Although the winter was not particularly cold, in many parts of the country the temperature sometimes dropped below -20ºC.This could cause freezing of many thermophilic species, such as peaches, apricots and even cherries.Admittedly, in most cases the frost only damaged flower buds and the youngest shoots.
Most of such damage can be noticed on the youngest trees, which were planted in autumn and have not yet had time to acclimatize to the new site. A lot of damage can also be seen on older, badly cut or diseased plants, which are therefore in poor condition. In spring we often observe that only part of the crown or individual branches are cold.Such a tree can still be saved, because it is enough to cut down the dying parts.
In turn, neat and well-nourished trees survived the winter practically without damage.Assessment of wintering is best carried out in April during the flowering of individual species, when you can clearly see which branches do not develop and do not budge.
Sometimes the buds even start to grow flowers or leaves, but they dry quickly. This is a signal that we are unlikely to save these branches.For security reasons, we can wait 2 more weeks.If the shoots do not start growing after this time, we cut hard and remove all frozen branches.
