This year we had a very mild winter, or spring came very early. We all enjoyed the beautiful weather, but there is a downside to this. All of our fruit trees blossomed waaay too early, and now a bit of normal March weather blows in and threatens to freeze all of our blossoms. So, we tried a rather kooky attempt to save them. We stretched a giant tarp over all the trees to give them a little blanket. That wasn't enough to control the temperature, so we placed some lamps and even resorted to a space heater in the early morning to warm it up a bit.
Still to be determined if this salvaged them. Definitely, still to be determined if it was worth the effort!
I am certain that our neighbors are wondering what we are up to.
Update 7/8/17- we eventually lost the plums and apricots, not sure if it was the cold or if they just gave up the ghost. The peaches survived the cold, but did not do very well with these awful borer worms. Not an easy task to grow your own fruit!
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| One lone branch sticking out will serve as our control "arm". |
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| It is a very large tarp |
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| Very cozy in the daytime. At night it offers us about 5-7 degrees of frost protection. |
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| There is a remote thermometer suspended in the tree, so we can monitor our status without going out during the night. |
