Frost Injuries and Protection, Secondary Bloom 327 



A discoloration of the central part of the bud indicates 

 fatal injury. When the individual flower-buds are well 

 swollen, open enough to show the color of the petals, 

 the removal of the petals will disclose signs of fatal injury 

 in the darkened pistils (the five central organs in the apple 

 or pear flower and the 

 central organ in the 

 peach or plum bud). 

 Such buds may open and 

 appear to be normal to 

 the casual observer, but 

 they do not produce fruit. 

 Internal injury to blos- 

 soms, especially after fer- 

 tilization takes 'place, is 

 not always fatal, nor is 

 the percentage of fatal- 

 ity so easily ascertained; 

 flowers injured to a cer- 

 tain extent after fertiliz- 

 ation takes place may 

 continue to develop and 

 mature fruit. FlG " 88 ' ~ Frost Blister of Apple Leaf ' 



What interests the grower is, how to determine how 

 much he may depend on bloom so injured. Peach, plum, 

 or cherry blossoms, frozen to the extent that discoloration 

 appears in the basal part of the pistils, seldom if ever set 

 fruit. In the apple the discoloration may show in the 

 minute seed, and yet the fruit will develop to maturity, 

 but no doubt only when the bloom has been previously 

 fertilized. Blooms of the apple showing injury outside 



