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April 2021 Discussion


Torch Tiger
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Just now, Damage In Tolland said:

Do you know what leaf out means? It means the leaves have popped. Not that they look like July . I mean I give up with you . Always has to be some kind of argument 

I see "leaf out" as a process but many see it as being fully leafed out and I'm not going to call them wrong.  And the oak buds here are swelling but not broken yet.  I hope we get enough cool wx to slow the leaf out process, lest the inevitable May freeze - average May coldest after 22 years is 24.8, monthly lows ranging from 21 to 28.

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4 minutes ago, tamarack said:

I see "leaf out" as a process but many see it as being fully leafed out and I'm not going to call them wrong.  And the oak buds here are swelling but not broken yet.  I hope we get enough cool wx to slow the leaf out process, lest the inevitable May freeze - average May coldest after 22 years is 24.8, monthly lows ranging from 21 to 28.

Would you consider the two species of Oaks I posted above as leaf out? That’s how I define leaf out . Small leaves on all species here in CT

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Wood is the water-conducting tissue of a plant.  Under the microscope it appears to be made up of long, torpedo-shaped cells liberally sprinkled with holes to let water pass through.  Wood is mostly made of these cells–called tracheids.  Pine trees have no other specialized cells to carry water up the tree, but broadleaf trees do, vessels. are not torpedo-shaped at all, but resemble soda straws.  You need a microscope to see them, but they are quite large as cells go, and that size can be a drawback.  If air bubbles form inside them or ice crystals form in a late spring frost, they can be damaged so that no water goes up to service the expanding leaves.

Trees with large vessels are especially at risk.  Just when buds need water from the roots, none is forthcoming.  The solution, for such trees as black locust and oaks, is to manufacture a ring of vessels early in spring to carry the water up.  The trouble is, it takes time to do so, time which the tree yields to other species that do not have to form a fresh layer of vessels, maples and poplars.  That means those species get the jump on those working to make new vessels.  Trees that make vessels lose out for a time in the battle for sunlight.

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31 minutes ago, tamarack said:

I see "leaf out" as a process but many see it as being fully leafed out and I'm not going to call them wrong.  And the oak buds here are swelling but not broken yet.  I hope we get enough cool wx to slow the leaf out process, lest the inevitable May freeze - average May coldest after 22 years is 24.8, monthly lows ranging from 21

I view it the same way. Some people call the early Leaf out budburst.

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1 minute ago, kdxken said:

Careful, the water is probably still cold.

Oh your organs would start to shut down in about 10-15 minutes in that water for sure.  It’s still snow melt way up high. Heck there’s still patchy snow along RT 108 in the Notch when I drove through there earlier today.

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6 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Oh your organs would start to shut down in about 10-15 minutes in that water for sure.  It’s still snow melt way up high. Heck there’s still patchy snow along RT 108 in the Notch when I drove through there earlier today.

Yeah I used to do a lot of early River release rafting. Not too pleasant pulling on the wetsuit.

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4 hours ago, tamarack said:

I see "leaf out" as a process but many see it as being fully leafed out and I'm not going to call them wrong.  And the oak buds here are swelling but not broken yet.  I hope we get enough cool wx to slow the leaf out process, lest the inevitable May freeze - average May coldest after 22 years is 24.8, monthly lows ranging from 21 to 28.

Definitely not going to argue with a forester but I think of full leaf out as the end of the process.  But that’s just me. 

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15 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Would you consider the two species of Oaks I posted above as leaf out? That’s how I define leaf out . Small leaves on all species here in CT

Semantics.  No one in this discussion is really incorrect.  As usual, Northern red oak (pretty sure the upper one is that) is the earliest to leaf out and thus has the bigger leaves.  Can't tell what the bottom one is, beyond it's being in the red oak group - points on the tip of lobes.  Shade leaves of Northern red?  Black?  Pin?

Small leaves on maples, black cherry, aspen.  Buds beginning to break on oak, ash is still asleep.  Our butternuts all succumbed to the anthracnose disease, otherwise they would be the last on our woodlot to break bud, almost as late as black locust.

One of our cloudiest Aprils though nearly 4° temps.  This after a March with the most sun by far of any month here in 23 years.

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