I have 2 peach trees and last year their blossoms were freeze damaged and I had no fruit. I really shouldn’t have any peach trees because they are difficult to produce fruit using organic methods and they blossom very early in the spring. But Georgia is known as the “Peach state” and Peachtree is a very popular street name in Georgia, and the Peachtree 10K Road Race is the world’s largest 10k race (I have run it 20 times), so my enthusiasm got the better of prudence.
Freeze damage occurs differently based on the type of fruit tree and its stage of development. For the peach at first bloom stage, where is where my one tree is, 10% of the blossoms will be destroyed at 26 deg F and 90% at 21 deg F. My second tree is at the first calyx red stage where the relevant temperatures are 23 deg F and 9 deg F, so I was not too worried about it. I decided that if I do not get any peaches this year I will replace the peach trees. With this ultimatum issued, I feel I have to do my best to help them along. With freeze warnings in place for most of the past week, I took the initiative and wrapped my most vulnerable tree with Agribon row covers which give about 6 deg F protection. I have never wrapped a tree before. Rather than web the technique, I decided to try figure it out myself. The covers are 7 ft wide so I took covers from my raised bed and wrapped them round the tree.
The wind was gusting >15mph and in a very short time the covers were undone and the tree looked like a weird ghost with flapping garments. So I decided to be more deliberate. I pruned off the taller branches and with a rope belted the limbs closer together.
I again wrapped the tree in row covers and added two encircling ropes to hold them in place.
I thought this would do it, but the wind increased in intensity and was persistent. So I remembered I had several bulldog clips on hand and used them to secure the loose ends of the covers together.
This seemed to do the trick and the covers stayed pretty much in place. Now, with no freeze forecast for next week I removed the covers to inspect the damage. All the blossoms were ok except for a few at the extremities which probably had poked through the covers.
And interestingly, a budding leaf also appeared partly damaged.
Beats me why the peach tree insists on producing blossoms first and then leaves while with most of my other trees it is the other way round. So, for now, the peach blossoms are ok. But as I consult my notes from last year I see there was a late frost in April which wiped out the blossoms of both peach trees.