Apples nipped

How will recent cold weather impact the U.S. apple crop? Some news reports from Midwest and Eastern states are not encouraging. Here is a report from North Carolina about projected cold temperatures there.
From Hendersonville News online:

Easter morning may bring the most damaging cold, with temperatures forecast to dip to 16 to 18 degrees before climbing to 48 under sunny skies during the day. Lows are expected to plunge to 22 again Sunday night and to 27 Monday night. The length of time the temperature stays in the basement will have a major effect on how much damage is done to apples and other crops. Apple trees that are in full bloom can have 90 percent of their blooms killed in as little as 30 minutes at 25 degrees, said Marvin Owings, apple specialist for the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service. While many trees among the county's 5,000 acres of orchards are approaching full bloom, others are in earlier green tip or tight cluster stages. Apple buds in the half-inch green tip stage would face a large die-off at 15 degrees, while those in tight clusters could be 90 percent killed at 21 degrees. "The good thing is our No. 1 variety is Rome and most of them are anywhere from half inch green to tight cluster or pink," Owings said Friday. "Those that are in the green tip to tight cluster would have a better chance of surviving these really cold temperatures." He predicted it will be late next week before the extent of the damage is known. "What will happen is these trees that are in full bloom will shed their bloom and no fruit will set more than likely if they are frozen," Owings said. "It is just anybody's speculation as to what is going to survive at these low temperatures ... We can only hope that we don't sustain these cold temperatures."
Worrying about the fate of the apple crop is an annual affair when late freezes threaten, but this cold snap is worse than most, coming as it does after almost two months of above average temperatures. "It is very scary," said Wade Edney, who has been growing apples and other fruit for 40 years on his farm in Fruitland. "It could be bad if it goes as cold as they are talking about. I don't guess we have ever seen it that low at the stage we are at now." Many apples and other fruits such as strawberries are blooming 10 days earlier than usual because of the warm late winter and early spring.