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Minnesota Apples Survive Cold Temperatures
Apple growers dodged a bullet, got lucky, caught a break, however you want to phrase it, but the really cold temperatures earlier this week did not damage the apple blossoms. When I got to the studio a little before 4:30 my computer said the temperature was 27 degrees. I think the readings are taken from the Faribault airport. My cell phone said the temperature was 28 degrees.
A frost would not have damaged the apple trees, but if it would have killed the apple blossoms the trees would not produced any apples this year. David Bedford PhD. who is an apple breeder at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum told me he was not aware of any significant damage from the low temperatures. He said he has seen apple blossoms survive temperatures of 28 degrees. Then another time you may see damage at temperatures just above freezing.
Minnesota Apples Wiped Out Tonight?
In the picture are a couple apple trees with beautiful blossoms. Given the forecast you have to wonder how they will look about mid-morning Tuesday. The National Weather Service has issued a frost advisory for 4:00 Tuesday morning. The forecast is for a low temperature of 33 degrees. You have to hope that maybe the clouds hang around until after sunrise tomorrow morning which can trap warmer air near ground level, or maybe the temperature stays a little warmer the in the forecast.
I have had David Bedford PhD. who is the apple breeder at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum as my guest on KDHL s Am Minnesota Program and we have talked about cold temperatures when the apple trees are blossoming. If the blossoms are killed by frost the tree will not produce apples this year. I remember a few years ago we saw a late spring frost and greatly reduced the apple crop.
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For centuries, the wild grasslands and valleys of Minnesota were dotted with a type of cactus, spiky and round, that blooms every spring.
It grows about ankle high, roughly the size of a softball, and sprouts a violet or hot pink/fuchsia flower with a golden center. It survives almost exclusively on top of granite, growing on the large stones and outcroppings that jut out of the state s scattered prairies and wetlands.
Now, arborists warn, it needs saving quickly. The threatened species has lost all but two of its largest populations in the state. Both of those surviving clusters of cactuses, unfortunately, are in active granite quarries, said David Remucal, curator of endangered plants for the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.