A killing frost is like a snake, it meanders thought low areas striking everything is it path, yet sparing trees with only a few feet higher in elevation. The frost of 07 killed trees that were as close as one mile, yet my trees only suffered a slight burn on the tips of it's leaves. I have seen snow in the lower half of my yard and none in the upper portions of it. As the cold rolls in I think it pushes the warmer air up, and if the pressure is low that might just hold it in place.
Hi Alex, Since this was not just a late frost issue, but a hard freeze well into spring, it was hard to take much info about cultivar hardiness. As richard mentioned, factors on how the cold air moved, wind, etc. made it hard to determine much about cultivar hardiness. It was also not a frost issue killing leaves, but more a trunk and limb issue with the sap not liking such a hard freeze. The good news is that we had the third highes temps over the last 100 years during the weeks of march. Then combined with the lowest temp in 100 years in April. It was kind of a perfect storm, which continued with one of worst droughts ever. The odds were very low of those events occuring together. I have a 'Crimson Queen' (~10yr) and 'Butterfly' (~10 yr) surrounding a 'Seiryu' (~4yr). The Crimson and Butterfly survived while the Seiryu slowly died back. It put out new leaves, but there were black areas up and down the bark in places. Eventually the tree died back, and this spring it is totally dead. In another area i has 'Wilson's Pink Dwarf', 'Shindeshojo', 'Shina oka buga', and 'Beni Otake'. All roughly about the same age (4yr) and height (4-5ft). The Wilson and Shin survived and came out well during the summer. The Beni survived but didnt do much last year, and the Shin died back just like the Sieryu. I had two 'Sangu Kaku' (5ft and 10ft). They both survived well also. While others i have heard had exactly the opposite results with the same cultivars. It ws more a timing thing and at what state the tree was in. I had 1000's of seedlings bunched together, and it almost seemed random which ones died. I have seedlings in different areas and each area had a little better survival rate. I will try and take you some pics this weekend. Getting ready to clean up dead trees and start spring cleaning. Mike
My maples have not leafed out yet, the buds are swelling, but it will be a couple weeks. I am really wondering what kind of damage I will see after the freeze last year. Also wondering what weakened plants will go downhill and die this summer. Paxi An easy fence for small grafts? I bought a bunch of bamboo hoops, they are about 2 1/2' high and I can ring them around small, newly planted maples. It keeps me from stepping on them, the dogs from running over them, and the deer don't seem to nibble on them. What makes them nice is I can easily throw a floating row cover bag or wrap burlap around them in the fall and it makes a nice little "tent" for some added protection those first few years. They didn't have a website the last time I ordered, which was quite a few years ago, but they do have an Illinois distributor. The number is: 1-800-522-0085. Kay Dye
Hi all, Great comments and information. I checked out the websites for EM and found most in Dutch? It sounds like EM is similar to the Mycorrhizae I use. If someone has more information about this possibility, please let me know. Thanks, Sam
Hello, All the information of EM you can find on this site. http://emrojapan.com We have good results with this micro organism . The grafting results after using this stuff is better then ever and we have no dieback in the rootstocks. Dick
These are the results of grafting this year. All rootstock and scions are grown with EM . We are lucky that they are still inside . We have had a few nights with heavy nightfrost. Dick
Hello The name of the pink cultivar is: Acer palmatum 'Taylor' more info on our website www.dvandermaat.com and see newplants or taylor. Dick
I live in zone 5B on the east coast in Maine. This year there was a snow on the ground from December until mid early april. In my coldframes, where I store the smaller cultivars, in a shaded area, the melting snow froze on the bottom four inches which I think bent plenty of branches and broke many. I lost an Ao Konzashi 1 1/2 foot and a Shiana, that was very small for sure. The bark on the Ao fell right off in slimy uze. It got too wet in part of the coldframe, and they faired poorly. In three years of keeping JM, I have lost 3 out of 70. I use mostly pine mulch (not spruce, which I think is fur) that has sat out for 3-4 months, perlite, some compost, and occasional use of sandy loam yard dirt. Certianly want good draining soil. The worry I have is mostly branch dieback, where it turns black. It usually dries out and takes care of itself. I also get a fair amount of grayish black (on green bark culivars) and black spots on red bark cultivars, that seems to affect individual branches. I sometimes cut it off, but I am not sure if it will recover or not. They seem to bud just fine. I wish I knew what it was. It doesn't look right. Some cultivars don't have it at all. Spring delight and Villa Tarranto have it on a couple of branches, Mikawa y and Sekka yatsubusa, Lions head do not. Go figure.
