Absence of Malus

About a week or two ago, I had a conversation with my brother about the family apple orchard. He had 17 different varieties blooming, many for the first time, and was looking forward to having maybe a dozen heirloom apple varieties for tasting in the fall. But he was worried because after the unseasonably warm March weather, everything was in bloom about two weeks earlier than usual, and there was a good chance of losing the entire year's crop to a late cold snap.

I told him I thought a hard freeze was pretty unlikely. Shows what I know. It's been down in the low 20's each night for several days now.

I googled it to see what the impact of the cold weather would be on this year's crop. I found out that apple growers can expect a 90% crop loss if the temperature drops to 25 F while or after the trees are in bloom. So much for this year's crop. I'll be heading out to the orchard this afternoon to see the depressing sight for myself.

And then there's the honeybee problem to worry about for next year.