Hi!

I also am in need of some fruit tree advice...

I reside in Albuquerque. As of today, February 12, I have noticed that my peach tree (about 3 years old) and nectarine tree (about 2 years old) are filling up with buds all over. [Both the peach and the nectarine trees are planted against walls - the peach west-facing but the nectarine north-facing].

I believe that these buds are the beginning of the tree's spring growth? [eg: the blossoms...then the leaves, etc.]

While mid-February for Albuquerque seems a bit early for fruit tree blossoms, I remember that last year my peach tree and nectarine tree, I believe, blossomed in late-February through early March.

My question is this:

I am still a bit of a novice at growing, caring for my fruit trees. Last year, I was very paranoid that my peach/nectarine trees full-blown blossomed in late Feb/early March, as there were still some overnight frosts/light freezes ahead in March. I was worried that as a result, all of the blossoms would freeze off.

I went to a local nursery (after the trees had blossomed and a day after the first decent overnight freeze occured post-blossoms) and they told me that yes, I should have "hosed down" with water all of my trees when the warmer February weather was threatening to start the blossom period, which essentially overnight would have re-frozen them, and thus kept them, according to this gentleman, in their dormant state longer. (He noted that this practice is done in Flordia to citrus trees where possible). He believed that within a day or two, the blossoms would all fall off frozen.

However, I didn't seem to notice nearly as bit of a problem as he indicated. Some blossoms did take a little bit of a hit, but overall, they seemed okay. Fruit was still produced in summer.

I then told a number of other folks around Albuquerque what the nursery had told me, and these folks (who own peach, nectarine, pear, apricot trees) stated that they had owned their fruit trees for years, and never had really had a problem with blossoms "freezing off"...they just let nature take the course as to when the blossoms would start up, and they never really seemed to have an issue of blossoms being frozen off.

Bottom line: I believe the buds all over my peach, nectarine trees are the beginning of blossoms (although I could be wrong of course). Is there care I should be taking right now to try to delay the blossoming and keep the tree in dormancy longer, or, should I just let nature take its course, and will any blossoming be okay?

(It seems it is rather common in ABQ for blossoming to occur in late-Feb. and March on fruit trees - am I wrong?)...