Hemisphere, if most of the Northern Hemisphere is covered in snow then the suns heat is reflected away and warming is delayed, it can become a positive feedback loop and cause cooling for years.

Eyjafjallajökull may yet affect next winter, contributing to a continuing cooling cycle, while some have observed that Eyjafjallajökull is not a big eruption, it is continuous in a way that is unusual for volcanoes, and may continue for years to come.

In addition to the oscillations, the now ended solar minimum has given birth to a very weak solar maximum and a huge iceberg recently detached from Anatartica is disrupting ocean currents and is expected to contribute to cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in winters of the near future.

All in all we should be prepared for a few long and cold winters, but we must also remember that this does not mean global warming is a fiction.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The eruption's only been going on for six weeks, it's not that unusual. I've seen suggestions that the magma is coming straight up from the mantle - not surprising given that oceanic crust is only about three miles thick - and there's no knowing how much gas there is waiting to come out. That's the crucial question; an eruption is basically a gas release from deep within the earth. It acts as a flux, melts its way to the surface, and carries a bit of molten rock along with it.

[galina]

Yes, I expect less fruit than normal this year.  As we are on a cold ridge, we often get significant losses when a sharp frost gets into the flowers.  Some years we harvest only a handful from the plum trees and very few pears.  Apples are usually ok, however this frost is definitely browning the apple blossoms as well (which kills them). 

Because we get a degree of frost at flowering times most years, some of our trees are adapting and have spread their flowering times.  The Bramley here flowers from May to July (although in June and July there are only a few flowers).  The Dr Jules Guyot pear tree regularly flowers in April and June now.  The other pear trees also seem to be holding back a branch or two.  There are only a few pear blossoms in June and the resulting fruit is generally seedless.  I think trees have some defence mechanisms in place and it is very rare to lose everything.  In this cold weather pollination is also down.  I have seen no bees here but luckily we have plenty of bumblebees.

[triffid]

Galina, bumbles are better evolved for cold weather than honeybees. That's why you'll always see them out-and-about earlier and later (both in the day and in the year) than their hive-dwelling cousins. Big fur coats are helpful on chilly days.  :)

Today our honeybees have been frantically flying for the last hour. Yesterday only a handful even stuck their faces out of the hives. But even at at 5pm yesterday (a chilly 5 degrees or so), the white-tailed bumbles were all over our neighbour's cotoneaster.  ;D

[dtw]

Last year the frost killed my cherry tree blossom, I only had 3 cherries from the tree. :(