Late Frost Concerns- Should I act?

We have a two consecutive cold mornings coming, low of 29 and 23. Highs in the 50’s each day. That 23 degree morning has me concerned. Here’s why: Honeyberries are well on their way to leafing out, apples and peaches are budding, strawberries have been uncovered, and the iris/daylily plants are coming up. All these plants are between one to two years old (hence my not experiencing this before now.)

There are few enough that I COULD cover them… but am I being paranoid for my little plants?

Should I take action on any of these or just leave them alone?
Our average last frost is mid-April but we’ve been lucky the last couple years.

23 is very cold.  I would cover what you can. " that is if you were going to let a few fruits ripen on your young trees. If you were going to wait another year for fruits, let the weather have its way with them, trees will survive and be stronger for it.
We are going down to 36 Friday night and I have hauled out a round bale of hay to cover everything I have in the ground.
Frost could be likely even though the ground temps are around 80 here now. Grand-dad told me to wait till the pecan trees flush new growth before planting out....guess I am kind of hard headed.

Your soil is warm enough at this point that it could probably handle a couple days of this without a problem, particularly if it rises as you said to 50 between. That's a LOT of ground heat. The plants themselves will survive without a problem. Some may have to come back from the root, but probably not. Blossoms are another matter. 29 degrees probably won't even phase them, but 23 definitely will.

For the blossoms, the major issue is whether they have set fruit. If they have set fruit, a 25 degree frost will probably kill most of it. If they haven't, you may lose some of your blossoms and you may not, depending on a lot of other factors (wind, snow, ice, humidity, sun, etc).

My experience:

Honeyberry: Blooms out of the snow
Daylillies: Blossoms are sensitive to cold, but the greens thrive in the cold
Iris: Blooms out of the snow
Strawberries: Spring bloomer, I've never had them nipped by cold
Apples and peaches: blossoms are sensitive, leaves not

If it were me I'd be tempted to leave them just to see what happens, but armed with information it's now up to you to decide.

If you're based in Missouri, I would get thinking about longer term actions you can take for creating an early spring microclimate around those fruit trees to protect them. For example, early morning direct sun when there is frost is something to avoid.

Nick Kitchener wrote: For example, early morning direct sun when there is frost is something to avoid.

He says regarding my planting area that's on an east facing slope! Dang it.

Error on the side of caution.

I woke up to frost this morning, probably not safe to direct sow kale right?

T Simpson wrote:I woke up to frost this morning, probably not safe to direct sow kale right?

Sure you can. Kale is cold hardy, the seeds will come up when the temperatures are right (which might be colder than you expect!). The problem with sowing early is that birds find out you're feeding them...and bring all their neighbors...

T Simpson wrote:I woke up to frost this morning, probably not safe to direct sow kale right?

Zone 8, kale, I'd say fine to plant. I have kale transplants that I'm going to wait on to put out, but was going to go ahead and direct seed some more kale knowing that those seeds will be just fine and likely won't even germinate until after the cold has passed. Doesn't get much more cold hearty than kale when it comes to annual vegetables. I've even had some Blue Curled overwinter here in Zone 5!

Matt Todd wrote:I've even had some Blue Curled overwinter here in Zone 5!

Same here in zone six. The roots are still alive, but probably won't be after my Dad gets done "weeding"!

I just planted kale and turnips this morning, zone 7a. We're gonna frost/freeze for three nights here. I am not concerned at all. As others said, they'll just delay sprouting for a few days.

I'll be setting up a sprinkler to protect my peach tree though, it is already done flowering. I'm going to let my one blooming apple fend for itself, that area of my place is a warmer microclimate. I just have a standard sprinkler, And I may wind up running it each night all night.



More options for protecting fruit buds are in this thread.