Ten Days that Shook the Orchard

This has been some kind of winter, hasn’t it? Here in New York State’s Orange County we had almost no snow until February 27th. Before that we had temperatures in the 60s the week of February 13th. Here’s a temperature chart from the National Weather Service of the month of February 2023 in nearby Port Jervis, NY. Look at that number in red in the left-hand column for February 16th, a record-setting 63 degrees!

With those high temperatures in mid-February our trees started flowering. What you’re looking at are male (catkins) and female hazelnut flowers. (For more on how hazelnuts flower see my post of May 2022 https://www.sermonetaorchards.com/hazelnut-blog/what-kind-of-flowers-do-hazelnuts-have)

Male catkins shedding pollen

Two female flowers

Female flower atop male flowers

Snow-less Orchard

But just a few days later on February 27th, all that changed.

After the snow

Some good news – new female flowers are forming just a few days after the snowstorm.

Some of the male catkins don’t look too happy – they’re browned and a little shriveled. But others look ok.

Were the trees able to pollenize each other before it got cold and snowy again?

How will this affect our crop this year? We’ll have to watch carefully for nut formation in June.

We’re lucky to have wonderfully talented neighbors who take an interest in our orchard. A big thank-you to Wayne Decker for all these good images. (The not-so-good ones are mine). (In 2022 another neighbor shared her lovely, gluten-free traditional German recipe for a hazelnut torte. See my holiday recipes post).

I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour of our orchard.

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