Delaying Bud Break

[Bobp]

Have you ever been successful at intentionally delaying bud bud break?

 

[NorCal]

My understanding is that bud break is primarily tied to air temperature, which would be quite expensive to do on any scale.

 

[salcoco]

theory says prune late to insure no damage. if risk of freeze after bud break prune long say 7 inch spurs. the end of the sprur will break first . should there be damage than prune back to 4 inch or less. problem being if no damage still need to go back and prune short.

 

[Bobp]

These super early false springs are scary.... Its got me wondering if there is a way to delay the issue....

 

[treesaver]

Was talking with a friend last weekend that runs a winery. He mentioned spraying oil on the vines to retard bud break. I had never heard of that before, and when I asked more about it, he said just a light spray of a cooking oil. Anyone else ever heard of it? I'm not ready to spray my vines like that without knowing more!

 

[Bobp]

Interesting..... would a crop oil....neem oil type product work?

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Did any of you have success with this? It is still March and we have bud break. Historically, the last frost day is May 15th here (Ohio). And it would not surprise me to have snow in April. Plus we just had an 80 degree day which helps wake the vines up. I know the juice is flowing as some of the prunes I did are weeping. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[hitchiker]

spray diacap phosphorus and potash this on a frosty night will warm up your vines about 3 degres may save from frost spraying cooking oil is good for getting scale off plants

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Thanks. I'll watch the weather. So far nothing lower than the 40s in the 10 day forecast. It's appear to be a very early spring this year in Ohio. Last year the last frost was mid April, a month early.