Low-Temperature Injury to Apples in the Champlain Valley, 1980-81

Abstract

Some five-to-seven-year-old Mclntosh trees on various rootstocks were severely injured (loss of leaders or scaffold limbs) or killed during the winter of 1980-81. This injury appeared to be related to the December 1980 cold period and was more extensive because of the very cold period in early January. Some of these trees had grown too late into the fall and had not hardened sufficiently to withstand the abrupt temperature drop in December.