All of the fresh market peach and nectarine cultivars and selections had entire crop losses at this site. My only observations on grapes have been at the Fruit Substation . What damage that is present appears to be due to winter minima rather than the March 8 freeze since the vines were still dormant at that time. In the breeding selections, scattered severe damage was seen on some vines. Additionally, climbing cutworm damage appeared to be more severe than usual, further reducing the primary buds which produce the majority of the crop.
Muscadines appear to have come through the winter well, a somewhat unexpected result.
The fruit set level will confirm if freeze damage to the buds was largely avoided. Since the minimum for the winter at the Fruit Substation was 1o F on February 4, some injury to canes and cordons of muscadines could have occurred. Early examination of the vines shows little damage, although winter injury can often appear later in the growing season when heat and transpirational stresses are severe on the vines. As all fruit growers know by now, the freeze damage experienced this year has been major and crops in many plantings have been reduced or eliminated. Those of us working in the areas of cultivar testing and development will put forth an extra effort to make sure that selections and cultivars that survived the freezes are noted and these findings be utilized in contributing to new information on hardiness for use by fruit growers.