flowering peaches in late winter

some of my peaches seem to have flower buds, it is roughly one month early. my fruits ripen in mid june every year. I have other friends in other states, who peaches started to bloom now. Can you tell me if the flowers will get frost damage since it is flowering so early? Has this ever happen to with anyone growing peaches? Seems odd, so im not sure what to expect. Some of my peaches are still dormant, that is normal in comparison.

When fruit trees bloom early because of the changing weather patterns you would be wise to be able to cover those trees and have some sort of heat provider (I love the old rail road smudge pot for this, only need one per tree with a good frost blanket for large (full sized trees)).
If you were to experience a frost event without any protection, your buds would freeze and the tree would not bear any fruit that year.
In really heavy frost conditions the yearling branches might even freeze and die.

This is from my own experiences with pear and plum trees along with lemon and grapefruit trees. (I added two peach trees just last year which also have frost blankets at the ready)

Redhawk

Is there anything that can be done to slow down the early budding?  

Is it soil temperature alone that determines when to bud or does the trunk and branches also play a part?  

My thinking is a thick white (reflective) plastic sheet on top of a thick layer if wood chips and placed on top of the roots may help keep the roots from warming up.  I could also put 90% shade cloth on top.  I think this will become a recurring event.

Bryant RedHawk - thank you for the advice since my peaches are potted i may have to clear some room in my garage to protect from frost.

hau Dennis, yes there is a way to slow budding. It is wax simply melt it and use a chip brush to coat the buds, there is a setup you can purchase that includes a sprayer to do the coating with which saves time but then there is the expense of buying that setup.
I like good old Gulf wax, our grocery store has it with the canning supplies and it is cheap plus one box has lasted two years for two pear, two plum, three fig and now two peach trees. I do not treat the mulberries since they seem to be late budding.
I may have to look into getting one of the spray outfits if I add any more fruit trees, it now takes me a full day to make sure I have protected most of the buds.

hau Kim, yes if your trees are in containers it is easier to bring them in, if your garage gets too cold you can either wrap the containers with blankets or insulation or you can use heating pads, both work for keeping the roots from freezing.

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:hau Dennis, yes there is a way to slow budding. It is wax ...  there is a setup you can purchase that includes a sprayer to do the coating with which saves time but then there is the expense of buying that setup.

Redhawk

 

Dr. Redhawk.  Can you point me to the sprayer that melts wax?  One of my dreams is to purchase land and scale up my fruit tree orchard.
Thank you,

hau Dennis, I am glad you asked me that.
I have just found out the wax method is no longer available.
It seems that the wax was found to create serious issues in some large orchards and everyone has ceased using it to the point of no orchardist supply carries the products anymore.

This creates a situation where frost blankets are now the norm or water sprays (which have to run from before the frost all the way through the frost event plus enough hours for the temp to raise above freezing, costly I would think).
This isn't the first time that things have changed in the orchard care business, but this one is nice since we have data showing that waxing swelling buds can prevent the buds from further development and it can create disease opportunities.

So, now I will be buying frost blanket material to cover all my fruit trees with when a frost or freeze is expected.


Redhawk

Last year I had to save a young fuzzy golden Kiwi.  I wrapped Christmas tree lights around the vine and then added a frost cloth.  It looked interesting at night and worked great.