Bud Hardiness

ATTENTION - Pear flower buds survive cold temperatures differently than tender fruit buds do and because of this physiological difference, fall and winter hardiness profiles cannot accurately be predicted with this commodity using our equipment. Pear flower buds do not ‘supercool’ to increase hardiness like tender fruits and grapes do, rather they go through a significant dehydration process to reduce lethal ice crystal formation within the cells. The equipment being used is unable to identify freeze events until the pear buds begin to rehydrate in late March or early April and only this spring time data will be presented in this section.