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This is one of those winters I love and hate. It hasn't gotten too cold (18F, maybe 17), so I don't imagine I'll have any damage because of that, but with a couple days in February up in the high 60s, we're in danger of some poms getting hit by a late freeze in April-or-so. How's the winter looking for you all?

It hasn't been a really cold one, but for me, I'm ready to sucker punch Old Man Winter...

This "winter" has been insanely warm — even for us. We started out with a super, super early first freeze on November 1st, but since then, it’s only frozen 3 more times at my house. The last freeze was 12/19. We got snow (!) and we’ve been near freezing a few times since then, but no freezes. None of the freezes have been colder than 29° — we normally get into the low 20s a handful of times a year. We average about 15 freezes a year with the first around November 30th and the last around February 20th, so we’re leaving the window of risk pretty soon. We’ve had lots of temperatures in the 70s and low 80s, too, so everything is early.

We’ve also had a very mild winter this year. Only a few days in the single digits. All my trees are in the garage and are looking great. T-minus 30 days to go!

My cuttings are also doing great! Some are breaking bud a little too early so I’m planning on putting them in a covered aquarium that will be misted to increase humidity and temp which will at least prevent the leaves from dying and should accelerate root growth.

30 blessed days. I can’t wait to get my poms and figs out of the root cellar and rocking and rolling.

I too must put "winter" in quotations as I'm in the CA central valley. I just checked the 10-day forecast and the lowest low temperature is 43 degrees. So... is it spring yet or am I going to get dooped, plant some vegetable earlier than I should and get slapped with 25 one night? A few of my pom varieties started budding last week, the Wonderful, Saveh and Angel Red.

Yeah, those late winter freezes are the worst. I'm comforted by a variety I have, Devedisi, that took several nights in the high 20s with no apparent leaf damage - I'm hoping it will be as resistant to late frosts as it is to early ones. Thing grows like a weed too.

JoshHolbrook wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2020 5:22 pm Yeah, those late winter freezes are the worst.

I was hoping I might escape it this year, but it looks like I may not be so lucky. Our average last frost date is past already (2/15 over the past 30 years), but it’s looking like we might just freeze next Thursday morning, 2/27. Fortunately it won’t be too bad — just another borderline one, but still. My pomegranates are probably quite tender right now. On January 15th (!), I had the first budding out on some of my potted pomegranates. I wouldn’t be worried about a freeze like this damaging growth in the fall, but all this soft, tender stuff might not be able to take it.

Hopefully, it doesn’t pan out: I don’t have a big enough frost cloth to protect my big tree!

We did end up with a very light freeze on Thursday morning. At 7 am, a tray with water outside in the shade had no ice in it, but at 7:20 am it had a thin layer of ice. We got down right to 32° right as the sun was rising.

Fortunately, the pomegranates show no damage beyond a tiny bit of tip burn on the highest branches. I lucked out: it looks there’s no more chance of a freeze in the long-term forecast.