This week up here in the North East we've been having cold nights. This weekend they are calling for snow and temperatures in the 20's. Should I be concerned? Pat
Possibly. How far along are your maples? In Iowa about 8 or 9 years ago we had an early spring warm up and then a week of very cold temperatures. My trees were fully leafed out when the cold weather hit. It was very hard on many established trees, not just maples. I lost a number of otherwise healthy Japanese maples that year.
I always hold my breath until we are safely into May ,there is always the 'sting in the tail' waiting in the sidelines somewhere to catch you out. Caught me out last April when we had a very sharp air frost one evening near the back end of the month , it really zapped some of the trees which were just nicely out thankfully they survived but they looked terrible through out the rest of the season, did recover some what during the second flush , but i watch the weather forecast's with out fail now!! and have plenty of large bubble wrap bags and plastic sheeting just in case!!! plus a large area in my workshop ready to transfer any of the little guys in a moments notice. Hopefully you will be ok , just be aware and keep your eye's on the mercury!!
Hi Roebuk & Pat, The last couple nights that went below zero (32F) in our area has zapped a few of mine that right on the stage of opening their leaves. Those already opened like Ryusen, Orange dream, katsura... seem to be OK and now we will have another freeze tomorrow. I will hold my breath and hope the sun will help to warm them up soon; it is really happened at a bad time. Do you know if the tree will send out another set of leaves?. I notice my 'Rhodes Island Red' all the young branches/shoots are getting frost bites and dead. Should I go ahead and snip them off?.
Atapi... What i did was just left the burnt frost leaves to dry once the warmer weather arrived , then once they were nice and crispy just gently pulled them all off with my thumb and forefinger in one quick pull of the affected branches where the frost had burnt them, they came straight off no problems, then they did re-leaf later on in the season and all the trees which were affected last year are budding up nicely now, so hopefully no repeats like last year... fingers crossed.
Atapi... don't cut anything off that was frost-bitten, as Roebuk said. Your trees' secondary buds will kick in after a few weeks and you'll see new leaves appearing again. Now don't ask what happens if that second set of leaves also succumbs to frost. Luckily, that's never happened to me before. I think that the trees are "smart enough" to wait until the threat of frost is past before leafing out again :-) Most all of my trees are currently leafing out nicely now due to the early spring, but we're also expecting a couple hours of 30-32 degrees early Saturday morning. I'm counting on my yard's micro-climate to keep the trees just warm enough that nothing like what you described happens <crossing fingers!> Does anyone know how many hours a new leaf can handle at around 32 degrees? Kevin in KC
I just checked my weather and it says it's going down to 22 tonight for about ten hours. I'm not to happy. I'll bring my potted plants to the garage. But the ones in ground 65+ maples are going to stick it out. Pat
Maples only have 1 set of emergency buds. If the leaves freeze twice, the tree is dead, unfortunately. Late frosts are the bane of maple collectors, and seem to be more frequent now. For us here, after a very warm winter it is now cold and miserable, very few have leafed out. Many Amur maples were however leafed out in early Feb, it has frosted many times since then, so the look very ratty this year. Luckily they are more or less indestructible! Good luck, Pat.
I know my frosts aren't as severe as yours but here,buds in your 1st&3rd photos would be unharmed but the other two would probably get frazzled.Hoping you get away more lightly than that :)
I do feel for you, Pat. I know the frustration! But try to look at it like this... you'll get to experience leaf-breaking twice! (little solace, I know) Does spraying the leaves or buds with water help at all? Has anyone tried this method? Kevin in KC
Pat know how you feel... gutted!! Was out yesterday afternoon and on my way home i was following a road gritter, which i might hasten to add was gritting the roads!!! ah ah i thought looks like it's going to be frosty tonight, so the two trees which i have leafed out at present were duly covered with their plastic bin liners and a large bed mattress bubble wrap cover respectively. And all of the young grafts which were planted out last season, again which are all in the delicate stage at present i covered with large plastic plant pots which i had basically quarter filled with shredded newspapers so when you place over the tops of the grafts the newspaper falls gently on to the leaves and gives a very light weight protective cover on the new leaves. Came out this morning and low and behold we had a really hard frost during the evening, but the protection had worked the plant pots i left till around lunchtime before i removed allowing them to warm up in the morning sunlight so that if there had been any moisture in there which had frozen on to the paper then in turn stuck to the new leafs i didn't want to pull the paper off and remove any foiliage. Very gently removed the pots then just blowing lightly on top of the paper it just fell straight off the tops so i had no need not to touch anything and all is well , so a sigh of relief was given, both the other larger trees were fine also , very cloudy tonight and mild so should be safe glad all of my other trees are way back at the moment though :) Roll on May.
Have a sharp frost forecast for this evening so was busy putting the unfurled potted trees in the workshop for tonight thankfully i have only a handfull, then covered all the little guys again who are just at that delicate stage of leaf out now. Olsens frosted (hopefully not) Purple, First, Sister and Amber ghosts plus Higasa yama and Katsura , fingers crossed again.
Morning all, Well I guess all the frost and freeze are in the past for all of us now. I have one observation and would like to hear your thought. I have noticed the JMs color this year seems to fade or change to summer color (green) a bit sooner than the few previous year. Is it due to the warm and freeze that we experienced in late March and early April?. or is there a cycle from the tree?. Most of mine now have lost their Spring beautiful colors. Thanks, steven
Hi Steven, This doesn't seem to be the case here. Has climate anything to do with it, I can't really tell, but it's been very dry here for quite a few days and the trees are holding their spring colours... Deshojo / (Atropurpureum): Momoiro-Koyasan / (Orange Dream):
Alaink..You are certainly having some excellent weather on your side of the water, although we have had three lovely days in the UK the forecast for the weekend is yet again all change and be prepared for more frosty evenings. Attended the Harrogate spring flower show today one of the biggest shows in the uk over four days, with an estimated 50/60 thousand through the gates just today!! think everyone saw the forecast for the weekend and decided to go today on what was a glorious sunny day i may add. But the quality of the maples on display was very poor, spoke to a few of the exhibitors and all were in aggrement that the wet and cold weather we have experienced over the past six months has knocked them all back and they all could have done with another two/three weeks of leafing out to make them look somewhere near decent. Something i did notice though the 'Buzz' tree for this year in the UK is without doubt 'Amagi shigure' have never seen so many before plus they were just flying of the stalls , again i spoke to one retailer who had brought over 150 with him and said he thinks he will have run out by the weekend the way they were selling just today , i can remember some four years ago these were just so hard to find. But again it would seem the Dutch growers have seen the demand for these and have stepped up to the plate and delivered , wish they would look at Germaine's gyration any one know of any in the UK ??
It looks like everything is going to make it. A few trees have some crispy leaves, but all in all everything is looking good. Roebuk, I recieved a nice Germains Gyration last fall from Pam on EBay. I wish I could help you find one over seas. Any I took a few pics last night. Mikawa Y Butterfly
We are going below freezing just south of here where high temps have been near 80f. The cold lake erie waters have slowed my maples down this Spring keeping daytime highs 10 to 20 degrees F cooler, but the same cold lake keeps our overnight lows in the mid 40's free of frost and freezing. I recommend dewitt frost blanket when temps are near freezing or below to protect delicate foliage. Sheets or burlap work too in a pinch, but are heavy and may damage delicate new growth and its not light and holds heat as well as dewitt frost blanket. It can also be used to start seeds and last for many seasons.
Well have just spent this afternoon yet again moving lots of potted maples back into shelter for the next couple of days, our local weather forecaster on the news said and quote " We are going to get everything coming at us except the kitchen sink" Strong winds, hail , sleet ,snow rain and 'Oh' some sunshine!! With the nice weather we had last week it certainly started to move the trees along and they are just at that nice bursting point with plenty unfurling so this is the last thing i need. Have around 20+ in various locations workshop garage and kennel , but most of the large ground trees which can't be covered will just have to hang on in and hope for the best, but it's been a bitter cold wind all day and not a single cloud in the sky doesn't bode well !!
Yeah, it's been just miserable here. I don't know when we've seen so much hail so late. Lots of damage to, well, pretty much everything. I had some leafed out pots inside over the last two nights, from among recent arrivals, but there are too many cart in and out. I've moved those to a little walled area, hopefully it won't freeze there. In the garden at large noticed some black shoots on various maples but doesn't seem general, I think it was pretty borderline but bacterial stem infection will be the main risk. The next week is being announced very cold and near freezing every night. Unfortunately I have to go into Paris from Wednesday until the WE so won't be able to monitor closely. It's not unusual in the long term to have a frost now but the last few years have been so warm that everything has gotten quite a bit earlier. Last year it didn't freeze at all and by this time everything was in full swing, it's certainly 3-4 weeks later this year. -E
Hi Emery, I thought we had the worst here in the East but it looks like your weather even more worst than ours. Hang in there, hopefully they will bounce back nicely. I lost a few young trees and one good size 'Kota Maru' (one of my favorite) due to these frost/cold in early April but i also see some have sprung back with a new set of leaves. Anyone knows if we can add anything (light fertilizer or ???) to assist the trees to gain some strength back after these shocks?. Thanks, steven
Well we have had three huge hail storms today up to press , not seen anything like this for many a year especially the size of the hail , icy cold with a biting wind chill just for good measures. Glad i moved all the leafed out guys yesterday think the hail would have done some damage there for sure. First pic out of my office window a lonely Palmatifidum at the back just braving the weather , think the unfurling finely dissected leaves have helped this one somewhat. See what tonight and tommorrow brings, and to think it's May in four days time.
