Allotments 4 All

Supposed to be a frost early Saturday and my apple has just opened its flowers.

Has anyone any experience of smudge pots?    What do you burn?   .

I've not heard of a 'smudge pot', looking forward to reading more...

They burn low grade or waste oil. Illegal now in the states where they were popular with fruit growers, who now use modern cleaner equivalents burning propane. Some growers use low flying helicopters to keep the air stirred up to avoid freezing!
Every scrap of my frost-avoiding knowledge is organised here:
http://oca-testbed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/extending-oca-growing-season-through.html

Great blog post, thanks.

They used to have braziers burning in the apple orchards when I was a child.  I suppose someone has to stay up all night to tend them.

This is not a women's lib things because they burned brassieres.

I am rather worried as to whether the fruit on my apple will survive.  It has just come out in flower in time for a frost.

Personally I'm not too worried about the frost...it have to be quite sharp one to ruin the crop and often there is odd flowers still in bud while others are fully open..it is those little bit later ones that can save the day while the open ones will provide the protection.
The usual culprit for failed crops is bad weather and thus lack of pollinators.
I think the latest weather forecast (over in midlands anyway) is that its not going to drop that low.....

In the days when I exhibited Dahlias I used to get up at the crack of dawn and spray my plants with cold water.

What this did was thaw the hoar frost before the sun got to it as it is the morning sun that does more damage than the frost itself.

This is the reason for not planting plants such as Camellias in a spot where they are hit by the morning sun.

The sun is in plant terms surprisingly warm and the fast change in temperature causes the buds to abort.

I guess the same would apply to the odd fruit tree, large orchards would be a more difficult proposition.

It's certainly a cheaper method than heaters.

I hope this opinion helps....Tg