Tuesday and Wednesday night's we had a scattered late frost in eastern NC. I didn't think it was going to be anything to worry about because it was suppose to be very brief. Being right on the cost I thought the sarr flowers would escape damage.
I have been spending a lot of time in the last two weeks doing plant surveys for NASC on The Nature Conservancy's Green Swamp preserve.
While there yesterday, I discovered that close to 40% of the flowers were killed by the frost. Most effected was S.flava. I did see dead S.purpurea flowers , but due to later development there was less damage.
I don't know how bad it is yet because last night we had another brief frost. I'll try to get back there soon to see if more were killed last night. To make this even worse, last year we had a really bad frost that killed 80% of the sarr flowers. This is the second year in a row.
While this will severely effect seed production, especially considering this happened last year too, the plants themselves are fine.
I have been spending a lot of time in the last two weeks doing plant surveys for NASC on The Nature Conservancy's Green Swamp preserve.
While there yesterday, I discovered that close to 40% of the flowers were killed by the frost. Most effected was S.flava. I did see dead S.purpurea flowers , but due to later development there was less damage.
I don't know how bad it is yet because last night we had another brief frost. I'll try to get back there soon to see if more were killed last night. To make this even worse, last year we had a really bad frost that killed 80% of the sarr flowers. This is the second year in a row.
While this will severely effect seed production, especially considering this happened last year too, the plants themselves are fine.
