Podcast #178 – Ouch! Coping with a Late Spring Freeze


Back in the winter I told you that we planned to get into the ground early with heat-loving veg because climate change was making it unlikely we would have a frost event in late March. Good thing we didn’t follow through on that plan! Our low Wednesday morning, March 27 was 28 degrees at the farm. Tallassee recorded 30 degrees, but our winter lows are always a couple of degrees below Tallassee. We’ve now had the chance to make at least a preliminary assessment, and the bottom line is that we seem to have come through okay. In today’s program Amanda and I tick off each crop category and describe the damage (or lack thereof) that we’ve observed so far.

We got about the expected level of damage on the blueberries, we got more damage than we expected on the figs, and (at least based on what we can see so far) we got less damage than we expected on the peaches and pears.

Listen –  19:23

I wouldn't have expected this LSU Black fig foliage to be so badly damaged by 28 degrees, but it took it hard.

I wouldn’t have expected this LSU Black fig foliage to be so badly damaged by 28 degrees, but it took it hard.

But the next branch over had nice, tight buds and appears so far to be undamaged.

But the next branch over had nice, tight buds and appears so far to be undamaged.

This is the most surprising to me. The seemingly delicate blossoms of this Shinko pear came through fine. Not so lucky is the bee that was harvesting them. Hope she died happy.

This is the most surprising to me. The seemingly delicate blossoms of this Shinko pear came through fine. Not so lucky is the bee that was harvesting them. Hope she died happy.

The Longleaf Breeze Planting Database

The Longleaf Breeze Daily Farm Log

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