It wasn’t Friday night’s snow that wiped out the blossoms off of 10 acres of budding apple and pear trees in Clovis Romero’s Orchard in the valley of Embudo, about 45 miles north of Santa Fe.
No, it was Thursday night’s spring freeze, when temperatures dropped overnight into the mid-20s, followed by Friday night’s freeze, when temperatures dropped to below freezing again.
“We suffered, at a minimum, 90 to 95 percent of our trees over the past two days,” said Matias Romero, whose father has run the orchard since 1964. “Everything in full bloom was lost. By the looks of it, it looks like everything that wasn’t closed [buds] got killed off.”
He wasn’t alone in his plight. Scott Canning of Galisteo said he lost all his fruit because of the freeze. “Cherries, apricots, apples and pears, all gone — I might have some buds that didn’t open on some of the pears, especially apples. If the buds didn’t open there’s still a chance,” he said.
Canning, who serves as director of horticulture and special projects at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, said it’s not snow but unexpected low temperatures that kill off fruit and plants. He said a similar “killing freeze” took place last May, wreaking havoc on plant life.
About 3 inches of snow fell on Santa Fe between Friday night and Saturday morning. Most of it melted by mid-afternoon. The National Weather Service in Albuquerque is predicting a few more days of clouds and rain showers with temperatures that may hover around freezing at night.
Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/
